Aimée Kligman / Victoria Paper

Air drying Lokta on mountainside

NEPAL

Mount Everest, the tallest of the Himalayan mountains, sits in the Kingdom of Nepal which is sandwiched between India and Tibet.The southern border of the country has arable land, where the Nepalese have been farming for centuries. Around the sixth century BC came a prince by the name of Siddhartha Gautama, who achieved "enlightenment" and is considered to be the father of Buddhist philosophy.

Nepal as a papermaking country first came to my attention through India in 1991. No one here had ever heard of Nepalese paper, much less Lokta paper. When I touched my first piece of Lokta, I immediately dubbed it "the gampi of Nepal". Actually, this is not too far from fact, as Lokta is a bast fiber, much like Gampi which is cultivated at high altitudes in the Himalayas. The fibers are long, strong, and lend a natural sheen to the sheets. The plant possesses insect repellent properties which make it pristine. Since 1991, Lokta has become a common term in the paper world, and though ubiquitous in the United States, one must take great care, as the demand has caused some suppliers to mix Lokta with additives.

Lokta is available dyed with pigments or natural earth dyes. The solid colors remain one of the most vibrant available anywhere; We also have seen some sheets silkscreened with interesting patterns. Traditional woodblock prints are usually done on natural Lokta and utilize red and black pigments. Modern designs utilize the entire gamut of colors. Below, you will find some of the latest and more "daring" patterns from Kathmandu.

NEW : article on papermaking in Nepal by master paper maker Deepak Shreshta

It is almost factual that in any given array of papers, the natural color, or the white color in the gamut is always the top seller. From a printing or printmaking point of view, it is not difficult to understand the reasons: natural is the least obstrusive and the most natural complement to the art work.

With Lokta, it seems that this rule applies as well, despite the glorious colors which are made available from this wondrous fiber in both dyed pigments and natural earth dyes.

When we first introduced Lokta, we offered the single most popular weight at 65 gsm. Later on, as the paper caught artists' attention, other weights came into being. Remember our Katmandu silk? To the right, you will see 4 different weights ranging from tissue to the heaviest 120 gsm.  Today, there is also a huge size variety below:

In 1991, Victoria Paper introduced the first ten colors of Lokta paper. At the time, the paper was 65 gsm, in size 20" x 32", and came to us via India, as it was extremely difficult to get shipments directly from Nepal, unless there was a United Nations connection. As you can see, we've  come a long way since then. Until the year 2001, Victoria Paper was reputed to have best and most consistent quality of Lokta, preferred by bookbinders and printmakers all over the US and Canada.

We are endeavoring to return to that status by making these colored papers to the left available to you, through direct shipment from Kathmandu. Though the paper comes in several weights, colors and sizes, we have found that the 65 gsm is the best and strongest. It also doesn't have the "air pockets" often seen in the lighter weight papers, where the fiber dispersion is so uneven, that one can actually look through the less dense areas.

The coloring process on these uses pigments rather than natural dyes,- however, these are imported from the West and have a very low fade factor. Aside from being an archival paper, Lokta is probably the most versatile paper found today on the market. And yes, it will give you wonderful digital printing!

All the sheets are size 20" x 30" and have a suggested retail price of $3.75/ea.

These lokta papers obtain their color from earth pigments, and you will notice, more often than not, that they are really not the same color on both sides. Has to do with drying in the sun, and the wire side will result in a darker shade of the color. Nevertheless, for longevity and purity, it does not get any better than this. We obtained as many colors as we could including a lovely indigo.

Size is 20" x 30", 65 gsm with a suggested retail of $4.25/sheet.

Vegetable dyes are also used in the papers shown below which borrow the technique of tie dyeing and fold dyeing from the Japanese.  The technique imparts a certain softeness to the papers after drying, but does not affect their strength, or the length of the daphne fiber in any way. For this reason, lokta papers in general make an excellent choice for bookbinding, as there will be no cracking or wearing along the spine or the cover edges.

The "V" line fold is shown in 4 colors only, however, if your project calls for a specific earth dye shown above, it can be done as a spec order. The freer "marble" dye is somewhat easier to do as there is no set pattern, per se.

All are 20" x 30" in 65 gsm with an MSRP of $5.00/sheet.