How to beautifully fold paper napkins in a napkin holder?

Paper napkins appeared more than half a century ago and since then have densely settled in our lives. Different in color and structure, they not only help to keep clean, but also decorate any lunch or dinner.

In addition to their decorative function, napkins have a very important role to play in keeping hands and face clean. Therefore, no matter how beautiful the composition of paper products looks, if necessary, you need to use it. As a rule, they are combined with cloth napkins, which are laid out on your knees, while paper napkins are placed on the table in specially designed stands.

Terms of use:

• Those who do not use napkins look sloppy in the eyes of those present, so their use is mandatory.
• It is strictly forbidden to tuck them into a belt or collar. If you need to wipe your lips, you need to take one napkin, fold it in half and blot the dirt.
• They wipe the fingers while stroking; in no case should the napkin be completely unfolded or waving over the table.
• Paper products are disposable, so they cannot be reused. That is, if necessary, every time you need to get new paper.
• Used products should be crumpled and folded under the right edge of the plate, and after a meal, put on a plate along with dirty cutlery.

It is possible and necessary to use napkins not only at the moments of gala dinners. They should be on the table at any meal. Especially for this occasion, there are napkin holders that do not require effort or time to fold. You just need to open the pack, take out the napkins and arrange them as they are - in a neat stack. Some models have a holder to help them keep a clean look.

Most of the napkin holders found in everyday life are flat. They are designed for a small number of napkins, but using imagination and dexterity, you can increase their number, making it at the same time aesthetically pleasing. There are several ways to do this:

• Fan. To do this, bend each napkin diagonally to form a triangle. You will need about 15-20 such triangles, depending on the width of your napkin fixture. You can form a fan by folding the resulting figures in a pile and carefully sliding it to the side or laying them on top of each other with a slight offset (about a centimeter) so that they have a common angle. Then you should install the resulting fan in a napkin holder.

• Double-sided fan. The principle of its manufacture is the same as that of a simple one. Simply, instead of one fan, we add two and set them so that the vertices of the triangles look in different directions. If this or the previous method seems too simple for you, any flower or bow that you can make based on an origami diagram will help to revive the composition.

• Crown. One of the simple schemes, based on the same triangles folded from napkins in the amount of nine. We put three pieces at the edge with a fold inward and add three to the center. You can take more, the main condition is the symmetry of the teeth.
• If the napkin holder itself is decorative, you can simply fill it with diagonally folded napkins. For example, in the form sails.
• Bird. The napkin must be folded diagonally, before that, bending inward two opposite corners. Do not completely lay the resulting blanks into each other. Another one needs to be folded in a strip about a centimeter wide, starting from the corner and form a head. It is better to use paper products of different colors to make the bird look more elegant.

There are many napkin holders. Surely everyone has seen a form that came from the Soviet era called "leaf", where napkins are stacked on top of each other, taking the shape of a cone. In modern design, they can look completely different, for example, like a book or a dancing girl.

It happens that things that are needed at the moment break or they simply do not exist. In this case, do not be upset, since other utensils can be used as a napkin holder.

In a plastic or glass cup or other round, low container with a wide neck, napkins can be folded as follows:

• By folding them in the shape of a cone or horn in layers. The free corner of each subsequent layer can be combined with the previous one or shifted to the side to make it easier to grasp it.
• Narrow the cones and place them next to each other.

• Napkins can be expanded in one layer so that you get one large square. Then they should be tightly rolled along one side and installed in a container next to each other. The number should correspond to the width of the glass or cup so that it stands level and does not fall. If the resulting tubes seem too long for you, they should be folded in half when folded and installed in this state.
• The tubes will become more interesting if you roll up the unfolded paper surface, starting from the corner. Then it will resemble a candle. It can be put personally in a glass or a narrow glass.
• Make a fan or a peacock out of them. For a fan, you need to fold the straightened canvas like an accordion, bend it in half and place it in a glass. The same blank can be a peacock's tail. For his neck and head, you need to fold two corners to the middle so that you get a rhombus. Fold the sides out of the corner in half again and tuck in the outer corner.Fold in half lengthwise and bend your head. Attach to the tail.

If you have a small square bowl, use that. For this, the napkin is folded in half. The workpieces stacked on top of each other with a height equal to the width of the container are inserted into the bowl so that they hang over the edge in a cascade. If you divide them into two parts, you get a pretty fountain.

A saucer or vase with rosebuds will become a real decoration of the table. To create them, you need to follow the instructions step by step:

• Spread out the napkin in one layer and fold it diagonally.
• From the place of the fold, wrap it once or twice at your discretion, so that there is material left to form the leg.
• The bent strip will be a bud, you need to roll it up, and twist the rest to make a stem.
• The top of the bud must be slightly straightened, giving the shape of the flower.
• The resulting roses should be placed in a suitable container. You can make leaves from green napkins, but even without them, the flowers look impressive.

As you can see, there is nothing difficult in laying napkins. Several tips can help in this matter:

• It takes time to complete even the simplest composition. This must be taken into account when setting the table. Preliminary training will facilitate the process.
• All items on the table must match. If you can't pick a color, stick with white as it goes with everything.
• Since other people will use the napkins, all manipulations must be done with well-washed, dry hands.
• Napkin holders and other utensils must be clean and dry.
• If something did not work out correctly and had to be redone several times, it is better to get rid of the product, since the paper quickly loses its neatness.
• Napkins should be easy to remove. For this reason, do not stuff them too tightly, because when you take out one, the others will fall out.
• To avoid awkward situations, the container for napkins should be in close proximity to the person. When installing them, they usually count on one copy for four people.

See below for a master class on beautifully folding napkins.