Su Ho Paper Museum + handmade paper shop

I stopped into the Su Ho Paper Museum today, just east of the Songjiang/Chang'An intersection (buses 642, 643, 280, 222 and several others go there), and the paper shop a little farther east of that - the Chang Chuen Ever Prosperous Group, which sounds so stereotypically Chinese that it makes me smile. The purpose was to buy paper for making homemade cards that I love to create for friends and family, and to get ideas for our funky, low-cost DIY wedding invitations. I love working with paper so whatever we choose not to use for the invitations will eventually be used in cards or other works of art.

Some of what I bought, with strips of the larger sheets for ease of experimenting:

The blue and purple Nepalese block print came from a larger sheet purchased at the museum (NT120 or 180, I forget) and the rest came from Ever Prosperous. Opinions on which ones would make the best decorative paper for invitations - think "funky and fun", NOT "Wedding" - are welcome! We have no color schemes because we agree that a 'color scheme' is ridiculous for what is basically a big party, but you can see that I prefer dark, rich colors. Brendan has no opinion but generally likes my taste.

The Su Ho museum, well-decorated but in an ugly storefront, is worth a visit if you also plan to make paper, but if you're just coming to poke around, the NT100 admission is a bit steep (NT180 for admission and papermaking). They do have a shop stocking gorgeous, high-quality papers that are also artistic, but the Ever Prosperous store a few doors down has a much larger selection. If you are in the market for handmade paper in general it's worth checking out both so you can see all of what's available.

Some photos from the Su Ho museum, which I took before I realized that photography is prohibited (oops, but at least I didn't use flash):

Paper...things...displayed artistically.

From an exhibit of black ink drawings of creepy stuff on handmade thick paper. It has a very Edward Gory-esque name, which fits the photos as you can see. It's running through September 21.

This sculpture of a woman is made entirely out of paper - her face, headdress and clothes. Cool!