Heavenly Handmade Art Paper Arrives from Bhutan

Huge excitement as a delivery of 20 sheets of handmade paper arrives from Bhutan. 

A package from a far away land, the rooftop of the world, arrives on the doorstep. My long awaited new art paper. 

Some years ago I had visited this tiny factory, clinging to a mountainside, where local craftsman lovingly hand-made this paper. I had recently finished using my last piece - and could find nothing similar in the city shops here, nothing that oozed such a timeless sense of 'slow craftsmanship' or told such a passionate story as this paper made from handpicked daphne flowers in a fairytale mountain kingdom. Thanks to the modern miracles of Facebook I tracked down the owner and was able to arrange for a pile of fresh sheets to be sent. 

At  the Jungshi Paper Factory, the bark of the Daphne plant is boiled down to resemble a sticky sludgy pulp, separated out and pounded to a fine mush. Wooden frames and bamboo mats are used to expertly press the soaked pulp into large sheets and layer them in giant piles. Then the wet sheets are carefully hung on heated metal boards and dried, the finished papers are peeled off and stacked together. Blank. Awaiting inspiration. 

Check out the craftsmanship of the Jungshi Paper Factory https://www.facebook.com/BhutanHandmadePaper/