Rice Paper for Oriental Brush painters, Sumi-e, artists, calligraphers and Crafters

All paper is Raw Xuan or Calligraphy Paper, if we did not say Bark, PiMade, or Sized Paper.

Make sure you read this page, before you buy any paper! A must read for anyone who wants to learn about Chinese Xuan Paper or rice paper as it is called in the west.

Learn From Someone Who Knows about Xuan Paper:
---- I am so happy to discover your wonderful AcornPlanet.com. I have been using Red Star single xuan zhi for 10 years ever since I lived in Nanjing (China) and studied shufa with Liang Zongheng. Since then I have tried many different xuan papers without finding any other paper which comes even close to the wonderful qualities of Red Star. It is simply the very best paper on earth for Chinese calligraphy. I especially like using Red Star after it has aged for some years to a subtle mellowness new paper lacks. Thank you for bringing Red Star xuan to the USA.
Thanks again for your help and for bringing exclusively high quality ink brush art supplies at fair prices to artists in USA. You guys are awesome!
Meredith, Aug 07, 2002

To privide better service, we ordered boxes that's 28 inches long for shipping our high quality paper, so you do not need to worry the paper get wrinkled in shipping and you can use the box to store the paper. It fits in 75 sheets of RedStar_D, 100 sheets of practice paper easily!

Besides top quality xuan paper and calligraphy painting paper, we also got Practice sheets with Grid & Calligraphy Characters

Learn About Genuine Xuan Paper Here --- Where is it come from:
Xuan Paper from Anhui, Jing County, is the fourth treasure of the Chinese study. As noted by the heir of the Xuan paper maker in Jing county --- Cao, Tiansheng, who had his PH.D from the Political Science Research Center at The People University in Beijing, Who was also once a historical committee member of the Chinese Paper Making Association. Since the mid of last century, numerous occasions of spies from England and Japan, fake into the villages of Jing county to learn about the secret of making Chinese Xuan paper. After these people went back to their own country, they wrote and published how the Chinese made their Xuan paper. In 1909, the Japanese even took some samples of Qing Tang tree to Japan, but the researchers cannot identify the tree, because it's not grown in Japan. After 1937, using the opportunity of invading China, the Japanese shipped some Qing Tang bushes to Japan. But the climate in Japan did not fit the tree to grow well. The paper made from the tree fiber was inferior. Later after China opened it's door, spying on the technique of making Xuan paper became much easier. But no matter how other paper makers imitated the technique, no one can make the same Xuan paper made in Jing County. This is because the minerals in the water of the Jing County springs and the climate in Jing county for growing the special tree fiber was vital for the quality of the absorbency of the paper. We are so proud that we are able to offer all the artists who loves Asia art the Xuan paper made from it's original village for thousands of years!

Hand made Rice Paper Anhui, Jinxian -- The place making paper for ink brush painting for thousands of years. Compare to machine pressed paper, these paper has super absorbancy and consistancy! Rice paper is a name used in the west. Anhui paper is not made from rice or bamboo pulp. Rather it's from the fiber of a special tree --- Qintan tree. This tree's fiber can be peeled and grow back again and again. Because of these special fiber, top quality xuan paper last forever and can be re-mounted again and again with water.

Here is a breif introduction about various paper that we carry.

Both Red Star and Wang Liuji brand distinguish themselves from others by sticking to use expensive Genuine Qintan (also called: Than trees -- Pteroceltis Tatarinowii Maxim) tree bark fiber and with enough proportion. Many makers nowadays cut down costs by cutting down the use of Qingtan material which is way much more expensive than regular grass fiber. In our new shipment, we added "Clean Bark" also called "Fine Bark " Made type Xuan Paper, these paper are Superb for ladnscape and very specialized Brush Painting and preserving, because of it's higher content of QinTan tree fiber. But "cotton made" paper does not mean it's made of cotton fiber, it's just a name to differentiate the proportion of Qintan tree bark fiber. The paper is a little bit softer. Choose what you need! Do you know Qintan tree bark grows back again and again? A magic tree for making such wonderful paper!

