WellPaper

A women's craft enterprise started after the 2004 tsunami - the name stands for Women's Empowerment through Local Livelihood - where yesterday's newspapers are rolled into tight paper rods and coiled into baskets, bowls, coasters, jewellery and papier-mache figures. The workshop in Kottakarai village is open Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm: you can watch the rolling and coiling, buy straight from the table, or book a three-hour introductory class covering basket weaving from rolled newspaper, bowl coiling and papier-mache. The women trained here now run the trainings themselves.

Newsprint coiled into something you would actually keep, by the women who trained each other