“Rice paper” seems to be a general term used online for Chinese painting and calligraphy paper, but it can be hard to tell exactly what it is for CBP purposes.
Hand-made Chinese paper comes in sheets, based on a Chinese “foot” of about 33 cm. The most usual size is “four-foot”, about 138 x 68 cm.
Machine-made paper may come in rolls; rolls may vary in width.
Papers used for painting include:
“Grass” paper (buff-coloured practice paper, 草宣 cao xuan) is made from bamboo fibre. There are different qualities of practice paper.
Notes on Xuan paper. Xuan paper (宣紙 xuanzhi) is made from green sandalwood bark; it can be sized (“cooked”), semi-sized or unsized (“raw”). Xuan is thin and delicate. Raw xuan is very absorbent. Raw xuan comes in rolls (machine-made) or large sheets.
Bark paper ( 温州皮纸 wenzhou pizhi) is made from the the bark of the Paper Mulberry tree. Machine-made bark paper comes in rolls. Making mulberry paper.
Moon Palace is a smooth white Japanese paper which comes in rolls. it is slightly less absorbent than raw xuan.
Tips from teachers:
- CBPS Teacher Marion Dearlove uses this pack of paper for students: “It is slightly sized but works well for beginners. Good sized sheets can be split into 2 squares for simple practice or used whole for real work.” CBP Group Rep Sharon W : I used this one for a Calligraphy course I did a couple of years ago with the Chopsticks Club and as recommended by them. I found it a really good and quite kind practice paper especially for the Calligraphy. As it’s white the black ink shows up better than on yellowy grass paper.” (100 Sheets, 34cm x 70cm, “semi-treated” ie semi-sized).
- CBPS Teacher Peta Allingham: packs of raw Xuan paper (40 sheets, 35cm x 50cm).
- CBPS Teacher Angela Reich “I was looking for a source of “grass paper” for student practice. So I decided to try this one:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/
listing/398257319/bamboo- fiber-paper-roll-for-chinese, Roll price £40.20, plus delivery charge = total £67.93 ! Unfortunately the supplier marked the parcel as GIFT, which meant I had to pay VAT 10.50 plus handling fee £8 ! Govt rules: You will not have to pay anything to the delivery company to receive goods worth less than £135 unless they’re gifts over £39 or excise goods (for example, alcohol and tobacco).So paper worked out at about 87p/m. It does not run, and had smooth & rough sides. - Chinese online company Temu do a range of materials. It can be quite hard to find what you want. These items may be suitable: raw xuan sheets, semi-sized xuan roll, semi-sized xuan sheets, semi-sized xuan sheets, unusual thin paper roll, mulberry paper, practice paper roll, practice paper roll, practice paper roll, patterned paper roll
Oriental Arts has a wide range of good hand-made paper in large sheets. Contact Louisa Yuen to discuss what you need: info@orientalartsbrighton.co.uk