To Contact:
This artisan’s page is part of the Feria Maestros del Arte website, a non-profit organization providing a yearly venue for Mexican folk artisans to come together to sell their work. If you wish to purchase the artisan's work other than at the Feria, you MUST contact them directly.

Arte Papel Vista Hermosa SC de RL de CV
Soldedad S/N
Barrio Vista Hermosa
San Agustín Etla
Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca
951 521-2394

El Taller Arte Papel Oaxaca was begun in 1998, in San Agustín, Etla, Oaxaca and is housed in a refurbished hydroelectric plant, Hidroeléctrica La Soledad, that once provided Oaxaca's electricity. The stately stucco and brick building overlooks a valley of rolling hills and unexcavated ruins.

Inside, young men stir vats full of murky gray pulp. They explain that they use native bark, plants, flowers, cotton, hemp, silk, linen, berries and even bits of shiny mica — all renewable resources. The sludgy substance will be drained, pressed, and dried on framed screens into textured sheets of paper in subtle hues of pink, beige, yellow and white. Artists buy this paper for painting and drawing. Photographers are experimenting with printing processes. I buy several blank page journals, which to me, are works of art in themselves.

Francisco Toledo, a well-known Mexican painter, was founder of the cooperative, teaching locals how to make handmade paper free of contaminants They use the natural fibers of Chichicastle, agave, Majahua, white cotton, cotton Coyuche, the cotton kapok tree and lion's paw.

Paper products made are notebooks, cards, bags, envelopes, boxes, origami (paper figures), jewelry and paper kites. In order to make their products available to the consumer, they offer a diverse number of products such as a variety of notebooks in different sizes and prices. The cooperative also makes paper jewelry: bracelets, necklaces, and bracelets featuring original designs.

The workshop is working toward becomming a self-sustaining business where surplus money is invested in reforestation, nurseries, cultural and educational programs for the community.

The cooperative has a blog that tells more about their work.