Welcome to the May 2014 Khadi Post « Back to news

For a long time Double Elephant was the biggest size we made – and the biggest handmade paper made anywhere in India.  This measures 1 metre x 70cm.

We were constantly being asked to make an even bigger size – double double elephant.  And about eight years ago we did just that, introducing  Atlas, at 140 x 100 cm (54″x39″).  Then a year or two later we had a phone call from David Hockney’s studio assistant.  He said David was painting on Atlas and wanted to know if we could make a paper double the length, 200 x 80cm (79″x32″).  In India our partner Vasudevan took this up as a challenge and we introduced Great White.  All the technical difficulties in producing handmade paper in these sizes have been overcome and we believe these were at the time the two biggest handmade cotton rag papers made anywhere in the world.

Now we have made a new cotton giant.  This one is called Banyan and it is 25% bigger than Atlas but similarly proportioned at 160 x 110cm (63″x43″).  This is the new world title holder.   Our first shipment sold out before we had time to load the details onto our web shop.  Our new shipment will be with us in July.  All of these giant papers are tub sized with gelatine, the traditional – and still the best – method of preparing cotton papers for the rigours of watercolour, inks and mixed media.  For painting in oils you can prime them with gesso.

And how do we ship them out?  We roll these papers loosely in giant size tubes – 26cm (that’s nearly a foot) in diameter.

Go to our webshop – Extra Large Rag Papers

Find out more how our rag papers are made.