Give your gift that special touch. Literally. Lokta paper has a unique feel. Unlike the shiny and highly-processed wrapping paper common today, lokta paper’s feel is vintage and almost like fabric.
Reusable Paper for Wrapping or Crafts
The paper can be used as wrapping paper but also for scrapbooking and craft projects. The paper is tough and can be reused for wrapping with careful opening along the seams.
Lokta paper is very tough, and ripping the paper is generally more difficult than modern wrapping papers that tear easily, making opening at the taped seams the best way to open a gift wrapped with lokta paper. With such opening, the paper is preserved and reusable for wrapping or as craft or scrapbook paper.
The Wrapping Paper Worth Saving
Recipients of gifts wrapped in lokta paper often comment about the uniqueness of the paper, and many express a desire to save the paper, especially after learning the history.
Lokta Paper – An Ancient Tradition
The oldest known surviving example of Lokta paper dates back 1,000 years, and is a copy of the Karanya Buha Sutra, a Buddhist text estimated to be 1,000 to 1,900 years old.
Paper making in Nepal as continued much in the same way for centuries with the Lokta bushes being harvested for their fibers, but not destroyed. The bushes regrow fully in 5-7 years, making lokta a renewable, non-tree resource.
The fibers from the bush are cooked in vats with the resulting pulpy mash being spread by hand across boxed screens. The screens are set in the Himalayan sunshine, and the paper dries with the fibers joining together to form the paper sheets. The sheets are then peeled off the screens.
The wrapping paper comes from those screens and the slightest imprint can be seen on the screen side of the screen’s texture. The other side of the paper we call sun kissed and has a beautiful natural texture.
Take a look at our new Handmade Lokta Wrapping Paper.