Red Star brand -- The best brand and most expensive.The mill for the Red Star xuan paper is the very original that has been making paper for thousand years. It's a protected brand by the Chinese government. Though expensive they sell the largest quantity. It's paper is much thicker and whiter even compare to the next best brand. A store in Japan is not considered a formal art supply store if it does not supply Red Star Brand. Red Star has a sells office stationed in Japan.

It's cost in China is 2.5 to 5 times compare to other brand xuan paper.

Wang, Liuji brand -- The next best brand. It's paper is extreamly uniform. Famous among artists in Asia since the early 50's. It's cost is 2.5 times of a regular brand xuan paper. If you cannot afford Red Star paper, use this for your professional painting. We sell this at prices cheaper than other people sell the regular brand xuan paper. For this reason we do not carry a regular brand xuan paper. For your daily practice, we carry a regular brand Shu Hua Zhi --- Calligraphy and Painting paper. To learn about Calligraphy and Painting paper, please read further.

Hand Made Professional Xuan Paper Professional artist paper. A totally different quality and price paper (about 3.6 - 4.6 times more in price within each brand) compare to calligraphy and painting paper. For art work that you will hang up or sell to others, you need the paper be very uniform and absorbs the ink the same way everywhere. Quality xuan paper is very sensitive to any of your intentions. But the main feature of xuan paper is it's ability to last for thousands of years, while calligraphy and painting paper is made to imitate the functionality of xuan paper, thus provide an economical alternative for artists to learn how to use xuan paper. For people who have not been using xuan paper for long long time, without correct labeling, it's difficult to differentiate them. Anhui, Xuan city, Jing County made paper is always stamped on the edge of the stack of 100 sheets of paper. It states the brand, edition, quality, and kind of paper. Calligraphy and painting paper is stamped so. Double xuan, single xuan, or bark xuan is stamped so. If you do not see stamping on the edge, for sure you know it's not Anhui xuan paper. Only two other places that we know sell similar genuine xuan paper. One seller has Red Star xuan paper, but sold many times of the price we sell.	Sized Xuan Paper --- Processed raw xuan paper with Reduced absorbancy to avoid bleeding. Great for Gongbi (out lined, then color filled) painting and washed background. It allows smooth bleeding. Look for a genuine professional quality WangLiujiSized item label.
	Raw Xuan Paper --- Super absorbancy, ink runs freely. Superb for Free Hand Stroke painting. When we do not indicate the paper is sized, we mean it's Raw xuan paper.	Double Xuan --- Thicker than single xuan. Ours are all Jade Edition --- superiou quality made. We have RedStarD for Red Star Brand double xuan. WangLiujiD for Wang, Liuji brand double xuan Our Red Star double xuan is actually aged xuan paper made in 1998. We offer them at less than the price of other people's regular brand price.
		Bark Made -- Little bit thiner than double xuan. But higher content of Qintan tree fiber. Paper is harder. Great for Landscape painting with washed background. Rarely provided by others. It's much more expensive than single xuan. We have RedStarB and WangLiujiB for Red Star and Wang, Liuji brand bark xuan. Our Bark Xuan is clean (fine) bark xuan, not Corse Bark xuan, also called Pi Zhi in Chinese, we will ship these next time.
		Single Xuan paper --- Thin and uniform. Great for Big free stroke painting. Red Star single xuan (RedStarS) is really a treasure!
Hand Made Calligraphy and Painting paper click to read better In Anhui paper maker town. These paper are sold not as xuan paper. Specifically labeled this way. A wonderful practice paper for anyone who is learning ink brush painting and calligraphy. Usually thicker than Single xuan paper. So it's much more forgiven! More economically made to imitate ink absorbancy, brush feel, and appearance just like xuan paper, but does not last well. So never use these for art work that you intend to sell and intend to past down to your children!	Red Star Brand --- It's Calligraphy and Painting paper is very affordable to everyone. So we provide them here for your practice and professional calligraphy! Look for RedStarC item label.
	Regular Brand --- Even it's Single calligraphy paper is much thicker than any of the machine pressed practice paper (like ppaper that we used to have and got from Zhejiang province). Great quality and price for your daily practice	Look for: SizedCali for this Regular brand sized paper for your Gongbi painting practice. Very Affordable! HSizedCali for the Semi-sized paper for your semi-gongbi painting practice.
		SingleCali Single calligraphy and painting paper for your daily practice of painting and calligraphy!
		BarkCali Bark made calligraphy and painting paper for your landscape practice, painting and calligraphy! This one is harder and more expensive than SingleCali.
		Craft Xuan paper --- We have regular brand craft xuan paper in style of Antique with Gold flecks (GoldCaliP), Water Mark xuan (WaterCaliP), Longevity Character Background (ShouCaliP), Orichid Bamboo Background paper (ZhuCaliP) for you to add variety to your painting paper.

