The origins of proper paper started in what is now the People's Republic of China. Similar to the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually 50 centuries ago, brought out a type of pictographic writing. The Egyptians too had been using several types of things to write on, most commonly pieces of bamboo and processed silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they made for other purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was also used.
Historical documentation leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a member of the government called Tsai Lung, created paper, though it is almost certain from finds by archaeologists that in fact it was being worked with in South East Asia for probably two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
During ancient times gone by scribing was usually done on bamboo or on strips of silk, which were then called ji. Nevertheless the great price of silk and bamboo being too heavy, these two materials were not of great use. Due to this Tsai Lun thought of utilizing the bark from trees, rags, hemp, and fish nets. In 105AD he put an idea to the emperor regarding the process of paper manufacture and received high accolade for his ideas. From those distant times paper has been used every place and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this particular claim is correct, will very likely not ever be known! Nonetheless the important factor must be that it was discovered that if they ground some substances derived from plant material into a pulp, purge unwanted substances, place the pulp in liquid, filter it out onto textile sheets and give it time to dry out. When fully dried, it calcified into a hard, firm sheet that was particularly light, and providing it did not get damp or wet, proved remarkably tenacious.
This most straightforward of papermaking technologies is still practised in precisely the same way around Tibet and Nepal, the first regions to learn the technolgies from China. A basic frame makes use of a kind of cotton cloth made to stretch over a side, diluted mash is emptied in to the far side and spread around until it has become even. After which it is left suspended so that it will let the water to leave it and the mache to dry in to a parchment sheet which can be peeled off.
By and by a developer with great skills figured that constructing a frame with ribbing and putting a fine removable bamboo mat across this, would enable the procedure to be quickened enormously. Rather than using a single mould for every sheet of paper, severely restricting the amount of sheets that can be made at one time, a stack of sieved paste was able to be built up layer upon layer, with just a length of cotton thread between them in order to help with later separation. The stack would then be squeezed very slightly, and each layer of grume moved to a dry board.