Pondicherry Handmade paper

The exclusive way of making handmade paper out of cotton rags in Pondicherry is an art. These papers are made using natural fibres like rags, straws, cotton, banana, husk, wool etc.    
 Sri Aurobindo Ashram prepared handmade paper on a very small scale from waste material as a creative and useful work. The papers are produced from 100% cotton rag pulp. Beautifully textured, versatile, and durable the paper is perfect for paper products and packaging, sculpture, picture framing, covers, bookbinding, preventive conservation enclosures, and more.

 Pondicherry is a French colonial settlement in India until 1954, is now a Union Territory town bounded by the south-eastern Tamil Nadu state. The Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry is a spiritual community. The ashram grew out of a small community of disciples who had gathered around Sri Aurobindo after he retired from politics and settled in Pondicherry in 1910. In the mid 1940's “sadhaks”of Sri Aurobindo Ashram prepared handmade paper. In 1959 larger-scale papermaking equipment was installed in a coconut garden, including a beater, lifting vats, and a calendaring machine. The coconut garden is the location of the factory today, in the heart of Pondicherry.

FIBRE TO FANCY PAPER
 Locally sourced, white fine-cotton rag is the main raw material. The rags are sorted by hand before being cut into finer pieces. The rags enter into the beaters and are turned into a pulp, ready to be made into paper. Measured amounts of pulp are hand-poured through the lifting machines to form individual sheets. Each sheet is hand-lifted and set on a felt blanket to be drained and hung in the drying rooms at the top of the factory. Once dry, each sheet is placed in between stainless steel calendaring plates to be smoothened. Dry, smooth, then cut, the paper is ready for one of many possibilities – marbling, screen printing, product manufacture, or sold as is. Natural, handmade, and filled with the consciousness of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the paper is distributed around the world. It has been the feature of museums, hotels, corporates, weddings, art, universities, and archival preservation.
The process of marbling is another exclusive process, where locally sourced oil based paints are sprinkled as droplets in a tray containing water. Then with the help of a stick different patterns are made in it. After making the patterns the papers are placed on it and left for 5-10 mins. When taken out, the patterns are there on the paper and left for drying in a drying room for one day.
 The store that the factory has, sells a lot of products made up of the papers prepared in the factory other than the papers itself. The prices are very reasonable.

The craft is very popular in that area and is flourishing day by day. The people who works in the factory are very loyal as most of them have been there for more than 15 years and some have even been a part of it for more than 30 years. Also because of the kind of products that they make and the variations they come up with in the products, makes it more interesting for the customers.