Nearly all of the papers from Nepal which we use and sell, are made from the bark of a special mulberry bush. the branches of the bush are being harvested and the bark is peeled of these branches. Within the coming 5-7 years the bush will regrow the branches. The bark is then beaten and cooked until it becomes smooth. After the cooking process the bark is again beaten and nowadays by machine mixed into small pieces – called pulp. This pulp will then be “dissolved“ in a large water tank into which the screen for the sheet is placed – by moving the screen in the water tank the pulp is spread evenly throughout the screen. The screen is slowly removed from the water – the sheet is ready – it will be dried by having the screen exposed to sun light – either in vertical shape – or traditionally in an angle. These things are mostly done in remote villages where the lokta grows and then the plain paper sheets are being transported to Kathmandu, were most of our producers have their companies and where the products are being made.

Nearly all of the papers from Nepal which we use and sell, are made from the bark of a special mulberry bush. the branches of the bush are being harvested and the bark is peeled of these branches. Within the coming 5-7 years the bush will regrow the branches. The bark is then beaten and cooked until it becomes smooth. After the cooking process the bark is again beaten and nowadays by machine mixed into small pieces – called pulp. This pulp will then be “dissolved“ in a large water tank into which the screen for the sheet is placed – by moving the screen in the water tank the pulp is spread evenly throughout the screen. The screen is slowly removed from the water – the sheet is ready – it will be dried by having the screen exposed to sun light – either in vertical shape – or traditionally in an angle. These things are mostly done in remote villages where the lokta grows and then the plain paper sheets are being transported to Kathmandu, were most of our producers have their companies and where the products are being made.

Our wooden blocks are hand carved in a small family run business in Kathmandu. They are carving them following our designs, using the “waste” material of the furniture makers. The tradition of block making is age old in Nepal and up to today the blocks for the Buddhist prayer books are hand carved. In the beginning our motives were related to Buddhist or traditional Nepalese motives, like Buddhas hands, Eyes or flowers and symbols of the Buddhist / Nepalese culture. Nowadays we mainly offer designs which are inspired by our paper collection… mainly showing animals, flowers, etc.

Felting has a longstanding tradition in rural Nepal - as in most parts of the world. Up to 10, 15 years ago, you would find products from handspun wool (jackets, hats, carpets, blankets). Yet, these items loose ground against the influx of modern textile mass products and had only few admirers elsewhere. When the carpet production becomes slow and slower the felt mass production was started with quite a bit of quality and design help from other countries. They use mainly New Zealand wool

The felt production created many new jobs, mainly for women.

Our felt items are produced in small enterprises with no child labour, and we support fair working conditions and the care for the environmental effects. Tthe designs are made by us, few items we buy from women’s cooperatives.

Unsere nepalesischen Papiere werden fast ausschließlich aus der Rinde des Seidelbaststrauches hergestellt, der in Nepal Lokta heißt. Die Fasern des Lokta-Bastes sind lang, sehr elastisch und geben dem Papier einen seidigen Glanz. Das Papier vergilbt nicht, ist antiseptisch und völlig unanfällig für jede Art von Schädlingen. Lokta wächst ab einer Höhe von 1600 Metern. Für die Ernte werden die Äste geschnitten und dann geschält. In etwa 5-7 Jahren kann dann wieder geerntet werden. So sind Lokta Papiere nachhaltig und ökologisch einwandfrei. Nach dem Schälen der Zweige wird die Rinde zerkleinert und mit Asche gekocht, in der Regel werden die entrindeten Äste dafür als Brennmaterial verwendet. Wenn der Loktabrei die richtige Konsistenz hat, wird er unter Zugabe von frischem Wasser zur Pulpe, die dann gleichmäßig in den Schöpfrahmen gegossen wird. Durch das Sieb läuft das überschüssige Wasser ab und der Rahmen wird aus dem Wasser gezogen, also „handgeschöpft“ und dann zum Trocknen in der Sonne aufgestellt. Wie alle handgeschöpften Papiere haben auch Lokta Papiere keine Laufrichtung, die angegebenen Maße sind circa Maße, jeder Bogen hat den typischen etwas unregelmäßigen Büttenrand. Die Bögen werden in der Regel in unterschiedlichen Gewichten dort hergestellt, wo Lokta auch wächst und geerntet wird, dann werden die Bögen zur Strasse getragen und von da ins Kathmandu-Tal gebracht, dort werden sie gefärbt, bedruckt und zu ganz verschiedenen Produkten weiterverarbeitet.