Indie Handmade is a unique paper, and totally unlike anything else we offer in The Printery. Each sheet is individually made by hand from 100% cotton rags.
What makes Indie special, different?
Cotton
Paper made with wood pulp disintegrates when wet, cotton rag paper does not. Cotton paper is also superior in strength and durability.
Recycled
The paper factory is purposefully located right in the heart of the textile production area in north-western India and employs paper makers from villages nearby. The cotton rag for the pulp is sourced from textile scraps which are collected from the nearby textile mills.
Lily White
Our Indie Handmade Lily White colour has a whiteness rarely seen in handmade cotton paper and is dependent upon the quality of the rag and fibre used. The Lily White colour is created using quality white hosiery cotton used in making vests, Tshirts and singlets.
How it's made
Rags into pulp
The rags and fibre are added to a giant vat where sizing and water are added. It's chopped, beaten and mixed then lifted out of the vat with the help of a silk screen the size of each individual sheet. The thickness of the paper is determined by the quantity of the pulp that remains on the screen and the screen is made according to the gsm.
Squeeze and dry
Once lifted, the paper sheet is then put into a press so all the excess water can be squeezed out. The sheets are then separated and hung out to dry before being packed and shipped.
What makes printing on Indie different?
Natural edge
Indie Handmade has a natural deckle rather than a straight edge. This look adds to the uniqueness of each hand-made sheet.
This unique paper comes with many idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies. We always try to use pieces with as few as blemishes as possible to print on... but remember that Indie's imperfections are part of the stock's charm!
Please avoid designs with lines and borders it will make any skewing of your design during the print process more obvious.
For all printing processes on Indie, all artwork and design elements must be at least 10mm (1cm) from the edge of the sheet and therefore we can't print full bleed.
Due to the handmade nature of the paper, Indie Handmade sizes are approximate and vary slightly piece to piece and batch to batch.
Please note we cannot score Indie Handmade as the deckled edges means it won't feed through our machine. If you wish to score it yourself you can do so with a bone scorer or similar.
Digital printing
For CMYK digital printing the uneven deckle edge requires hand-feeding each individual sheet into a specialist printer. Because there's no straight edge or perfect right angles the printed result won't be perfectly straight and the position of your design will vary slightly from piece to piece.
When designing for printing on Indie Handmade stock we suggest steering clear of large areas of flat colour, especially in light or pastel colours, as it is almost impossible to achieve a nice flat, uniform colour due to the highly textured nature of the stock.
Please note that Digital Gold, Silver or Metallic Colours (DGSM) isn't available on Indie Handmade.
Letterpress printing
Being 300gsm and made of soft cotton rag, Indie Handmade is perfect for letterpress printing, offering great ink coverage and a deep impression.
Hot Foil
Due to the uneven texture of handmade paper, there's some variance between Hot Foiled pieces to ensure the foil gets into those 'pits'. Very fine and small type is not recommended as there may be some patchiness and bleed of the foil causing legibility issues.
How do I set up my artwork for printing on Indie Handmade?
Printing at home
Home laser printing
All printers are different, however it's unlikely your home laser printer can print onto Indie Handmade due to the gsm or thickness and texture of the paper. But you can only try...
Home inkjet printing
Due to the way an inkjet printer gets the ink onto a sheet you can usually get amazing results. It depends on the ink the machine itself uses... some may bleed more than others. Always use the highest quality setting and always test!
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