Handmade Paper
The making process involves several stages including rag chopping, beating, pressing, drying and cutting. The collected raw material is first bleached as to remove color and whiten the hosiery cloth. The bleached cloth is finely chopped into small pieces. Then the waste paper and the cloth pieces are mixed together with water in a beater. The beater machine finely beats the raw material to make the pulp. The pulp is evenly poured in a mold which contains two frames. The screen holds the pulp and the water drains out. The wet pulp is transferred onto a cloth and pressed to make the thick sheet. This process is repeated until the required uniformity is achieved. The sheets are dried after squeezing the water. The thickness of the sheet depends on the quantity of pulp taken in the mold. For the colored sheets the dye stuff is added in the pulp during the beating process. Some papers are colored externally after the paper is dried. Motifs are created by adding flower petals, leaf and grass during the pressing process. The dried papers are inspected for the quality and then smoothened.
