it just . · pdf file · 2014-11-27they didn't choose to experiment with a...
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It just happened.
One day, half of a bauhinia leaf
came unstuck from the paper while being incrusted.
It had left its trace on the paper. So clear and so sharp!
The well-defined petiole, the delicate veins,
the lovely shape, the subtle colour,
everything was there except —
the leaf itself!
That was
the real turning point
in the adventure of
Auroville Papers.
As if,
before
departing
it left
its soul
on the paper.
At the beginning
of course there was cotton...
That was a must if we wanted to make an
environment friendly paper. Then like everybody,
we started decorating this paper with flowers and
leaves. But after that incident, we didn't think of leaves
anymore as a mere addition to the stationery. The
imprint they left on the wet pulp had become an integral
part of our paper.
We are privileged to live in South India where nature's
exuberance is well-known, and we live in Auroville with its well-
tended gardens and forests. Petals, stems, leaves, bark, grass and
seeds enter our paper and bring to it something of the wonderful
perfection only to be found in nature.
Different kinds of imprints on different kinds of paper,
this is our trade mark. Our note-books, photo frames,
photo albums, note-pads, have all been caressed and
blessed by branches with their memory.
And just as no one leaf on a tree is identical to another, each sheet
of our paper is unique.
Our best drawing board is the wet rectangle of paper pulp and our
best designer is the infinite play of nature's shapes and colors.
in order to pick up their leaves!
But don't ever think even for a moment
that we disturb the trees
We only gather those that have fallen on the ground,
prolonging a beauty which would have turned to dust.
You might agree that our papers are too
beautiful to be used just for stationery.
We even perfected a method for making
paper out of banana fibre. Once that
happened and we were happy with the
texture and shade of that paper, we
experimented further with those same
fibres and created a special lace-like
paper which is one of our best-selling
products. This paper can be used to
combine different strips of colour in
order to get the most striking and
original effect on one's walls.
But that is not all!
We discovered a novel way of using cotton:
The cotton maché
made of cotton and paper pulp,
combines the softness of cotton with the
strength of paper. Using this material, we
make coojas, bowls, big flowers, waste
paper baskets, pen holders, vases, and
stools in a variety of colours. And even a
sumo wrestler could sit on these stools!
Then we created objects
for home decoration:
posters, table sets,
coasters, mouse pads,
bags, and then a great
variety of jewellery items:
ear rings, bangles and
necklaces.
as a movement
which can enter
any place, any
time, and any
person – like a
breeze. We just
have to be alert enough to catch it. Sometimes a
mistake is an opportunity for discovering a beautiful
combination of colors that nobody had thought about.
An object made for the fun of it can become a popular
product. Our jewellery line started with the girls in the
binding section playing at making ear-rings. A different
method of binding, used initially for its simplicity,
ended up being the kind most suited to our paper. An
idea expressed by someone, then later dropped, could
be taken up by someone else, applied in a different
way and lead to a surprising result.
we like
to think
of creativity
In Auroville
Papers,
Creation is joy, creation is life and
it gives joy and life to Auroville Papers.
This is a constant movement towards the future.
Luisa says, “We have perhaps developed only
10% of our potential.”
As a matter of fact, our portfolios are full of
projects which have not yet gone into
production.
Creation is not limited to some individuals.
Every person working in Papers is encouraged to
participate in the search for beauty and to
develop his/her artistic skills. “Any one who has
an idea”, says Hervé, “is invited, and even
urged to try it out.”
Of course after the initial idea or concept is launched, there is a very long, very
meticulous and patient work to arrive at a perfect realisation. For us quality is
paramount. We want a perfectly finished product, and this is not only a
commercial necessity.
As people who have chosen to live in Auroville, we believe that all life is yoga;
we believe that work is an opportunity for growth and that the manner in
which an action is performed is more important than the action itself.
This principle is the greatest factor of unity among us. The real
emphasis is on team work. Of course
each one has their own domain
of activities, but the views of
each one are taken into
account before a
decision is taken,
regardless of age or
seniority in the
company.
All this can happen
only because we are part
of Auroville; a place for research, for
experiments and above all, for the individual's inner growth.
in which each one would find his true place and role without superficial imposition. The paradox here, and the challenge
too, is that we don't interact exclusively with Aurovilians sharing this ideal. We work with employees coming from the
surrounding villages. They didn't choose to experiment with a different kind of society, yet their life is intimately linked with
ours. Not only is there a difference in the cultural backgrounds, but also in the way work is perceived. For instance, we
would like to do away with the relation boss-employee; consequently we would like every worker to be as free and as
responsible as possible. This is not an aspiration necessarily shared or understood by all. To this challenge we found only
one answer: dialogue – on-going dialogue done as consciously as possible and with utmost respect and care. That way we
all will be able to progress and learn from each other.
a different kind of society
Auroville aspires to a different kind of society
I am happy to do it. There is
no separation between the
employees and the executives.
I am one of them.”
We are delighted to note that
most of our employees have
become more demanding
of quality than we are.
They have a sharper eye
for defects and are
quicker at rejecting
those!
What gives us great pleasure
is to see how over the years some employees have
developed skills and talents before unknown even to
them. A lady, who now manages the production of
stationery items, marvels at the way she has changed,
“When I came, more than 20 years ago, I didn’t know
anything. First I had to learn each step of the binding process.
Now, not only binding has no secret for me, but I know how
to organise the
work in our whole
section; I know
how to deal with
people (suppliers,
clients) even if
they are difficult
to please; I know
how to give
instructions to
employees.
Some people
work in a
company because they have to,
but this is not my case.
We don't do it for ourselves.”
It somehow does not fit with their idea of
Auroville being a “spiritual” place like an ashram.
