This Jaipur-based woman weaves paper waste into fabric to make creative lifestyle products

Newspapers, books, magazines, paper boxes — there is an abundance of paper and paper-based materials all around us, despite the attempt to create a paperless economy. Paper waste is not far behind plastic in terms of how careless we are about recycling them.

However, here’s one woman from Jaipur, who not only finds ways to tackle the rising amount of paper waste but also finds creative ways to do it. “Paper is a strong material, in fact, the more delicate it looks the stronger it actually is. There is a lot of paper being discarded, be it newspapers, packaging materials or flyers,” says Neerja Palisetty, hailing from a family of weavers in Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh.

Weaving magic from paper: Sutrakaar sells recycled handcrafted items for daily use

Neerja’s brainchild Sutrakaar Creations sells a variety of recycled handcrafted items that one can easily use in their daily lives. However, what makes these items unique is that all of them are made out of woven paper. For Neerja, the craft is not something new thing as her family has been weaving for about 400 years now.

“We belong to a weaving community which has been in this field for past four centuries. I was born in the South and brought up in the North. My father is a textile designer from NID Ahmedabad,” says Neerja. She completed her graduation in Clothing and Textiles from MSU Baroda.  Sutrakaar Creations was started in November 2016.

“Handloom weaving is a family tradition and the 400-year-legacy that came along with it is what I wanted to carry forward in a contemporary way. This has been a long-term dream and I wanted to do regular weaving with unconventional materials with a twist, thus my passion for paper got applied to this thought,” adds Neerja.

Daily items made out of paper waste: Sutrakaar makes a variety of lifestyle products

Sutrakaar also provides livelihood opportunities for a handful of women in Jaipur, who spin the yarn for them with the charkhas that the former has provided them with. “We have trained a few housewives to sit at home and work for us and it has been very fruitful so far, many more women are inspired and want to join us,” adds Neerja.

From creative lifestyle products like lampshades, photo frames and clutches to stationery materials like bookmarks and diaries, one can find a huge variety of paper-woven products.

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