As I sat in the dark, damp room, I heard chattering voices and the shuffle of paper all around me. I looked up to watch as razor blades were exchanged for rulers and a tub of glue was being passed around with a toothbrush in it for putting the glue on the paper’s seams. The five Nepalese women I was working with were busily creasing, gluing and cutting their lokta paper. In a few short hours they had quickly picked up the ability to make several sizes of paper bags. As I taught them where to measure, cut and glue...