The origins of true paper began in what is now the People's Republic of China. Like the Egyptians, the Chinese had, nearly 5,000 years ago, developed a kind of writing that used images. The Egyptians also had been using many different things to scribe upon, most commonly strips of bamboo and woven silk and possibly the barkcloth they were using for other unconnected purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of as well.
History leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker called Tsai Lung, brought out usable paper, although it seems from finds by archaeologists that in fact it was being used in South East Asia for probably two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
Way back during ancient times gone by writing was generally done on some derivative of bamboo or on pieces of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. However, the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being very heavy, these two materials were inconvenient. About this time Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of bark from trees, rags, fish nets, and hemp. In 105AD he submitted a report to the emperor with regard to the production of paper and got high accolade for his ability. From that period paper has been utilized all over and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this particular claim is accurate or not, will very likely not ever be known! Nonetheless the important factor must be that they discovered that if they ground certain plant derived substances into a mush, throw out impure materials, place the mush in liquid, filter it out onto textile sheets and give it time to dry out. After drying, it compressed into a firm, durable sheet that turned out to be extraordinarily light, and provided that it was not allowed to come into contact with water, turned out to be incredibly robust.
This the easiest of paper making technologies is even now practised in exactly the same way within Nepal and Tibet, the initial areas to pick up the techniques from China. A basic frame makes use of a cotton cloth stretched over one side, thin mache is put in to the other end and moved around until it is smooth. Then it is left suspended somewhere to let the water to drain out of it and the paste to dry in to a paper sheet which may be removed by stripping off.
At some point in time a very talented individual came to the conclusion that manufacturing a frame with ribs and placing a fine removable bamboo mat across this, would allow the procedure to be quickened to a great degree. Instead of utilizing one mold for each parchment sheet, consequently severely restricting the number of sheets that may be made at the same time, a stack of sieved mash was able to be built up a layer at a time, with just a length of cotton thread between them to facilitate later separation. The stack would then be squeezed very lightly, and every sheet of grume moved to a place to dry.