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| Home > Online Magazine > Paper > Lokta - Handmade Paper from the Himalayas |
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Lokta - Handmade Paper from the Himalayas. |
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The art of papermaking has been cultivated for centuries by the inhabitants of Nepal and Bhutan. High up in the hills, peasants take the bark of a shrub - Lokta or Daphnae Papyracea which grows between 2500 and 4500 meters above sea level - and process it into the Lokta paper you see in the Great Art catalogue. Lokta's long fibres, its texture, and its amazing resistance make for longevity and splendour of this superb support to work on. |
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To begin with, it is necessary to separate the raffia (or rough fibres). For the farmers of the Himalayas, this phase consists of cooking the dry bark in a solution of ash or caustic soda in order to soften it. The Lokta bark is then cleaned with clear water, chopped finely, and again plunged into the water. The matter obtained from this process is brought to the boil, rinsed again, and then crushed on a large stone block in order to produce a fine white paste.
The pulp is tipped out onto a wooden sieve floating on the surface of a trough of water. The craftsman then delicately shakes the sieve to spread out the pulp to form the sheet before leaving it out in the sun to dry. Once the water has completely evaporated, the paper sheet is ready.
Our range of Himalayan papers is completely ecological, all papers are manufactured using an acid free process and only containing natural raw materials and pure water. Their strength with any medium (Lokta paper is very difficult to tear) will enable you to preserve your work for many years. Moreover, these general-purpose and impressive papers from an ancestral know-how process are suitable for many applications: graphics, printing, painting, drawing and calligraphy.
The splendid range of natural Lokta paper sheets is a perfect reflection of the skilled work of the Himalayan craftsmen. Stained with plants extracts, these papers give a very particular dimension to your work that makes it easily distinguishable from that of others. Similar to leather in feel, Lokta paper is characterized by hot colours and a silky brightness, in addition to be being very multi-purpose and as said, very hard to tear. The Lokta paper we sell is not a copy made in China that some sell as the real thing, rather it is the genuine article directly imported from Nepal, Sikkim or Bhutan. |
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Handmade paper from Mexico |
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To appreciate the historical richness of handmade Mexican papers you have to go on a historical journey to the great civilisations of Pre Columbian America, back to the Aztecs and Mayas.
Starting from bark of the Ficus, (immense fig trees growing wild in Yucatan), the Mayas were producing splendid papers around 10th century. They made the paper pulp by using sapwood - the white and tender part of the tree being located between the dark bark and woody core. Their technique consisted of spreading out the bark of the ficus and then hammering the sapwood with a wooden mallet to obtain Huun, on which they later wrote superb almanacs. These attractive documents were in general allegories of the life and death of important people.
On their side, the Aztecs made some improvements to this receipt to develop the famous Amatl paper, also called Amate. The Aztecs tore branches off the sisal plant, a vast and fleshy plant from which textile fibres were extracted, which they then immersed in a river to make them more malleable and to make the bark easier to remove. They then beat the softened matter with a stone, then flattened and smoothed it to form sheets of Amate paper.
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The Indian and Mexican descendants of the Mayas and Aztecs kept this technique alive so we are still blessed with these marvellous papers to this day. |
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