Evan F. Johnson started Fred Paper Co. in 2021 in his soggy moldy basement. Before that he received a BFA in printmaking and papermaking at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle before completing an internship at Green Banana Paper Co. in Kosrae, Micronesia. Fred Paper Co was born after moving back to his hometown of Lawrence KS inspired by experiences using fancy French printmaking papers, throwing away a lot of vegetables and paper while working at restaurants, and learning to make paper from banana tree trunks on a tiny island in the Pacific ocean.

Paper comes from trees – a confusing fact people tend to accept without second thought – but actually it can be made from almost any plant fiber. Hand papermaking has a fascinating history of production using fibrous byproducts of other industries. Soiled cotton rags were processed back into new paper, for one, a process that coined the phrase ‘rags to riches’. The aim of Fred Paper Co is to produce beautiful papers using the abundant waste of other industries, and to preserve the craft of hand papermaking.

The original Fred paper - Cream of Cornstalk is handmade from cornstalks and recycled menus from local restaurants. Cornstalks are collected in fall and winter from the base of the plant left behind from the farmer’s harvest. The fibers are cooked and beaten to a pulp, mixed with shredded menus, added to a vat of water and scooped up with a flat sieve called a mold and deckle. The wet pages are stacked, pressed, and left to dry before quality inspection, folding and packaging.