Summer 2015 NEWS from Khandroling Paper Cooperative

[Photo by Tara Mandala, reprinted from Facebook]

Chogyal Namkhai Norbu and Lama Tsultrim Allione July 2015 at Tara Mandala. Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche is preparing Medicine Buddha cards for participants with his Tibetan calligraphy of a seed syllable. Khandroling Paper Cooperative has made special calligraphy for both of them:

Read on here & here

We consider a major mission of the Khandroling Paper Cooperative is to recycle sacred texts and prepare calligraphy papers for dharma Teachers and artists.  

Will We Ever Find a Home?

This summer we are in temporary resting mode as we figure out the logistics of a permanent papermaking studio near Khandroling. We are awaiting a couple of options to manifest. There will be a members meeting in August to sort through our priorities. 

In the meantime, there are lots of low tech activities to keep us busy and to which we invite interested people to participate. We operated purely by donation. 

I noticed that my neighbors long hand cut grass here in beautiful Shelburne Falls looked perfect for cooking up.

[Grass clipping drying before cooking in soda ash]

Grass makes a gorgeous inclusion to papers made with other fibers. Also Khandroling retreat center in Buckland, MA has a proliferation of Mullein on a whole mountain side where last year’s clear cut took place. 

Another low tech project I plan on tackling this summer is making more handmade ink. My friend Diane sent me a link that her sister sent to her about making natural different colored inks. The results look interesting as one color eventually morphs to another. 

Last year we made Black Walnut ink by cooking the hulls to loosen them. What a messy process. Later we were informed that we could have simply soaked the hulls in water and then slid them easily from their outer layer. 

You can read about our initial venture and watch the slide show here. 

Then there is also the endless preparation of rag for the Critter. Here is a recent  stash of old paper and cloth prayer flags on a friend’s porch. I will wash, then cut them into small postage size pieces along with loads of other cotton colored rag (mostly high cotton count sheets I pick up at the local Salvation Army or linen table cloths).

[2015 Photo by Jacqueline Gens]

Last season for the Hadley Asparagus Festival 

where Sheryl and Brenda did  a great interactive demo making asparagus paper in collaboration with our Tsegyalgar booth, we had small samples of seed paper which were scarfed up immediately. I’d like to make more to use up old pulp.

Then finally, we need to consider or 2016 submission to the International Swatch collection. We missed a couple of years, but we’re back

So stay tuned for our works-in-progress during this year of transition.  Contact us if you would like to participate or connect with our open studios or any of the projects above.

jacqueline.gens@gmail.com