The story of proper paper started in China. Similar to the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost fifty centuries in the past, created a type of writing that used pictures. The Egyptians too had been utilizing many different types of things to scribe upon, most usually pieces of bamboo and woven silk and possibly the barkcloth they used for other uses derived from the Paper. Mulberry was ased too.
Legend tells us that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker called Tsai Lung, brought out paper, though it is almost certain from archaeological digs that it was actually around in South East Asia for at least two hundred years before Tsai Lung.
During ancient times writing was generally done on some derivative of bamboo or sometimes on strips of silk, which were called Ji in those days. But the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being very weighty, these materials were inconvenient. Due to this Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of bark, fish nets, hemp, and rags. In 105AD he delivered a report to the emperor regarding the production of paper and got high accolade for his idea. Consequently, from those days paper has been in use everywhere and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If this particular claim is deserved or not, will probably never be known! However, the important consideration must be that it was discovered that if they ground particular plant-derived substances in to a mash, withdraw spume, place the mash in liquid, screen it onto fabric sheets giving it time to dry. When it dried, it consolidated into a hard, durable sheet that was remarkably light, and provided that it was not allowed to get damp or wet, turned out to be particularly resilient.
It's a fact that this most simple of paper making technologies is still being used in exactly a similar way around Tibet and Nepal, the first places to take the techniques from what is now the People's Republic of China. A simple frame makes use of a type of cotton cloth pulled and held over a single side, very watery mush is poured into the opposite end and moved around until it is even. After which it is left in order for it to let the water to drain and the mache to dry in to a paper sheet which may be removed by stripping off.
At some point in time an extremely clever individual realized that constructing a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and putting in place a fine replaceable bamboo mat over this, would enable the paper-making process to be speeded up greatly. Instead of using one mould for every sheet of paper, severely limiting the number of sheets that could be manufactured at the same time, a stack of sieved paste was able to be built up layer upon layer, with just a piece of cotton thread between them which would enable separation at a later time. The stack would then be squeezed gently, and each layer of grume transferred to a dry place.