Recently I had the pleasure of conducting an email interview with Enrique Garcia, founder of Arpa Artesanos del Papel (ARPA), a premier handmade paper manufacturer based out of Spain. Arpa is one of LCI’s oldest suppliers of fine handmade paper stock. Speaking with Mr. Garcia, it quickly became clear that he has a lifelong passion for paper, and his dedication to his craft shows in the superb final product he and his company produce.
Could you talk a bit about your company, Arpa, and how you got started working with handmade paper products? How long have you been in business?
I am a paper engineer and I’ve been working for the paper world for 37 years already. Engineering, consulting, machinery building, management & paper business administration, etc… In 1993, I was working for a Swiss-German international company whose business was engineering and building machines. I was the Director of the paper division for Spain, Portugal & Morocco. At that time, as I already had been 21 years dedicated to the paper industry, I decided that it was the moment to switch to something different, on my own. So, I decided to apply my knowledge and all my experience to the Artisan Paper making process, totally convinced that I would be able to make the best Artisan Paper in the market. Therefore, in Arpa (differently from other artisan papers) we control all the parameters of the paper, as we have our own lab, where we can monitor fiber length, refining degree and lubrication (ºSR degree), glue, weight, resistance, dimensional stability, bore, etc. By doing this we can get very concrete characteristics in our papers, for [many] different applications.
What is the typical process that a handmade sheet of paper will go through during production? What techniques do you use that are specific to handmade papers, and what sets these papers apart from machine-made products? How and at what point is color added to the sheets?
Our prodution methodology is based on the traditional way of making paper, sheet by sheet, with 4 borders (each of the 4 sides). So, we makepaper exactly in the same way it was done before any paper machine was used, and even before the whited wood cellulose was obtained in Arpa, we used noble fibers from yearly plants as raw materials (which means, basically, cotton). By treating and refining these fibers in a Hollander beater (a machine from the 15th-16th century that we rebuilt in the same way it was used [during] its time), we cut, caress, fibrillate and hydrate them.
The glue process is massively done, with neutral glue (Ph-7) and the whole process is done with pure water, so no chlorine.
All the sheets, envelopes and cards are done one by one, always with the 4 borders (each of the 4 sides). We make all our papers one by one, from the small visit card (6 x 9 cm) to the big sheet (100 x 150 cm) for Fine Arts, from 140 weight to 400 grs/m2 weight. We even make round cards by request.
Once the papers are done, they are pressed between 2 wool filters, which give the paper the surface touching that all our papers have. Afterward, these papers are air dried, so we are able to keep their volume; the “hand” of the hand-made. At the end, once dried, they go into the pressing process.
The coloured papers are made only with natural pigments, solids to the light. This process is performed in the water and paste mass, right before making the sheets. Our papers do not have any surface treatment at all. Never, in any case. That’s how all the sheets have such an attractive and soft cotton touching on their surface.
Do you export most of your products or is there a strong market for handmade paper in Europe?
We export around the 65% of our papers to the rest of Europe, Australia, Japan, some Arabian countries, and the US. Our papers are very much appreciated in Europe and Japan. I do think that the interest and appreciation of high quality Artisan Papers is a cultural and tradition[al] matter, from my personal point of view.
In the US we have the feeling that it is not a very well-known paper. Even thought is highly appreciated by experts, who like to touch, caress and enjoy it, at the same time it’s very unknown for a lot of people, who most of the times mistake it with the so called “artisan” papers from India, Pakistan, etc, which are nothing else than recycling papers. [These] have nothing to do with the real Artisan high quality papers, made out of cotton fibers, natural water… Arpa papers!
What kind of uses have you or your customers found for handmade paper?
We have several paper “families”:
A.- High Quality artisan stationery. Sheets, cards, envelopes. All these papers are ready for offset printing, typography and digital (ink-jet), and of course for handwriting. All of them in 13 different colors.
B.- Artisan Paper for Fine Arts. We have 4 under this family: watercolor papers, engraving papers, drawing papers, [and] photography friendly papers. We have them in 3 different colors: white, natural white and ivory.
C.- Artisan Papers for Graphic Arts. They are papers for offset printing and typography. they are ready for both kind of printing, either one or four ink printing, thanks to their dimensional stability. We have them in 3 different colors: white, natural white and ivory.
D.- Artisan Papers for creativity. They are only made in one size (50 x 65), but in 16 different colors.
Obviously our customers use our Artisan papers for each of the applications for which they are made and previously mentioned.
The ones with higher demand are always the Artisan papers for high quality stationery, which are mainly used for wedding invitations, event announcements, rewards, etc… The papers for printing and Graphic Arts have fewer clients, but [they are] much bigger.
We have made thousands of sheets in big sizes, like 60 x76 cm, for instance for a customer in Seattle (US), who wanted to reproduce art pieces. It is also very much appreciated for old book reconstruction, or for the highly valuable books pressing and editing, mostly with experts and collect[ors] as targets. Recently, we made thousand sheets for a special book containing all the letters that Martin Luther King wrote from jail. This is a book with leather covers, which was edited by the US Congress. And the whole printing was obviously done in the US.
How does handmade paper production differ from machining in terms of impact on the environment?
Environmental impact: between our artisan products and the industrial ones there is a big difference, because we need to take into account that:
* Our papers are made out of cotton, so no chemical treatment.
* Our artisan papers do not contain any chemical additive, but all the industrial papers contain them.
* Our garbage is almost zero and the small amount we can have does not contain any waste.
* The cotton is a yearly plant, so no tree needs to be cut.
On the other hand, the industrial paper [contains] wood cellulose, so you need to cut trees to get it. The wood whitening process is extremely pollutive. The artisan papers are counted by sheet, but the industrial ones are counted by millions of tones. The artisan process does not add any chemical product. On the industrial papers, a lot of parameters are monitored by chemical products (porosity, straightness, opacity, surface treatment, etc.)
All this industrial process [produces] a lot of garbage at the end, which obviously requires important water clearing machines. Even the weight and humidity control of the industrial paper is done through equipment which contains a small [radioactive] part!
Any final comments?
The paper is my life and my world, so I’m always more than happy to talk about it.
Recommended Link:
LCI’s Selection of Arpa Handmade Paper
Will Collins
