Take it with you · handmade in Nepal
Nepali Companion Notebook
A slim softcover notebook with 48 clean-cut pages of tree-free handmade lokta, in a vegetable-dyed cover with a second color inside. For quick notes, sketching and travel.
Sage outside, terra cotta inside
Medium: 5.5 × 8.5 in, our most popular size.
New: the Heritage Deluxe Edition, with 200 gsm pages and a flower-print cover.
- Sizes
- Pocket 3.5 × 5 in, Medium 5.5 × 8.5 in, Large 8.5 × 11 in
- Pages
- 48 unlined, clean-cut pages (96 front/back), bleach- and acid-free
- Paper
- 100% lokta, handmade in the Himalayas
- Cover
- Softcover of vegetable-dyed lokta, a second color inside
- Binding
- The pages are sewn down the spine into the cover
- Made in
- Nepal, following a 1,000-year-old tradition
Three covers, two colors each
Choose your cover
Each cover is dyed one color outside and another inside, with plant dyes. Every color comes in all three sizes.
Sage
A soft green from indigo and pomegranate, dyed terra cotta with cutch wood resin inside.
Dark Walnut
The rich brown of walnut husks, dyed sage green with indigo and pomegranate inside.
Terra Cotta
The warm red of cutch wood resin, dyed dark brown with walnut husks inside.
Jot it Down
Great for Sketching or Quick Note-Taking
Use it as a sketchbook, a writing journal, or a special medium for capturing your travels. The Nepali Companion Notebook is available in three vegetable-dyed soft colors: Terra Cotta, Sage, Dark Walnut. Each color option is available in the following sizes:
New · Heritage Deluxe Edition
The Companion, Made Deluxe
The same slim notebook with our thickest, smoothest paper: 24 pages of 200 gsm lokta made by the washi method, smooth on both sides, in a softcover printed with a flower and the word “Notes.” A5 or 4 × 6, in five colors.
Take it with You
The Nepali Companion Softcover Notebook
The Nepali Companion Notebook with hand-made lokta paper from Kathmandu Valley Co. is the perfect combination of utility and handmade artisanship.
Writing in it
Which pens work best?
Gel pens first, then ballpoint, pencil and fountain pens with fine nibs. Very wet inks can feather and ghost on lokta.
Is one side rougher?
A little. Each sheet has a smoother side, where it formed against the screen, and a “sun-kissed” side with more texture.
Why does every cover differ?
The vegetable dyes are mixed by artisans, not machines, so the shade varies from batch to batch. No two notebooks are the same.
More about this notebook
Anywhere you go
A Note-Taking Companion
A perfect note-taking companion at home, work, or for your travels and journeys around the globe, you’ll love spending time with this notebook.
For a hardcover journal in the same natural colors, see the Nepali Eco Clean-cut.
Tree-Free Paper
Go Natural with Lokta
A tradition of over 1,000 years in Nepal, Lokta paper is hand-crafted from lokta bushes which grow on the southern slopes of the Nepali Himalayas between 5,250 and 13,000 feet above sea level.
The paper is not treated with bleach like other papers and is hand made in rural, high altitude villages of Nepal.
Lokta paper has a beautiful texture containing natural flecks from the bush and can vary slightly in thickness from page to page due to the unique handcrafting process.
The fibrous inner bark of the lokta bush is “cooked” into a pulp then spread on screens and sun-dried. The beautiful texture from the process is characteristic of hand crafted lokta paper.
- Tree-Free Paper
- Lokta bushes grow on the southern slopes of the Himalayas of Nepal.
- Vegetable-Dyed
- Natural vegetable-dyes create the beautiful variety of colors in the covers.
- Renewable
- Lokta bushes regrow quickly after being cut, regaining full height in 5-7 years.
- 48 Pages (96 Front/Back)
- Clean-cut pages make it easy to find your place to capture a special thought or moment.
- Bleach and Acid Free
- Modern papers are bleached to gain brightness, our paper is bleach free and acid-free and retains its natural color.
Handmade Color
The Colors of Nature
The cover coloring is produced with the traditional and vegetable plant-based dyes that have been used for hundreds of years.
No two notebooks will be the same. The vegetable dye process is not like using synthetic dyes which can match a specific color number every time.
The vegetable dyes we use are mixed by artisans, not machines, and the colors can vary from batch to batch making each notebook a unique creation full of character and individual style.
The Sage Green Nepali Companion Notebook is made from a combination of Indigo (blue) and Pomegranate (yellow from the pomegranate skins) mixed together creating a unique green color.
The coloring for the Dark Walnut notebook comes from actual walnut husks which produce a rich dark-brown coloring. The walnut husk surrounds and protects the walnut seed and has been used as a natural dye for centuries.
The unique red of the Terra Cotta notebook is made from sap extracted from Cutch wood. The wood is boiled removing the sap which is then dried into a resin to later be used for the coloring process.
Handmade Lokta Paper
Nepali Companion
Include the Nepali Companion Soft-cover notebook in your next adventure.
A prayer-flag bridge in the Himalayas of Nepal
Thank You for Supporting Talented Nepalese Artisans
Thank you for helping to preserve a 1,000-year-old tradition in Nepali paper making.