The Ada Beater: Improving the Quality of Handmade Paper in Ghana

Handmade paper has been around for centuries. In Asia, Europe, and other parts of the world, the means of creating handmade paper depend largely on traditional equipment and other industrial machines. In Ghana, the means of creating handmade paper is through a tedious process of hand beating the bas...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Michael Adashie, George Kushiator, Bertha Ayim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Noyam Journals 2023-10-01
Series:E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://noyam.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/EHASS202341013.pdf
Description
Summary:Handmade paper has been around for centuries. In Asia, Europe, and other parts of the world, the means of creating handmade paper depend largely on traditional equipment and other industrial machines. In Ghana, the means of creating handmade paper is through a tedious process of hand beating the bast fiber of the Kyenkyen tree. This resulted in the production of a proto-paper known as the bark cloth. This traditional method has almost become extinct with the influx of imported industrial papers. Therefore the purpose of this study was to seek a solution to this problem through the possible design and fabrication of a paper pulp-making machine daubed the Ada Beater. Thus getting vital tools for making art, print, and papermaking. The paper explored practice-based research methodology to fabricate a papermaking machine known as the Ada Beater. The results showed that the machine can be fabricated and made to produce improved papers of archival quality derived from various plant sources in Ghana. It is recommended that this homegrown know-how should be made available to artists and art teachers for the teaching and use of handmade paper for artistic purposes.
ISSN:2720-7722