Attractive and eco-friendly
Handcrafted paper products on display... — Pic by K. V. Srinivasan.
RECYCLED, REINVENTED and resurrected: the 500-year-old handcraft of paper making has come a long way from its origin in sun and hemp to cotton fibre to machine made to recycled handmade cotton paper to today's totally handcrafted paper crafted out of jute, hemp, rice, banana fibre and cotton. Ecologically sensitive and organic nature lovers represented by NGOs and entrepreneurs are today putting handmade paper back in the mainstream of lifestyles, presenting a line of paper products which are as attractive as they are utilitarian and eco-friendly.
In the forefront of imaginative and innovative handcrafted papermaking as well as a range of ingenious products are Bombay, Pondicherry, Karnataka, Vijaywada and many more.
Bombay Paperies' totally handcrafted paper and paper products on display at Ambience (37, Bemanna Garden Road, Alwarpet) are brilliantly conceptualised and finished.
Distinctive in their soft, pastel shades and crunched up appearance, Bombay Paperies' range of fairy tale hanging lanterns are equally appropriate as indoor and outdoor lighting. Avante garde paper mobiles, very inventive and pretty, make contemporary decorative statements as do the subtly shaded paper flowers.
Highly individualistic handmade paper files and stationery are embellished with dreamy peepul leaves, posies of pressed flowers and so on. Paper, photo frames, textured wrapping paper and a range of delightfully embellished paper carry bags, shopping bangs and gift bags are other offerings at Ambience.
SIPA Craft Links Shop, (Kodambakkam High Road, Chennai), and "Naturally Aurovalle" (Khader Nawaz Khan Road, off Nungambakkam High Road) celebrate the recycled paper creativity of Pondicherry craftspersons.
Stationery embellished with Himalayan dried flower and ferns, pencil boxes and office organisers, imaginative greeting cards made out of recycled paper with matching envelopes, photo frames, lamp shades and reams of festive wrapping paper are some of the paper items made in Pondicherry. Recycled paper products from Karnataka on view at SIPA Crafts Link Shop include a range of pads and office files.
Elsewhere in the city, craft shops, emporiums and design stores offer a range of paper products, and even cardboard furniture in ingenious forms, giving the festive season a meaningful ecological flavour.
PUSHPA CHARI
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Entertainment
