Available test kits
Request one of our free evaluation kit below (postal charges may apply outside north america)
Are you a letterpress enthusiast? Would you like to see the result of your talent printed on a top-quality support that stands out at first sight? Surely you feel the need of a medium different from the usual mass-produced paper, a support enhancing the quality of the sophisticated deep-printing process.
Are you an painter or graphic artist in search of an impact-enhancing support for your work? Have you experienced that truly handmade paper has almost disappeared and, correspondingly, the few products one can possibly find are extremely expensive?
Now this situation has changed: at the National Stationery Show in NYC, 2017 we introduced our range of artist paper and special paper for letterpress entirely handmade with the same process employed by the 13th century Italian craftsmen. This has been made possible thanks to a charitable undertaking by a group of Italian businessmen and engineers who have established a small paper mill – Papelera Don Bosco – in Nuevo Chimbote, Peru. A well-known Italian craftsman, who used to supervise the production of the famous “Fabriano Esportazione” paper along many years, has trained the workers and contributed to set up the production process.
We have available a letterpress paper evaluation kit including an announcement-size sample, its companion envelope, and two business-card-size samples, or an artist paper sample collection.
Letterpress enthusiasts will be able to appreciate the extraordinary properties of our special paper: the naturally rough surface, pleasant to the touch and perfectly suitable for letterpress printing, the sheet high thickness that allows a very deep printing, and the natural color imparted by Pima and Tanguiz high-quality cotton, the sole raw material we utilize.
Artists will be able to evaluate our watercolor paper, made of high-quality Peruvian cotton only and available with different grammage and with rough or smooth surface at choice. Paper produced by Papelera Don Bosco is accompanied by an authenticity certificate, is 100% made of natural cotton which has undergone a washing process only, has a neutral Ph, 5% sizing and a natural color given by cotton without chemical whitening additives. The traditional hand manufacturing process with mold and deckle creates paper sheets with four natural frayed edges, a much-sought-after feature artists truly appreciate.
The paper mill products are all “Italian-style” and high-quality. The product range includes paper for announcements and personal stationery, artist paper, and scrapbooking paper. All products are handmade and are well known in Italy and Peru. A specialized department produces watermarks and customized watermarked paper, even in small quantities, including watermarked wedding announcement showing the couple’s initials (a patented process). Nowadays the product range has been enlarged by the addition of special letterpress paper.
We would like to point out that, even being entirely handmade, our paper is very reasonably priced. There are two reasons for this: the paper mill, including the building and the entire equipment, has been entirely donated by Italian benefactors and, in top of that, labor cost is low, even though the salaries we offer exceed legal requirements and local standards.
Papelera Don Bosco is one of the co-operative associations pertaining to Operazione Mato Grosso, a Charity aiming at relieving people in the Andes region by creating job opportunities. The co-operative associations produce furniture, glass and church ornaments, knitwear, decorative objects, and stone works.
Please check also our introductory video about our process and some our other products (watermarks, scrapbooking supplies, wedding products and stationery):