In the old days, Jianxi Wuyuan belonged to the same prefecture as She County, Under the state name She Zhou -- where the name She ink stone (Shi inkstone) come from. Also part of Zhe Jiang province as shown in the tri-intersected area in the new devided privincial borders. If you look far back enough, you will see Jing Dezheng porcelain, then from the pocelain teapot maker migrated to Yixing, further developed into the much more prosperous Yixing zisha teapot making. These are all originated from the very distinguished Hui Zhou arts and culture.

Above it's a copy of an original map of Anhui, Zhejiang, and Jianxi province. Our friend, old customer, and a professional web designer: Judith Nermyr spent hours and hours of her vocation time, did the tedious work of removing the not so important information from the original map. Now you can see clearly where She and Jiangxi Wuyuan is and it's relative location to Hangzhou and Shanghai! Anyone who is interested to do a tour exploring the oldest art and culture of China, you can first fly to Shanghai, then fly to Tunxi (right next to the most famous Rock and Pine mountain Huangshan), there are two flights to Huangshan one in the early morning, one in the late afternoon on a daily basses. So it's very easy to get there. Make sure you visit the village of Archery --- Tangyue, you will get to see the typical Hui residents shown in the movie "Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon". Huizhou is called the "Rome of the East!", original architecture exists everywhere, though a lot of them got destroyed during the cultural revolution! You also should always visit Huangshan at the same time, the 72 natural rock peaks will make you feel the true elevation of spirituality, the scene in the movie where the male and female main character fought on the tip of the bamboo and the deep spring water pound where She dive into to fetch the magic sword sure will make you forget all the pain and struggling in the daily life! (The pain of human existance --- Ren Jian Yan Huo!)

Hear What Our Xuan Paper Users Say, Get your money's Worth! You do not need to comprise on the quality:
I tried the papers last night and I'm in heaven ! I'm a better painter and calligrapher on them ! (the paper I had before was practice paper at best). Wang luiji (single xuan) is wonderful, so smooth, so easy to control moisture on it, single red star is soooo beautiful and shows all your intentions (but shows mistakes easily too - I'm a beginner and this paper might be too good for me :-D) and Double red star is perfect for detailed work ("gong bi" is the name if I remember correctly... I MUST learn Chinese!!!!! and I WILL, trust me, it's only a matter of time.) So I'm going to order more to have a reserve and to be less afraid of making a mistake ("hey it's only one sheet, there's more where that came from).
Marie Katherine, From Rome, Italy

Letter from another Customer "your website is fantastic! since i last ordered your red star paper, you have certainly done a lot work to make your website easier to find all art supplies! i am very happy that you offer quality products that i need - but i really appreciate your reasonable prices and all of the effort you have put into explaining the history of each item."nbsp; ---------------- Bergen, Nov 22, 2002

An Introduction to Chinese Painting Conservation Technique

This also teaches you how to mount ink brush painting done on rice paper. Though it is recommended in the article to use Red Star paper as the backing paper, I know most artist cannot afford it. Pretty soon our thick mounting paper will come soon.

Besides top quality xuan paper and calligraphy painting paper, we also got Practice sheets with Grid & Calligraphy Characters

Here is a breif introduction about various paper that we carry.

Hand Made Professional Xuan Paper

Hand Made Calligraphy and Painting paper click to read better

Hand Made Calligraphy and Painting paper
click to read better