H A N D PA P E R M A K I N G

volume 31, number 1 • summer 2016

Letter from the Editor 2

The National Collegiate Handmade Paper Triennial: Twenty-First-Century Papermakers 3
lynn sures
People’s Paper: Young Practitioners Take Papermaking to New Publics 8
melissa potter
Beyond the White Rectangle 11
jillian bruschera
Paper Sample: wastemade 13
jillian bruschera
Young Papermakers Today: Three Profiles 14
aimee lee
Project Medias Hojas 18
martín touzón
Industrial/Medieval: A Conversation with Lorenzo Santoni 20
roberto mannino
Re-Envisioning Research: Handmade Paper as Catalyst for Systems Thinking 22
steven kostell
Clay Club: By Collective Design 26
pranav gajjar
A Kind of Alchemy 29
margaret mahan
Dream World 32
anna tararova
Old and New: Learning and Adapting Traditional Hand Papermaking 34
james kleiner
Paper Sample: Fog 36
james kleiner
Why I Choose Paper 37
yang changhe
Posit(ion)ing: A Look at Negative Space 40
buzz spector
Authors 47
Advertisers and Contributors 48
front cover: Anna Tararova, detail of Moonville, Ohio, 2014, 8 x 10 inches, silkscreen on handmade paper, pulp painting. back cover: Kelsey Pike, Use it Up,
Wear is Out, Make it Do, or Do Without, 2015, 10 x 8 inches, two-color linoleum print on unique sheet of multi-colored handmade paper.

summer 2016 • 1
 Clay Club: By Collective Design
pranav gajjar
Shoes made of woven, banana-paper fabric.
All photos courtesy of the author.
26 • hand papermaking
In 2006, while studying architecture at the Center for Environmental Plan-
ning and Technology University in Ahmedabad, India, a group of us began
to brainstorm and collaborate. Our discussions at times drifted into strange
and unfathomable territories that would provide neither clarity nor fruit.
However, today we credit our footings to these strayed discussions. At one
point in our studies, we decided that we needed a place that we could freely
mess up to conduct various kinds of material explorations. To our surprise
we found the perfect, defunct spot on campus. We cleaned out the place,
and gradually with our collective efforts a vibrant space began to emerge.
Clay Club became a hub for hands-on work, rigorous brainstorming ses-
sions, design explorations, and experiments with our “ideas of doing.” Clay
Club is still active on campus, but after we founding members graduated
from university, we set up our own studio called the Clay Club Innovations.
Today, as a start-up, Clay Club places itself within the milieu of a grow-
ing economy with depleting resources, shrinking job opportunities, inac-
cessibility to basic needs, and other such incongruent circumstances. We
identify the crisis to be an ethical one rather than economic or climatic. We
approach our work with a goal towards benefiting society. We employ social
innovation and communication as means to address societal challenges
in a contextual way, targeted to promote common welfare and to increase
adaptive efficiency.
Mr. Prashant from HAPACOOP casts papercrete bricks in wooden molds.

In the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi’s swadeshi village-craft

independence movement, our initiative HAPACOOP [Hand
Papermaking Co-operative] is comprised of distinctly abled
individuals, those with physical challenges, hearing impairment,
visual impairment, and mental disability. These coop members
produce paper-pulp bricks and handmade banana paper and
paper products. The main objectives of the project are motivation,
training, technical assistance, and provision of a livelihood to these
traditionally underserved individuals. We find it demeaning to
gain leverage from someone’s disabilities, even for the benefit of
the disabled, which is why we do not market the products made
at HAPACOOP as made by disabled individuals. While this is
contradictory to conventional norms of marketing and commerce,
we are convinced that to do so would be an act of ethical
degradation. The limitations of these distinctly abled individuals
in fact give them the patience required for meditative activities
Clay Club founders, left to right: Pranav Gajjar, Maulik Oza, Vishnu Kolleri,
such as hand papermaking, resulting in products of a competitive
Heena Kokel, Fulchandra Patel, and Nikunj Vakani.
quality or even superior quality. We organize the work in a way
that instills confidence, dignity, and pride in the finished product.
Our architectural education has enabled us to approach
hand papermaking with a distinct perspective. In addition to

summer 2016 • 27
Jayesh from HAPACOOP is weaving the wefts of paper yarn into
the cotton warps on a pit loom.

Clay Club’s studio in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Paper bag using denim rags as raw material. Titled “Classic,” this model is one of Clay Club’s
initial paper-bag designs. The paper is screen printed to add a lively pattern to the bag.

making sheets of paper we explore how paper can be used as an

A caterpillar made from paper-pulp bricks. This playful piece is specially designed
for twin rides.
architectonic element. PAPER FACTree—the papermaking unit
of Clay Club Innovations—is where we design products such as
paper bricks and blocks, panels, papercrete, and furniture. In
2013 we started experimenting with making yarn from banana
paper. We have been collaborating with local weavers for guid-
ance on textile production. The fabric we designed—paper yarn
as weft and cotton thread as warp—is now being used to make
footwear and apparel.
These are humble beginnings and we have a lot to learn. What
we have achieved so far is that we have chosen to grow together
rather than shrink separately. From our experience so far, we firm-
ly believe that a good design or design idea is not the product of
a single, star designer. Our collective effort energizes the whole
design process and in turn, the design.
The author wishes to acknowledge the support of Anupam
Chakraborty and Manav Kalyan Trust.

28 • hand papermaking