I have been working with a group of students at Memphis College of Art to make this stunning paper using fresh Elephant dung.
We gather the dung, donated by the Memphis zoo in generous amounts (it's usually still warm), then wash it with a pressure hose and cook the fibers for 5 hours. Once it has been cleaned and boiled, we 'beat' it, to make the large fibers longer and thinner. We then pull sheets of paper one at a time using a mold and deckle, and the results are AWESOME!
The paper has a powerful texture, is durable, and best of all- doesn't smell bad!
Below you can see what I have done with some of it, I made a gradient from white to black, and bound it into a book. We are all now working on larger pieces of art that will be revealed later on in the year.
Local Memphis 24 just did an interview about it, check it out at the link below.
More info: localmemphis.com
