The origins of real paper began in China. Like the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost fifty centuries ago, invented a pictographic form of writing. They also had been using many different things to write upon, most usually pieces of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and possibly the barkcloth they were using for other reasons derived from the Paper. Mulberry was ased too.
Historical documentation tells us that in 105AD an official called Tsai Lung, created papyrus, though it is almost certain from finds by archaeologists that in fact it was in existence in what is now the People's Republic of China for probably two centuries before Tsai Lung.
During olden times setting down words or pictograms was generally on bamboo or occasionally on lengths of silk, which were called Ji in those days. However, the cost of silk and bamboo being weighty, these materials were not of great use. At this time Tsai Lun thought of making use of bark, rags, fish nets, and hemp. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he delivered a report to the emperor on the process of making paper and got high praise for his idea. Consequently, since those days paper has been utilized universally and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this accolade is correct or not, will likely never be known! Nonetheless what is important has to be that it was found that they could grind certain substances taken from plants into a mache, bstract spume, float the mache in liquid, sieve it onto cloth sheets and give it time to dry out. When it dried, it dried into a firm, resilient sheet that was particularly light, and provided that it was not allowed to come into contact with water, proved surprisingly durable.
It's a fact that this most simple of paper making technologies is even now still being used in exactly the same way in and around Nepal and Tibet, the first areas to take the techniques from South East Asia. A simple frame makes use of a cotton cloth pulled and held over a single side, thin grume is poured in to the far end and moved around until it is level. It is then left that will allow the water to drain out of it and the pulp to dry in to a parchment sheet which will be able to be peeled off.
As time passed an extremely talented individual figured that making a frame with ribbing and putting a delicate removable bamboo mat across this, would let the process to be speeded up to a much greater degree. Instead of utilizing a single mold for each paper sheet, severely restricting the amount of sheets that are able to be manufactured at one time, a stack of sieved paste was able to be built up layer upon layer, with merely a length of cotton thread between them to enable later separation. The stack would then be pressed very gently, and every sheet of mush moved to a dry place.