paper

Hand Made

| wonko

One of many goals, long term, is for me to make and fold my own paper. By “make paper” I mean collect, process and form sheets from pulp. I clarify because one school of thought around “making paper” is laminating or treating existing sheets – I do that also, but yeah, there is a distinction.

I attended a workshop out back of Gympie with Dion Chandler, using my newly acquired mold and deckle, and pulled (get the lingo šŸ˜› ) A3 sheets – by the end I got pretty consistent at it but need more practice.

I ended up making A3, A4 and a smaller “letter” size”, love the deckle edges and the structure of the sheets. I have also Methyl Cellulosed some and, so long as I apply the MC to the paper (and not the glass I am sticking it to) then the sheets come away crisp and sturdily hold folds crisply as well.

That workshop we were pulling from a vat that started mostly with cotton pulp, and gradually had recycled kozo (mulberry) to it – quite a resilient mix. the resultant sheets are precious and wonderful.

Continue reading →

Paper – Happy Folding

| wonko

I have long admired Sara Adams at Happy FoldingĀ as an inspirational folder and teacher.

Recently, she had a compentition (well, 5 in fact to celebrate 50k subscribers to her video channel), I entered and won – yay!

I recently received, by mail, all the way from Germany, a paper pack with some lovely papers to try

Much energetic folding will result from this gift, including a chance to try elephant hide, washi-deluxe and many more. Thank you Sara, you have made another Happyfolder šŸ˜›

Double Tissue

| wonko

Flushed with the success of MC on Ricepaper, I decided to try “Double Tissue” – a fine crisp strong medium that many origamists rave over.

I found some bargain animal-print tissue whilst looking on a whim in a “Crazy Clarks” wrapping section ($1.50 for 10 sheets 50x70cm), then went to the newsagent and purchased a packet of “Hallmark” brand tissue ($2 for 3 sheets 50x70cm) – both ends of the tissue paper spectrum I guessed. Continue reading →

Paper

| wonko

I have, of late, been exploring different papers and decided some nice paper was in order. Ā Needing to get out of the house for a while (unfortunately from the cool aircon to the blistering heatwave), I bussed into the city then walked to an art supplies shop in The Valley called “Oxylades” but am always on the lookout for other local suppliers – sadly there seems little demand for it here so far.

They have an interesting collection of art papers – some beautiful light weight textured papers that would be amazing to work with – most much heavier than 180GSM, most lovely but brittle art papers suitable for painting and drawing on. They have a large collection of hand-made mulberry but it is card stock and would not take folds well.

I headed to their racks of specialist papers and drooled at the Unryu tissues they stock – suck lovely things, fibres visible, thin and strong – decided on a black/grey and a lime green. I also bought a sheet of “natural fibre” paper made from banana and flax – very beautiful and lumpy but should prove interesting.

On arriving home, a parcel from The Origami Shop had been delivered and was baking on our front porch. retreating to the cooler interiors, I broke into the package to discover my VOG (paper made popular by the Vietnamese Origami Group – VOG, you see) paper had arrived.

Huge sheets (folded into quarters for transport) of textured, colourful gloriousness – cannot wait to fold that let me tell you.

I alsoĀ purchasedĀ a couple more “envelopeners” – fantastic little accurate crease splitters – you fold paper then run this little gadget along the crease and the sheet is split precisely on the crease, no more scissors – yay.

Fab day, all be it hot and a long walk, but worth it. I now have a fair selection of specialist papers – you really can tell the difference when working with good paper but I still really like brown Kraft paper also to prototype/practise complex folds on as it is strong, thin and cheap as chips – I wish I could say the same for the papers I acquired today.