Nepal Peacock Shop Lokta Traditional Handmade Paper Notebook (Small) – Blue

Peacock Shop sits in the ancient Nepalese city of Bhaktapur, right beside the fifteenth-century wood-carving masterpiece known as the Peacock Window. Run by the Prajapati family for generations, the shop has its own handmade paper workshop on the floor above: boiling the bark, washing, beating the pulp, dyeing, laying it on the screen and drying it in the sun — every step follows the traditional process, before the paper is made up into notebooks, cards and paper crafts with carved wooden printing blocks and a hand-operated press.

LOKTA (Lokta paper) is made from the inner bark of Daphne shrubs that grow wild in the Himalayas at altitudes of 1,600 to 4,000 metres. The fibres are long and tough, giving paper that resists tearing and moisture and stands up to insects and mould; Nepal has used it since ancient times for official documents and Buddhist scriptures. Five to seven years after the bark is harvested, the shrub grows back naturally to its original height, making it a sustainable, renewable resource. Every sheet is made by hand, so the depth of colour and the grain of the fibres vary from one to the next — which is precisely what makes each one unique.

Size approx.: 8.7 x 6 cm