Eco Africa Zulu Rag Tissue Paper - Ncube Terracotta
These lightweight, acid-free sheets have visible fibers and the crisp texture that results from blending mulberry bark with recycled cotton fiber. Its name and subtle color recalls the African terrain. Ncube Terracotta, colored by textile rags and copper oxide, is pale clay orange. The texture of the drying felts is evident in each sheet and each has 4 natural deckle edges. These papers are wonderful for drawing, chine collé, collage and layered artwork.

(1) sheet, 23-1/2" x 17-1/2", 30 g/m²

About Eco Africa Handmade Plant Papers
Wonderfully textural, these papers are handcrafted by women in the African republic of Zimbabwe. Using simple papermaking equipment donated by the Eco Africa cooperative, women are taught their craft by master papermakers.

Papermaking is a relatively new craft in Southern Africa. It developed as a cottage industry to help impoverished villagers, mainly women with young families, to get by and feed their loved ones. The raw materials are readily available in the form of wild plants and shrubs that grow free and plentifully around their villages and communities. Programs were set up to provide simple, basic equipment for grinding the fiber into pulp and then form the resulting pulp into sheets. Drying of the sheets was (and often still is) carried out by hanging or laying them out to dry, often alongside the family washing.

The women use traditional household tools and ecologically sound production methods. The papermaking projects create jobs in an area with little economic activity and develop skills that help women achieve financial independence for themselves and their families.

All materials used are recycled or renewable: cotton trimmings from textile factories and plants that grow wild and plentifully near the women’s homes. The indigenous plants include river reed, elephant grass, wild fig, sisal, and sun hemp—fiber sources that reduce dependence on forests, woodlands and wildlife habitat and reduce waste to landfills.

Nearly all papers are tree-free, using grasses, wild shrubs and bushes. In the case of banana papers, only the dead leaves of the banana tree are used. The tissue papers are the exceptions, made with cultivated mulberry tree bark that gives the tissue papers their crisp hand and semi-transparency.

Each sheet of paper is made from 100% cellulose plant fiber, is acid-free, lignin-free and pH neutral—ideal for creating lasting artwork.

“I am enjoying every moment with Eco Africa and my workmates. Working together and sharing ideas is our motto. …Life has really changed from a housewife to someone who is now able to stand alone and it makes me very proud to be a part of Eco Africa since I am now able to look after my children.” —Taiti Marondera, 36