The Barichara Paper Workshop in Barichara, Colombia

Around the turn of the millennium Mexican artist Juan Manuel de la Rosa led a workshop with one goal: to create paper out of natural fibres. That process eventually led to an art exhibition and, in 2001, a permanent workshop in the small colonial town of Barichara. The artisans started by making paper out of the local fique fibre, but later branched out into using fibres from a variety of plants such as pineapple, aloe vera and papyrus, among others. The workshop, now housed in the former warehouse of the Colombian Tabaco Company, employs nine local women and includes the garden from which they harvest their fibres and plant dies, an art gallery, and a shop. Visitors touring the facility are given the chance to take part in the paper making process. Besides paper, books, and art the workshop sells everything from jewellery and lamps to toy animals and mobiles, all made from their own paper.