From pulp to paper at an immersive workshop by DAG

A day-long paper making workshop organised by DAG on February 18 saw Anupam Chakraborty, founder and creative director of Nirupama Academy of Handmade Paper, take participants through the process of creating handmade paper from preparing pulp, relief paper casting to watermarking and embossing techniques

The process began with preparing the pulp and step one was cutting up the pseudo stem from a banana plant

The stems were cooked in an alkaline solution to extract the fibre. After cooking, the solution was strained and the banana fibre then washed in water and cut into small pieces

The banana fibre pieces were churned in a kitchen blender to prepare the pulp (right) that sets to make the paper

The process of creating handmade paper began with using a mould to start setting the pulp into a sheet and to drain excess water from the newly formed sheet

The sheets were then transferred from the mould onto a couching bed using sponges

Excess water was removed from the sheets by placing them in a screw press. Then the newly formed sheets were hung to dry

After wet paper was released from the cloth, the sheets were transferred onto a newspaper to dry. A heavy weight was added on top of the newspapers for 3-4 hours to help soak excess water. “The entire process of making paper is so playful, organic and engaging that anybody will fall in love with this medium. In this workshop, paper is not considered as a physical surface supporting a creative gesture, rather it forms the compositional space — the secret laboratory of an individual's expression,” Chakraborty said at the end of the workshop

The workshop was particularly enthralling for students and was an in-depth tutorial on paper-making from natural fibres. “Anupam sir is an amazing teacher, and he elevated the whole experience,” said Simone Sarkar (left), a masters’ student in Museology from University of Calcutta. Shreya Roy (right), an undergraduate student of Performing Arts at Presidency University, echoed her thoughts. ‘Dodie Smith remarked ‘Even a broken heart doesn't warrant a waste of good paper’.Learning to make paper for the first time was a nostalgic experience for me. It felt like self-answering my eternal wonder over how this element is created’