Handmade Paper

Background: Following the age-old adage of “work is worship”, the basic philosophy guiding the establishment of Sri Aurobindo Handmade Paper founded at the initiative of the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram is: “In works, aspiration towards Perfection is true spirituality.” It was established in 1940s to provide an opportunity for Ashram inmates to get involved in practical creative work of paper production from waste materials such as cotton rags from hosiery industry and a host of agricultural wastes. With the assistance of Khadi and Village Industries Commission of Government of India, Sri Aurobindo Handmade Paper factory was formally inaugurated on the 9th December 1959.
The main objective of the establishment is to grow as a small scale production centre for handmade paper and paper-products besides engaging local artisans & workers and encourage specialised handicraft employing local workers thereby support the local economy.
Our Work: Production and Processing of Paper and Stationery
• We are specialized in production of ‘handmade’ papers with no or minimum mechanisation using waste materials from cotton hosiery and tailor cuttings, agricultural wastes such as straw, bagasse, rice husks, jute-gunny, wool, tea leaves, banana stems etc.
• The papers are used in a variety of end-products for various occasions and for host of establishments such as libraries, museums, historical establishments, business and hospitality industries.
• Specialized papers are produced for preservation of precious historical works e.g. photographs, manuscripts, writing and preserving precious manuscripts, storage boxes for archival artefacts, files and folders etc.
• Decorative papers are produced for use in customized stationery specially handcrafted for end use for special occasions – seminars, conferences, celebrations, – business and office stationery, storage and display items and arts and crafts.
• In all our production activities, we encourage creative talents of local volunteers, workers and artisans besides serving and supporting local economy and creative way of conservation & recycling of our natural resources.
Commitment to the environment:
• We maintain a thoroughly clean, hygienic and well-ventilated working environment. Our campus is located in midst of city but is full of lush green plants and trees – a site worth visiting just even for strolling!
• All our paper is made from waste materials from the cotton hosiery industry and agricultural wastes like straw, bagasse, rice husks, jute-gunny, wool, tea leaves, banana stems, bamboo etc., thereby protecting our trees and support minimization of environment pollution.
• We try to re-cycle all wastes by either reprocessing by-products (paper cutting wastes) or by converting into re-usable stationery.

Our Commitment and Goal:
We firmly believe in individual creativity and all our products are handcrafted. We continue to encourage and support development of local talents and contribute creatively in all fields of production; we have not succumbed to mechanisation to cut costs. Many of our workers have developed unique style of development of stationery products as is evident from the range of products we have developed so far – they are briefly outlined above.
Further, with our management acumen we are continuing our efforts to broaden market -both domestic and abroad- for these products in the hope of creating public-awareness of the beauty and the artisan creativity embedded in our products while serving our planet!