Artisans making Tree-Free paper.
Frank Lloyd Wright, the renowned architect, once said: "The best friend on Earth of man is the tree."
What better way to treat our best friend than to conserve it?
Fair trade does exactly that by only selling stationery crafted from tree-free materials.
One of the primary sources for creating fair trade stationery products is the lokta bush, an easily regenerated plant native to the Himalayan Mountains in Nepal. The shrubs grow in remote areas where jobs are scarce, so paper production is typically the sole source of income for the mountain inhabitants.
A sampling of Tree-Free stationaryThe paper-making process starts by stripping the bark from the bush, boiling it for hours, and spreading the resulting pulp on a large, framed screen to dry in the sun. The large sheets are then cut into sizes appropriate for journals, writing paper, note cards, and more.
Nepalese fair trade artisans add flair to the papers by dying them with vegetable dyes, inlaying the pages with flower petals, and adding striking designs. This beautifully textured paper is known for its durability, lasting literally hundreds of years.
Lovely paper, better lives for the artisans, and preserving trees-fair trade stationery does it all.
Stephanie King
Fair Trade Designs
