Ukkalo began with a simple question:-
What if waste wasn’t the end of a material, but the beginning of a story?
At our Waste Innovation Centre, we handle everything people throw “away.” Cardboard, egg-cartons, and half-used notebooks were landing in our recovery unit, waiting for a second life.
Ukkalo is that second life.
Meaning ‘upwards’ in our native Nepali language, it reflects our mission to divert waste from landfills and onwards into new, loving hands.
Ukkalo is our handmade paper project that turns discarded paper fibres and natural dyes from the hills into new journals and notebooks. Every product holds the touch of our innovation workers, the patience of air-drying, and the impressions of local flora.
Paper scraps from our very own waste segregation unit. Cleaned, sorted, de-stapled.
Soaked and pulped, sometimes blended with lokta and other plant fibres for strength.
Natural pigments extracted from what grows around us: Banmara (Eupatorium), Turmeric, Onion peel, Marigold, Harda/Myrobalan, Dhokre and our herbal “Mojito” green shade.
Sheets are lifted by hand on frames, pressed, and air-dried in shade for better colour retention.
Cut, stitched, bound into notebooks and journals. No two batches look the same.
Natural dyes make paper feel alive.
They are biodegradable, non-toxic, rooted in local abundance, regenerated from kitchen waste, and rich in variation.
The colour depends on the season, the leaf, the water, and the fire.
That unpredictability is part of Ukkalo’s charm.
We’ve also been studying what happens when leaves touch paper directly. Not as dye, but as an eco-print.
Handmade, naturally coloured, available in:-
• White pages with Turmeric, Dhokre, or Mojito covers
• Brown pages with Turmeric, Dhokre, or Mojito covers
A5 & A4 Notebooks
Handmade, naturally coloured, available in:-
• White pages with Turmeric, Dhokre, or Mojito covers
• Brown pages with Turmeric, Dhokre, or Mojito covers
Bamboo Diaries
15 × 15 cm square diaries with:-
• White handmade inner pages
• A bamboo spine
• Naturally dyed, one-of-a-kind covers
• A screen-printing setup for covers
• Unique eco-printed notebook editions
• An expanded library of natural dye shades
• Artist collaborations
• A growing Himalayan paper archive
The Ukkalo studio is also a classroom. Visitors, students, and volunteers learn:-
• how colours form
• how fibres behave
• how waste can be reimagined
• how craft, ecology, and circular systems intersect
It is an ongoing conversation between mother nature, materials, and hands.
A deeper journey into natural living: permaculture, composting, bio-enzymes, bamboo craft, and paper processes. These workshops open the studio to anyone curious about material cycles, regenerative craft, and working with their hands.
Learn how to turn waste into art through natural colour extraction, hand papermaking, and diary creation.
See the Ukkalo studio at the TIEEDI Forest Garden, Darjeeling. To plan a visit, custom order, or collaboration, reach us through the contact form on tieedi.in.
