WHO WE ARE

The Paper Place story begins in 2011 when Anwesha Arya decided to open a shop in her most loved town of Rye. At the time she was writing up her PhD thesis for which she had won the prestigious RSF Scholarship (the first woman to have achieved this). Anwesha wanted to do something she was passionate about. And that's where it all began. Her love of paper was honed at the age of nine, wrapping presents with the most amazing silkscreened paper for friends and family. The prints are from the varied and rich pan-Indian textile tradition. This extraordinary heritage, which she is proud of, is what she wants to see represented. Also the ethos of recycling, which she believes in. As a child she was thrilled by stationery shops, particularly one shop in Bombay where she was surrounded by beautiful hand silkscreened papers, all made from recycled cotton rags. All this came together in her mind to take the leap and open The Paper Place in Rye in 2011. This unique fine paper shop now spreads over a two-tiered high street store, showcasing textile print techniques being preserved by an Indian Arts & Crafts style community in Bombay. Our papers are displayed like the fabrics they are printed to mimic, as a tribute to the textile artisans who now work with paper and teach the next generation an endangered art form.