ENGLISH, Macedonia, travel

Timeless place

by Vesna

За македонски јазик кликнете тука.

There is a hidden place in the narrow cobbled streets that is waiting as a portal to take you on a trip through time.

Welcome to the National Workshop for Hand-made Paper.

On this trip you will be warmly welcomed by Ljupco Panevski or his son Nino and, occasionally, other members of the family.

 

The road of the hand-made paper starts from China where this procedure was invented in the II century. The first paper was made from bamboo, but due to the exhaustion of the bamboo quantities, a revolutionary discovery came to light, the production of paper from wood.

In the XII century the paper began its journey to Europe in Spain, Barcelona, then in Venice, next Dubrovnik, and finally in Ohrid, Macedonia.

In the monastery St. Naum paper was produced in the XVI century. The workshop of the family Panevski will take us back in that period of time, which are the only active practitioners of this old trade in this part of the world. Really for admiration.

Hand-made paper is completely different than the factory paper. First because of its base, which is completely natural: made of heartwood, sometimes combined with cotton and various additives for decoration, such as flowers, tobacco, herbs, spices, etc. It does not contain any chemicals, no glue, nor does it pollute the environment with wastewater. It is also different because of the way of production, love and attention that is given to every sheet of paper and the spirit and authenticity of another time.

The procedure is consisted of several steps:

  • depending on the type of the wood the heart is cut in different angles into fine particles (the color depends of the type of the wood)
  • the particles stay in water for 23-31 day , the particles tying themselves together
  • a wooden screen mesh is used to exhaust a certain amount of the solution
  • the water is dried and the paper to be is transferred to a flat surface (it can be a different material)
  • it is put under pressure to dry off the large quantities of water
  • it is being dried outdoors for 2 days
  • then pressed again to become flat

 

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The workshop contains a copy of the Gutenberg press on which the first printed book was the Bible. The original can be found in Mainz, Germany. The press, which is still in use in the workshop, is over 150 years old.

Lead types were being used for printing on paper at first. The letters were placed from right to left, one by one and, imagine, this took 1.5 hour for one page to be set. Stereotypes were made later and the procedure was accelerated.

 

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If you visit the workshop you will get explanation about the whole procedure in more details and you can even make your own piece of paper yourself.

Many tourists are visiting the workshop and they are surprised and in same time amazed by what they can find here.

Visit their website for more information, click here. Or the best you can do when visiting Ohrid is to embark on this journey trough time by visiting the workshop. It’s located next to the archaeological museum – House of Robevci.

Working hours: Monday-Saturday from 08:30 – 21:00; Sunday and winter working hours 09:00 – 16:00.

Entrance is free.

The products from paper can be bought as unique souvenirs.

If you find this post interesting just imagine how much more interesting it can be to be there and see how the paper is created in front of you.

Daily post: Inheritance

32 thoughts on “Timeless place”

  6. Hey there, I appreciate the visits, I hope you have managed to download the free kindle booklet-with details on the blog on how to pray, available for few more hours today. I would appreciate if you could you review it after you have had a read on amazon, can pass it on to friends as well. Keep up the great work!

    Liked by 2 people

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  8. We made paper with my mother when we were kids. She was an artist and pretty much would use any medium except acrylics. Paper mache, crayons, and she had an etching press, so we learned to make the zinc plate etchings….

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