Good paper is such a blessing. I took a long-stored square of olive Vietnamese Dó paper and attempted to fold a “Temple Dragon” – got most of the way through and realised the paper was too small/thick to complete it. Rather than bin the model, I carefully unfolded it, ironed it flat and … the paper had a new life:
Folding paper can damage it – wood-fibre-based paper takes damage (I call it paper fatigue) because the folding process can break the fibres along the crease. SOME paper has strong, flexible fibres that bend but mostly do not break, and Dó paper (made from bark of the Rhamnoneuron balansae tree) is astonishingly resilient.
The colour reminded me of something, as a kid, I used to see all the time – green tree frogs. Naturally I returned to Robert Lang’s “Origami Design Secrets” and re-folded his Green Tree Frog – I no longer had in my stored folds a copy of this lovely model so figured it was time.
The fold is a good mix of complexity, accuracy, efficiency and the result requires some shaping but it is very “froggy” to start with.
I stuffed the body cavity with a little padding to plump her up, posed her (with some wire armature so she keeps her pose, but can be re-posed) and am just love with the result.
Such a lovely sequence, so happy I did not bin such a fabulous bit of paper – win win.
Interestingly, this model scared and repulsed both my Mum and Mother in Law – I have fond memories of green tree frogs as a kid, they do not apparently