The Forgotten Tradition Of Making Marbled Paper By Hand

[Music] the italian city of florence is a center of arts and culture it's also home to paper making traditions that date back centuries from sheets and cards to book pages and binders handmade florentine paper can still be found in a few places here this paper is now called florentine paper even if the correct origin is marbled paper it's a very old technique of decorating paper but it was used a lot in florence in a book binding process mostly so always related to books and printing maria co owns giulio giannini effidio a family business now in its sixth generation it's florence's oldest marbled papermaker and one of the few places where it's still handmade maria also holds workshops on how to make marbled paper i'm going to to make to prepare the the marble paper so and i'm just spreading some colors onto this jelly thing gelatin and step by step i will create a pattern and at the end i will lay the paper on too and you'll see what the paper so the how the paper is decorated the process is intricate and time-consuming with lots of attention paid to detail from start to finish maria needs about 20 minutes to make one sheet of paper for each new sheet she has to repeat the entire process using new colors the end result is always unique [Music] this is quite different from the machine printed paper which has largely taken over here at the rossi paper making factory the company also specializes in florentine designs but they've been using machines to print their paper since 1931. in this factory we print with the old machines as well but using old machines since last century but renewed with new technologies this printing machine can produce up to 1 500 sheets per hour the process wasn't always so fast this original press from the late 19th century could only print certain items one at a time this is the first machine and the beginning of this company my grandfather antonio will start with this press printing some cards putting the paper here and the ink in this place floral patterns and the use of striking colors including gold are characteristic of florentine decorative paper its substantial weight makes it good for binding books creating stationery and covering boxes these items are popular with both tourists and locals alike paper is said to have originated in japan around the 12th century it came to europe during the 16th and 17th centuries and was used for important documents as a way of preventing forgeries and erasure today it's popular as a gift people are looking for something that it's handmade and it's unique it's it's just one of a kind and they can have inspiration known for you know colors or the uniqueness of a piece of paper the techniques for making decorative florentine paper may continue to evolve but the patterns remain steeped in history and tradition

Channel: DW Euromaxx

Views: 22,914

Keywords: DW, Deutsche Welle, DW Euromaxx, Euromaxx, florence, florence italy, pen and paper florentin, italy, traditional handicraft, handcrafted, handcrafted paper

Id: OJWgH0R4iTg

Length: 4min 42sec (282 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 24 2021