Well, Auroville is meant to be a city, where all
activities normally found in a city, included
business, have their place. The difference lies in
the way we do business. Our aim is not to earn
our living, but to express ourselves and to
develop our capacities, while being of service to
the community. Our profit goes to the central
fund of Auroville and is utilised for the many
needs of an expanding community as well as for
the development of the neighbouring villages.
“This is a sign that Auroville works!” says Luisa,
“Just imagine: you have a lot of responsibilities;
you work hard; at times you get more than your
share of problems, but in the end instead of
grumbling and wondering ‘Why do I have to
go through all that?’ you are happy, and you
are happy because the profit
goes to Auroville!
I find this very
beautiful!
People are often intrigued by the fact that
“Business companies EXIST in Auroville!!”
She adds,
“And there are
so many things
that we do just
because
it is Auroville!”
For instance
our activities on the environment so we decided to
construct a waste water treatment plant. It has
taken more than two years, a long
process of trial and error with the
collaboration of several
Aurovilians to finally get what
we have now: “The most
beautiful waste water
treatment plant in
Auroville and possibly in
Tamil Nadu” says Hervé
with a smile in his beard.
No chemicals are used.
By flowing along a well-
studied course, by
passing through a vortex
and circulating amongst
plants, the water gets
purified. We are as proud
of this achievement as of
our paper.
we are actively concerned with the effect of
Similarly we are
concerned at the
fact that every day,
in Auroville as
elsewhere,
innumerable
computer
printouts find their
way to
overflowing waste
baskets.
How to re-use this
paper in a
sustainable way?
After a few
experiments, we
collected some of
this paper lying in
Auroville homes
and offices and
started making
recycled paper
meant for
Aurovilians.
This too was
not a commercial
necessity;
it was something
we thought
would be a useful
service
to the community.
We recently added a new feature to our activities:
From time to time we organize small workshops
where adults and children together can
experience the joy of making paper.
" This idea", said Hervé, “came to me after watching a
documentary where peasant folk from Central Asia were
shown making paper in a very simple way: cooking mulberry
bark in big pots, then beating the pulp on stones with wooden
mallets.
The first person who came and helped me
try out this method (we used banana tree
fiber as the only raw
material) was a little girl
and she enjoyed it very
much". So we organised a
few more workshops
under the trees.
The result was the most
beautiful paper we had ever made, fine
and smooth like silk.
Oh, the smiles on the faces of the
participants…
In 2011 we embarked upon
a new adventure:
preparing an exhibition.
We benefit from the special
atmosphere here – an
atmosphere which is
particularly conducive to
creation, since creation (like
Auroville) needs
“the fact that we can
express ourselves, we can
make mistakes, we have the
liberty to experiment, we
can do things just because
we love doing them.
“I appreciate”, says Luisa,
And this is possible because we are in Auroville.”
freedom and a connection with whatis the deepest in us.
The challenges were many as we wanted to
present only new and rather large pieces.
It had to be beautiful, it had to be varied, it had to
break new ground. We knew that we were
venturing a little out of the
paths of handicraft into the vast world of art,
but we did not let that intimidate us.
For about a year the whole team enthusiastically took up
the challenges one by one. Ideas burst forth.
Jean-Jacques said later,
“I love these moments when you experience the magic of
inspires a third person who finds yet some other fragment
of solution. The marvel of this is that neither of the three
could have found the solution on his own.
As the saying goes, 1 + 1 = 3”.
These were moments of intense pleasure.
collective work. You are not alone trying to solve a
problem. One person brings a part of the solution,
which leads to another person coming up with
another bit of solution, which in turn
We had fortunately planned
enough time to be able to work
without pressure, enough time to
be able to experiment, to explore
– which allowed us to be in a
different space. A process of
production requires hard work
and attention to details, but a
process of creation demands
another mood in which you are at
the same time aspiring and
inspired.”
Our employees first looked at this new
activity with some surprise, but then
creativity became contagious and they
started also enjoying the search for new
shapes, colors and textures. As a result, after
the exhibition opened in January 2012 at the
Art Center of Citadyne in Auroville, when they all
came to watch the result of the collective work, they
were thrilled.
The
outcome indeed was a
very colorful and humorous
exhibition. Wherever the eye went, it
met the unexpected. It is not for us to
praise our work, but it represented a very
important step in our development. Will it lead
to our company acquiring a very different
profile? Time only will tell. But we know for sure
that taking place as it did two weeks after the
devastation of the Thane cyclone, it did
something to soothe the hearts of
many Aurovilians. Is that not a
function of beauty?
Luisa says, “We benefit from
the fact that we are in India, and we
always remember the extraordinary
sentence of Sri Aurobindo when he
writes of ancient India 'When we look at
the past of India, what strikes us next is
her stupendous vitality, her inexhaustible
power of life and joy of life, her almost
unimaginably prolific creativeness… She
creates and creates and is not satisfied
and is not tired…'” We are aware that we
live on a land having the potential to re-
awaken the ancient spirit so strikingly
described there, and in a modest way we
are glad to somehow
participate in this
renewal.
Initially our biggest clients were in Europe and the
bulk of our production was exported. For a few
years now the trend has reversed, and we work
almost equally for Indian and foreign companies.
“Our relation with our clients is a privileged one”,
says Luisa. “Most of them have a deep contact
with Auroville, they have fallen
in love with our paper
and they don't see us
only as business
partners.” And just
as the solid
reputation of Auroville
handicrafts helps us in
our marketing, so we are
happy to note that our
success in Auroville Papers is
also a contribution to the
good name of Auroville.
It makes our work all the
more meaningful.
Our thanks to the Auroville trees,
and to the spirit of Auroville
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