The history of proper paper began in what is now the People's Republic of China. Like the Egyptians, the Chinese had, nearly 5000 years in the past, created a style of writing that used images. They too had been using several kinds of objects to write on, most commonly lengths of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and possibly the barkcloth they were using for other uses from the Paper. Mulberry was used as well.
Legend points to the fact that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker by the name of Tsai Lung, brought out paper, although it is almost certain from archaeological discoveries that in fact it was in existence in China for probably two centuries prior to him.
Back in ancient times writing was mainly done on some form of bamboo or occasionally on pieces of silk, which were then called ji. However, the great price of silk and bamboo being very weighty, these materials were inconvenient. Then Tsai Lun came up with the idea of utilizing bark from trees, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105AD he put an idea to the emperor with regard to the production of paper and got high praise for his ability. Since then paper has been availed of everywhere and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If the above historical tag is relevant, will very likely not ever be known! Nonetheless the most important thing has to be that the discovery was made that they could grind some plant derived substances into a mash, remove impurities, place the mash in liquid, sieve it out onto fabric sheets and allow it to dry. When it dried, it conglomerated into a hard, robust sheet that was exceedingly light, and as long as it was not allowed to get wet, proved astonishingly tenacious.
This the easiest of papermaking techniques is still practised in precisely a similar way around Tibet and Nepal, the very first places to pick up the technolgies from South East Asia. A basic frame makes use of a cloth made from cotton made to stretch over a side, diluted grume is situated in to the far side and moved around until it has become even. After which it is left hanging that will enable the water to drain out of it and the paste to dry into a paper sheet which may be taken off.
Eventually a developer with great skills worked out that manufacturing a frame with ribbing and putting a delicate replaceable bamboo mat across it, would allow the process to be accelerated greatly. Instead of utilizing one mould for every sheet of paper, severely limiting the amount of sheets that may be produced at the same time, a stack of sieved mush was able to be built up a layer at a time, with just a length of cotton thread between them which would enable later separation. The stack would then be pressed lightly, and each layer of mache shifted to a board to dry.