The Timeless Art of Paper Making

Somerset fine art papers from St Cuthberts Mill

Somerset Enhanced range of fine art papers, produced by artisan paper makers using a machine that has been making paper for over 100 years.

St Cuthberts Mill has crafted paper in Somerset, England since the early 1700s. The mill uses the pure waters of the river Axe that are naturally filtered through the Mendip Hills limestone caves.

Cotton linters are used to make the Somerset series of papers, linters are the seed heads inside the cotton bulb and are the byproduct of the textile industry. Calcium carbonate is added to give the paper an alkali reserve to aid its archival properties.

Dating from 1907, the cylinder mould machine at St Cuthbert's Mill has a slowly rotating cylinder covered in a fine wire mesh inside a vat of pulp, the fibres are randomly placed making mould made papers dimensionally stable so they stay flatter when ink or water is applied to the sheet. The weave of natural woollen felts creates a sumptuous random texture to the sheets.

Every reel of paper produced receives over 60 tests to check the quality is correct. Once perfect, the paper receives a propriety inkjet coating produced by Canson® Infinity and is transformed into the Somerset enhanced range of digital fine art papers. The result is the same consistent high quality base paper from St Cuthberts Mill, coupled with the Canson® Infinity propriety inkjet coating for superior image quality.

The Somerset enhanced digital fine art papers offers photographers, artists and print makers the opportunity to create limited and open edition prints on 100% cotton, mould made papers without any artificial optical brightening agents.

Canson® Infinity Somerset® Enhanced

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