Back to the Roots

The creators of the Paperki handmade paper mill are Kikis and José Ramón Alejandre, a Mexican couple who returned to Josefo´s Basque roots in 1982. They built their house and workshop midst a landscape of rolling hills and 400 shades of green, outside the beautiful fishing town of Hondarribia on the French border.

The couple is uniquely qualified to create paper for artists insofar as both are not only artists themselves but also bring to their work a formidable technical background. Josefo studied industrial design and chemical engineering and worked both as a design professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico DF and in cinema production.

From a Mexican University to a Basque "Caserío"

Kikis studied graphic and textile design at the same university, where she went on to teach textile design. It was during a year's post-graduate study at Pacific University in Seattle that she fell under the spell of paper. In recent years both Kikis and Josefo have conducted courses on creative papermaking (creative in both senses: the making and the use…) in Holland and Switzerland, as well as in Spain. They are also regulars on the Spanish art fair circuit, where their stand is always a learning and social center.

Besides teaching and making paper, Kikis has found the time and energy to develop a career as an artist in her own right, with annual individual exhibits and group shows on both sides of the Atlantic. Her latest show was at the Galería KO in San Sebastian in September of this year. Her recent work can be seen on the Web at: http://www.worldprintmakers.com.

The Paperki paper workshop is an extension of the Alejandre house, where Kikis and Josefo have distilled all their art into a total creative living and work experience. Their home is an artshow in itself, from the sunken bathtub of native slate to the sculpted oak furnishings and artful incorporation of outlandish marine artefacts. The art here extends even to the kitchen where their 20-year-old son Arin, the quintessential Basque cook, lays down gastronomic law along with his superlative fresh-tuna steaks with a sautéed onion and pepper garnish.