The art of making handmade paper

Nepalese handmade paper represents the most ancient and simple method of paper making, preserving a traditional craft of Nepal that extends back more than thousand years. The inner bark of shrub popularly known as Lokta, which is scientifically called as Daphne cannabina or Daphne papyracea, is used for this paper. These shrubs grow in high mountains altitude of 2000-2700 meters and provide an opportunity for paper production to local framers, who have very limited economic possibilities. Nepalese lokta paper, made from Daphne cannabina and Daphne papyracea shrub, is prized for its strength and durability. The paper is prized for its attractive texture, durable character and anti-pest nature. Because of its unique quality its demand in the international market is growing.

The company strives to play a catalytic role in making these traditional heritage enterprises sustainable communities oriented and a way to improve the living standard of rural people of Mountains and Himalayas, with an aim to expand international market, strengthening the members in their commercial efforts.

The art of making handmade paper has been of the great importance attached to the Himalayan Culture. It seemed to have been developed in Nepal around 7th Century. Among the several species of Thymelaeaceae used for making paper available in eastern and western region of Nepal. The paper made from Daphne papyracea and Daphne Bholua (western and central Nepal) is less knotty and white. In the western region of Nepal, the district of Baglung, Nanglibang, papers are made from these species. Of the two species, Daphne papyracea said to give the finest and whitest paper. The method of making paper is introduced to make familiar with the process of making paper completely by hands.

The paper makers establish their workshops close to their village and on their own land. They do not build huts, but arrange workshops in open air in the terraced fields, close to the stream, high enough up for water to be free of mud and the remains of plants from higher fields. Furthermore, the workshops prefer to be in a windy place as the paper is sun and air dried.

1 Soaking:

Bast strips are soaked in water and if necessary, dark parts of bast are cut off.

2 Cooking:

A big copper cauldron is set over a fire. 12 lbs of ashes, water and five lbs of bast strips are put into it. They are cooked for half an hour and then turned up. After another half an hour of cooking, when the strips can be turn with the fingers, the cauldron is carried to the wash place.

3 Washing & Rinsing:

The bast strips are placed on top of a stone slab where abundant water from the flume can be washing them. After removing all the ash particles, the strips are dried. Then the black and colored impurities are cut away very thoroughly.

4 Again cooking:

?A sawn off kerosene can, formerly a bamboo basket, is placed on a stone shelf near the water basin. The bottom of the can has been perforated with numerous holes of about ? cm in diameter. It is half filled with wood ash, on which cold water is poured. The water oozes through the ash, out into the stone shelf and down into the cauldron. This is one more placed up the fire place and the bast strips put into it. This time the cooking only lasts for half an hour. Then the strips are turned and stirred from time to time regularly.

5 Rinsing:

?The bast strips are put into a big bamboo basket. All the lye of ashes is rinsed away in water.

6 Beating:

The bast strips are then beaten with wooden mallet for the numbers of molds to be filled in. The beaten mass is carried to the basin and placed in a big vessel containing about 50 liters.

7 Scooping:

?The paper maker squats down the basin and the vessel and scoops water from the basin into the vessel. Then the bast mass is mixed with water simply by stirring with a wooden stick. The paper maker pours 6 or 7 pots full of pulp regularly on the surface into the molds which are big frames under which a piece of fine meshed Indian cloth is stretched.

8 Drying:

?The molds are then placed at about right angles to the sun rays and dried in by sun and wind. After drying, the paper is loosed from the cloth in the molds to get the cleaned and more homogenous white paper.

Paper making around Baglung may vary from paper making in Central and East Nepal in the size and quality of the paper, methods of production and organization. The method applied in Baglung district is less primitives and more reminiscent of Tibetan paper making.

Product Categorization:

1. Paper sheets
2. Bags
3. Lamp shades
4. Note books
5. Address books
6. Telephone Diaries
7. Letter pads
8. Note card boxes
9. Folders
10. Boxes Calendars
11. Greeting cards
12. Letter heads and envelopes
13. Picture/Photo frames
14. Picture/Photo albums
15. Traditional money bags
16. Stationery sets
17. Wrapping papers