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
All images by Arijit SenAfter 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’