Make your own elephant paper
At Prague Zoo’s Elephant Paper Workshop, you can try your hand at making your own elephant paper using traditional techniques—including pulling the paper with a mould and deckle, and drying and pressing the sheet. It will make a unique present as well as a wonderful keepsake from your visit to the zoo.
Photo: Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo
Making the elephant paper
Handmade paper can be created from a wide range of raw materials—including elephant dung, or more precisely, the fiber it contains. Elephants digest less than a half of what they eat; the rest finds its way out through their dung, which is rich in fibre. This fibre can serve as a base material for handmade paper. The production of elephant dung paper has a long tradition in Sri Lanka. This unconventional material, with its peculiar texture, is used to make small gift items such as writing paper with envelopes or bookmarks.
At Prague Zoo, the base ingredient for elephant paper is dung from our own elephants. It is mixed with water and boiled for several hours. The boiled and disinfected mixture is then sent to the Handmade Paper Mill in Velké Losiny—one of the oldest continuously operating handmade paper mills in Europe, established in the late 16th century and protected as national cultural heritage of the Czech Republic. There, it is processed into dry paper granules—the starting material used in our paper-making workshops. Don’t worry—you won’t be handling any dung directly!
In the zoo’s Elephant Paper Workshop, the dry paper granules are soaked and turned into a pulp, from which you can create your own sheet of paper using traditional techniques. The finished sheet can be decorated in a variety of creative ways. Add some dried flowers, shape your paper into an elephant, or design something unique using sprinkled spices. There are no limits to your imagination. You can even create an original scrapbook or print some of our linocut designs!
Directly at the Elephant Paper Workshop, you can also purchase exclusive products made especially for Prague Zoo by the Velké Losiny Handmade Paper Mill. Additionally, there is an “Elephant Paper for Home” creative set available—a pack of granules with instructions that allows you to make your own sheet of elephant paper in the comfort of your home.
The Prague Zoo’s Elephant Paper Workshop runs from March to October.
Experience programme “Make Your Own Elephant Paper”
A hands-on introduction to the techniques involved in making elephant paper, with the opportunity to create and take home your own handmade sheet.
Price: CZK 100/person
Duration: 45 minutes
Frequency: held daily from April to September; depending on the weather in March and October
Booking: not required for individuals or smaller groups (five or fewer people); required for larger groups—book by emailing spejchalova@zoopraha.cz
Workshop “From Dung to Paper”
A more in-depth exploration of the process of making elephant dung paper. During this two-hour workshop led by an experienced instructor, you will not only make a unique souvenir—a handmade sheet of elephant paper—but you will also decorate it using various artistic techniques and learn a lot about the history and production of handmade paper.
Price: CZK 300/person
Duration: 120 minutes
Capacity: 4–10 participants
Frequency: held once a month
Booking: required at least 5 days in advance—book via the Prague Zoo e-shop
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