The story of genuine paper happened in China. Like the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, nearly 50 centuries ago, created a style of pictographic writing. The Egyptians too had been making use of various kinds of objects to write upon, notably lengths of bamboo and woven silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they used for other unconnected purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was ased too.
Legend leads us to believe that in 105AD a member of the government called Tsai Lung, brought out papyrus, although it is almost certain from archaeological discoveries that actually it was being worked with in what is now the People's Republic of China for more than likely two centuries before him.
Back in times gone by writing was usually done on some derivative of bamboo or on pieces of silk, which were then called ji. Nonetheless the prohibitive cost of silk and bamboo being heavy, these materials were not convenient. Around then Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using tree bark, rags, hemp, and fish nets. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he put an idea to the emperor about the production of paper and was endowed with high praise for his ideas. From those distant days paper has been in use globally and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If this historical reference is correct, will probably never be known! But what is important has to be that they discovered that they could pound particular substances derived from plant material in to a mash, separate unwanted substances, place the mash in water, filter it out onto textile sheets and give it time to dry out. When it dried, it compacted into a firm, resilient sheet that was extremely light, and providing it did not get damp, proved incredibly dense.
It's a fact that this extremely simple of paper making technologies is even now in use in precisely a similar way within Nepal and Tibet, the very first regions to pick up the techniques from South East Asia. A basic frame has a cotton cloth pulled and held over one side, thin grume is poured into the other side and moved around until it has reached an even state. After which it is suspended so that it will enable the liquid to drain and the mush to dry in to a sheet of paper which can be taken off.
At some point in time an extremely talented individual figured that constructing a frame with ribs and placing a delicate removable bamboo mat across this, would allow the process to be quickened to a great degree. Rather than utilizing a single mould for every sheet of parchment, severely restricting the number of sheets that may be manufactured at one time, a stack of sieved mache was able to be built up a layer at a time, with just a strip of cotton thread between them in order to help with separation at a later time. The stack would then be pressed lightly, and each sheet of paste transferred to a board to dry.