Handcrafted Recycled Paper Photo Frame (4x6), "Wild Monochrome Zebra"

"Hello, my name is Kali Calliopi Sary, but everyone calls me Kali Sary. I'm an Australian who lives in Bali, a beautiful tropical island that is rich in culture and art. However, it is struggling with ever-increasing pollution caused by a growing and modernizing society. With this concern and a life-long interest in all things paper, I began to experiment by making handcrafted paper by recycling such materials as tree bark and cotton rags. I started experimenting with my kitchen blender to grind them into a pulp.

"Working out of my house and kitchen for the first six months, in May 1995 I enlisted a team of Balinese women to learn the skillful art of papermaking. I named this social enterprise after Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of art, beauty, poetry and grace. We used the ancient and traditional process of blending, dipping and pressing sheets of paper by hand and hanging them out to dry. The result was exceptional handcrafted paper. The texture and sensuous nature of handmade paper lends itself to creative journal making.

"Over the years this cottage business has become a unique boutique and our specialty is the team's ability to create and adapt designs and products to a customers' specific needs. Our team has grown to around 25 women, but since many of them are not yet skilled in the art of paper making, we offer them the chance to learn a new skill and work ethic, which they may not have had before. We also move them around so they can learn different skills from paper making to book making and everything in between. This way they also get a better understanding of the environmental issues of waste and water management.

"Our standards are of high quality with attention to detail and design. What makes them even more special is that our inspired products are crafted with recycled and other sustainable materials. We recycle papers collected from schools, offices, hotels and homes around Bali. We color them with natural dyes taken from the earth, roots and leaves, and we give them texture with sustainable plant fibers such as bamboo and flower petals.

"The variations and irregularities that occur in our products are a reflection of the art itself and distinguish our products as a handmade product of environmental integrity. No chemicals, bleaches or unsustainable practices are used at any stage of the paper making process. There is no sort of production line, the papers and products are handmade from start to finish by the creative women in our garden-front studio. We incorporate our handmade papers with silk screened and laminated cotton papers that we also make, and we use other handmade sustainable materials sourced from around the Indonesian archipelago. The result is a wide range of earth friendly products.

"By joining Novica we believe more customers will be inspired by our papers and share our concerns about the environment and our efforts in creating sustainable work and products here in Bali."