Hand crafted in Bali with integrity and named for the Hindu Goddess of the arts, beauty, knowledge, and poetry, Saraswati Papers are even more special for they are created using recycled and other sustainable materials.
Australian, Kali Sari, founder of Saraswati Papers, recognized that Bali was struggling with ever-increasing pollution caused by a growing and modernizing society. With this concern and a life-long interest in all things paper, she started to put her kitchen blender to new use and began to experiment making handcrafted paper from recycled materials.
A paper-making course later and with the support of the Wisnu Foundation (a not-for-profit foundation concerned with the conservation of the Balinese environment), Saraswati Papers was born in May 1995.
Working out of her house and kitchen for the first six months, Kali enlisted a team of Balinese village women to learn the skillful art of papermaking. The methods used were the ancient and traditional process of blending, dipping and pressing sheets of paper by hand and hanging it out to dry. The result was exceptional hand-crafted paper.
Each folio of their hand-made paper is made using 100% post consumer recycled paper collected from schools, offices, hotels and homes around Bali. It is colored using natural dyes taken from the earth, roots and leaves, and is textured with the addition of sustainable plant fibers such as bamboo and flower petals. No chemicals, bleaches or unsustainable practices are used at any stage of the paper making process. The variations and irregularities, which occur in thier products are a reflection of the art itself and distinguish Saraswati Papers as a handmade product of environmental integrity. There is no sort of production line, the papers and products are handmade – from start to finish – in their garden-front studio by their group of creative local women.
Over the years the cottage business has become a unique boutique business in that the specialty of Saraswati Papers is the team’s ability to create and adapt designs and products to a customer’s specific needs. I came across Saraswati when I received a Christmas card from Amanresorts, Bali – a card that pictures the mother mountain and a Balinese hamlet in the foreground. It has now been framed, so special is the texture, the image and the source.
Bali is a wellspring of creativity. It all starts with the Balinese themselves who, from childhood, are committed to adopting one art form or another. Painting, carving, dancing, playing a musical instrument -- each child is tasked with learning an artistic skill which he or she continues to practice in to adulthood. And so it is no wonder that the island, blessed as it is with beautiful landscapes, a rich spiritual tradition, and creatively skilled locals, has always drawn to its shores creative souls from elsewhere.
Anneke van Waesberghe is one of these transplants. Resident of Bali for the last 15 years, Anneke started Escape Nomade in 2004.
The reason for designing and manufacturing tents is to create a sustainable elegant, affordable, safe and self-sufficient mobile living space in nature, delivered by knowledgeable People and their enthusiastic family members for a fair Profit to all stakeholders. To educate and enlarge people’s environmental awareness by opening doors to remote areas that would otherwise be inaccessible; conserve both nature and culture by protecting the environment and its cultural heritage.
I went to visit Anneke in the hills. Leave the overbuilt town of Ubud, and bump along a dirt road that leads through rice terraces and bamboo-lined gullies. Turn left on a virtual pathway and arrive at a beautiful carved gate. You are met with a cold, scented towel, escorted along a stone pathway to the portals of a magnificent tent, and offered a tray of assorted melon and ginger juices. Bali never ceases to amaze..where else in the world would you find such perfection, such style - simple and lovely - in the wilds? Anneke is there to show us around the interior of her first tent which is composed of a living room and a bedroom. The interiors are, of course, stunning, with furniture, linens and accessories of her own design fabricated in Indonesia or sourced from India.
![photo[1] copy](http://lisalindblad.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/photo1-copy.jpg)
![photo[2] copy](http://lisalindblad.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/photo2-copy.jpg)
Not only does Anneke make all manner of tents - kitchen, spa, sleeping, bathroom, portable picnic tents - as well as the interiors, she ships them around the world in containers, provides Balinese staff to set them up and sends videos that assist in their maintenance. She also receives guests at her installation in the rice terraces where she provides a delicious high tea or even a celebratory dinner.
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