Eco-Friendly Ganeshotsav : Papermache Bappa Initiative To be Held in Pune

Pune Handmade Papers in association with Art Pune Foundation presents ‘Paint your own Papermâché Bappa’ a special initiative to celebrate eco-friendly Ganeshotsav

Pune, 6th September 23: What better way to celebrate an environment-friendly Ganeshotsav than painting your own ‘Papermâché Bappa’ and making a difference at the same time? Every ‘Papermâché Bappa’ you paint gives an opportunity to an underprivileged child to paint an idol and take one home.

With the advent of the ‘Ganesh Chaturthi’, euphoria sets into everyone’s home to bring in the Elephant God with great pomp and show. It is a festival of bonding, togetherness, and gratitude towards humanity. More Importantly, the Ganesh festival is a time to share joy in whatever way possible and celebrate with the sensibility of being grateful to our environment.

Over the years, there has been a lot of awareness about being environmentally conscious and people are shifting from POP Ganpati Idols to the ones made with Shadu mati. Shadu mati is an eco-friendly option, but what has been observed by environmentalists over the years is that Shadu mati settles on river beds blocking the breathability of the river bed.

– Pune Handmade Papers collaborates with PMC to take “Paint your own Papermâché Bappa’ to 30 municipal schools. 3000 students get to paint and take their Bappa home free of cost

“Our ‘Papermâché Bappa’ is a perfect solution to this as it dissolves in water faster and even the paints we use are organic water soluble ones making it the best environmentally sustainable option”, said Shobhana Hadap, Principal Designer of  Pune Handmade Papers

Adding further she said, “With this thought itself, Handmade Paper Institute’s production unit, popularly known as Pune Handmade Papers, has successfully redefined the concept of eco-friendly Ganesh idols with the Paper Mache creations over the last 2 years.”

These idols are crafted with the help of experienced local artisans who have worked on Ganesh Idol molding for years. The Papermâché Bappa’ is made up of 80% cotton paper pulp, 20 percent Shaadu Maati, and a small portion of natural clay. The paper pulp used is tree-free and made from recycled cotton rags, which can be further recycled after immersion. The idols are lightweight, less fragile, and easy to paint on with non-toxic water-based colors making them the preferred choice of many environmentally conscious citizens.

Taking the initiative further this year, Pune Handmade Papers along with Art Foundation Pune is organizing workshops on painting ‘Papermâché Bappa’. This year the initiative also focuses on spreading joy to deprived children and so with every registration done, one disadvantaged child gets to paint and take home a ‘Papermâché Bappa’. Corporates register these workshops under a CSR activity.

The workshops are open to all through pre-registrations with on-the-spot registrations subject to availability. Individual registrations are at Rs.899/- while group bookings for Corporate CSR are at Rs999/- per person. The workshops will be held at Pune Handmade Papers -Shivajinagar till 16th Sept 2023 daily from 3 pm to 6 pm. The participants will get to learn from expert artists from the Art Pune Foundation.

The initiative being done along with PMC will cover 30 corporation schools giving an opportunity to over 3000 children to paint and take home their ‘Papermâché Bappa’ absolutely free.

Apart from this mega initiative, the Pune Handmade Papers store will be open daily for the booking of traditional Pen Shaadu Maati and bigger colored Papermâché Ganpati idols.