Spriha Chokhani from Jaipur, founder of Pulp Factory, makes handmade furniture and textiles from papier-mache.
Set up in 2017, with her four-member team who she has trained over time to use the paper pulp as the medium. Jainarayan is the weaver, expertise on the loom. Neetu Devi helps in making the furniture. Radha Devi, spins the yarn and her cousin Bharat, helps with the finance of the firm.
She started experimenting with paper furniture back when she was a student at Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Bengaluru. She worked with paper pulp and synthetic adhesives but the chemicals took a toll on her health. She shifted to natural adhesives, gradually evolving to build towards a sustainable approach.
There’s a common misconception that papier-mache is fragile, but a chair made from pulp can endure 80 to 100 kgs of weight. Masks have been made by mixing the pulp with Multani mitti, but loses its strength. The cellulose is a strong medium and it gets stronger when it is mixed with adhesives as the binding agent.
Paper like A4 sheets can be recycled to be turned into the thinner paper like newspapers but a newspaper can be recycled only up to seven times.
Pulp Factory, also sell products like pouches, totes, and box bags made using paper textiles created from cotton waste.
References:
https://www.edexlive.com/happening/2020/aug/31/this-jaipur-designer-is-making-furnitures-bags-and-textile-from-newspapers-heres-how-14280.html
