A life with out paper is unimaginable these days and impossible with out it. As individuals.we consume(on average )200kg of paper per year and there are atleast 3000 different types of paper . news paper and notebook paper being amongst the 3000 to be thrown into big piles to be burnt of or dumped into the landfills.With the population of billions imagine the amount of paper being dumped in the land fills or burnt or perhaps even eaten by cows on the streets.
what is paper? paper is made out of cellulose fibers which is derived from bark , leaves , stem etc, the fibers is then boiled and converted into virgin pulp which is left for sizing, the extra water drains out leaving a simple sheet of paper behind.
When dated back, the invention of paper in china, paper and paper mache came about around the same time. paper mache was an idea which was used to reuse the left over left from which the paper were made.
paper mache also called as papier mache' traveled from China to Europe to Persia and then came to India. Kashmiris are known for their paper mache products. china uses it for making their carnival mask, in school and colleges it is used for sculptures and other accessories. back in late 1800 and early 1900 we see paper mache being used as never before. the pulp was being used for making furniture, partition walls, paper mache sabot was used in American civil wars and many tried making houses out of waste paper, where they succeeded.paper was even converted into yarns to make clothes. this traditional form of using waste paper is being used by a couple of designers in today's world.
http://www.agilitynut.com/h/paperhouse.html.
paper is treated like any other material which is in abundance. a small spelling error or wrong coloured paper sees its way to the bins. Today schools are trying to recycle paper by using news paper as drawing sheets, some to an extents takes the courage to re pulp it to make new paper or bags out of it, few small scale industries use it for weaving basket and other accessories, but still with so many people already working with waste paper there is still heaps and heaps of paper being wasted..we have forgotten the reason why paper was made and is treated as dust on the road.
My approach
Paper mache is an old method of reusing waste paper. It has been used to make many decorative products to life size sculptures, but the justice does not lie there. Looking back we see paper mache being used for making furniture and houses, which were sturdy and strong ,but now it is just treated as a small craft for gift item and souvenir, art n craft classes in school or as sculptures and mask for carnivals.One of the reasons why it died out(my analysis) could be because its a long ,tiring, rigorous and time consuming process and by early 1900 the industrial revolution had made its stand on its mechanized production, hence putting paper mache production behind the scene.
My idea lies behind re-cycling paper and reusing the techniques and methods of paper mache,bring a range of house hold furniture s which would help re-contextualize the value we hold for paper in today's world and bring paper mache products to our mainstream lifestyle.