A five-day workshop on ‘paper making and paper crafts’ conducted by Dr Anwaar Jehan kicked off at Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) on Tuesday. Renowned paper craft artist, Jehan, is a medical professional, and started the art through Japanese paper making artists who trained her in the 1990s when National Art Gallery (NAG) conducted a number of paper craft workshops. On the first day of the workshop, a number of students from various schools and colleges of the twin cities participated. Among them were Mahrukh Ayub, Atiqa Jabeen, Shumaila Maqsood, Nida Yousuf, and Sameera Awan and amateur artists.
Various sessions of the workshop focused on basic techniques of recycling paper, moulding and creating objects of different shapes with handmade paper, and paper mache. With thick and thin layers of paper, children learned to make decorative items while some additional stuff like feathers, glittering objects and colours made their recycled paper items more attractive. Besides decorative items, the workshop also taught participants to create photo albums, handbags, greeting cards, diaries and how to decorate their notebooks etc.
Talking to Pakistan Today, visual arts division (VAD) Director Musarrat Naheen Imam, said Dr Jehan was a prominent name in paper-making art, who had been trained by Japanese experts. “This workshop is aimed at reviving this ancient art which is on the verge of decline in Pakistan. Secondly, the other objective of this workshop is to inculcate in students the techniques of recycling paper and using it to make fascinating objects. Last but not least, this art would help revive the cottage industry of rural areas,” Imam said.
Talking about paper making art, Imam said paper making was the process of making paper, a substance which was used universally today for writing and packaging. “In paper making, a dilute suspension of fibres in water is drained through a screen, so that a mat of randomly interwoven fibres is laid down. Water is removed from this mat of fibres by pressing and drying to make paper. Most paper is made from wood pulp, but other fibre sources such as cotton and textiles may be used,” she explained. She said the art could be used to get rid of plastic shopping bags that were posing environmental hazards.
