All About Origami Paper

The only working base you need to create stylish origami is good paper. It is not surprising that this type of decorative creativity has become so popular in many countries of the world - this hobby does not require large investments. One has only to take into account that specific requirements are imposed on origami craft paper.

A special type of paper base for creating origami, which is often called "kami" ("paper" in Japanese) by experienced craftsmen, will differ from the usual paper sheet in that it is sold immediately in the form of ready-made squares. Its dimensions on different sides can vary from 2.5 cm to 25 cm and even more. Usually, on the one hand, such a paper sheet is snow-white, and on the other, it is colored, but there can also be two-color types, as well as for lovers of unusual ornament - leaves with patterns.

Most often, to create origami, square-shaped sheets of special paper are used, but sheets of other formats can also be used in the work. For example, sheets in the form of a rectangle, triangles, pentagons, hexagons and octagons, and even circles.

In Japan, a type of special paper called washi is chosen as the most popular origami material for working on origami. Washi is much tougher than ordinary wood-based paper and is used in various traditional arts.

There are professionals who can easily fold origami from fabric and other materials for clothing, from tortilla cakes. They calmly work with leaves from seaweed, a special type of dough, various polymer materials and make figures even from thin sheets of metal or gold. But the most popular and widely available materials for creating origami for the average layman are still certain types of paper.

• Office... For those who have just begun to study the difficult art of creating creative figures, ordinary A4 sheets from the office are perfect. The limitation may be only in its size, and it is also necessary to choose a color - the product can be painted in any tone with ordinary pencils, or at the end of the work, draw the face of the animal.

• Writing... Folding the simplest airplanes or boats from ordinary notebook sheets is a classic of Soviet school art. Such material is widely available and inexpensive. The downside is that the usual checkered or ruled markings cannot be removed only if they are carefully painted over. You can take 2 leaves by tearing them out of the notebook, but there will be holes from paper clips and a fold, which will look ugly.

• Magazine and newspaper. This material does not require any large costs from the master. Newspaper products appear in our mailboxes these days completely free of charge. If the master's attempt to make a neat figure was unsuccessful, then such a model is not at all a pity to just throw it away and start creating origami again.

• Colored... Too loose material that can only be used if there are no other options. Experts do not advise choosing one-sided glossy sheets - after 3-4 folds, the sheet will begin to exfoliate, the paint will simply crumble from it. You should also not choose cardboard for work - it is too dense for work, it will not be possible to create the smallest details.

• Foil... She attracts many masters with a bright iridescent brilliance. It is extremely easy to work with this material if the figurine has few folds. The material is extremely malleable in work and at the same time can easily tear and "remember" any fold for a long time. Foil is often chosen along with craft or parchment. In this case, the figures come out very creative, since the materials can mutually smooth out the minuses of each other.

• Wrap base... Craft base is usually sold only in brown colors. Sometimes there is a drawing on the sheets. It is extremely difficult to create origami with a thick craft, but the products themselves will look creative. It is convenient and quick to fold simple origami from thin sheets of craft.

• Among the types of wraparound materials such as crepe can often be seen. To create origami, it is best to choose a crepe in a rigid shape. It is also called crinkled or crepe paper. The material has an interesting texture, it is very convenient to work with, it is able to withstand multiple folds, the layers will not part.

• Tracing paper or parchment. This kind of material is only suitable for very experienced origami craftsmen. The tracing paper disgustingly holds the folds, often simply disperses in the hands - the craftsmen note that you need to learn how to work with it patiently. The most commonly available option in this category is specialty baking paper.

• Money... There is a whole separate art called "manigami" - this is the folding of small neat figures from various denominations. For creativity, bills with a denomination of 10 to 100 rubles or 1 dollar are usually chosen. If you really need to present money and at the same time do it as creatively as possible, you can easily create an ordinary craft from a large bill.After this kind of figure, you can safely unfold and apply the bill for its intended purpose.

• Napkins... Origami from this base is most often made in order to beautifully set tables. In this case, paper and woven products are used. Back in the 18th century, a special school was created in Europe, where future butlers were taught to carefully fold various interesting figures from different napkins. Paper napkins, by the way, are one of the most capricious - they will very badly keep the given shape, they absolutely cannot "remember" their folds, they often break. For this reason, you still need to be able to find a special approach to such capricious material.

• Metallized... Its monochromatic iridescent color will appeal to many beginners. For most not the most complex and medium-level origami models, such material is quite suitable.

• Special origami paper. Special paper for origami craft is small squares. Their colors can be absolutely any, the same from 2 sides or different. Such paper will perfectly keep the given shape, it will fold very easily, while it differs from other popular materials in its smoothness and distinctive strength.

It would seem that origami masters should mainly work with special paper, but very often they take a step away from traditional options and actively use other (let's say, cheap) materials.

For example, many craftsmen actively use tracing paper - however, in order to start making unusual figures, you will have to fill your hand when working with such material and learn how to use it correctly.

Office paper is perfect for creating "drafts" of the origami model. This version of the material is especially recommended for beginners.

Newsprint or magazine paper is very difficult to fold, and therefore crafting origami from this material by craftsmen is often viewed as pampering.

Wrapping paper also requires skill to work with. - many craftsmen get very interesting versions of figures, however, it is believed that this type of paper is too dense and the layers of the product will all the time disperse.

Thus, if you carefully familiarize yourself with the characteristics of all available materials, you can come to the conclusion that you need it is special paper - it is designed for folding and preserving all lines and layers, it looks much neater than other options and will allow you to learn how to make very interesting figures much faster.

Before you go shopping for special origami paper, you need to think carefully about a few important questions. For example, for what purpose do you need this paper. It's one thing if you are an experienced craftsman and already know how to work with any materials, and another thing if you are a beginner craftsman and just want to learn how to fold paper figures.

If at first you prefer to fold the rough versions of the figures, where all the folds will be visible, loose office paper or a regular sheet from a student's notebook will help you.

Also, you should immediately decide whether your figurine will be one-color or you want to get a product of two colors. When purchasing special origami paper, you should pay attention to the fact that it may differ in color variations.

Many are trying to save money, believing that special origami paper can be safely replaced with ordinary colored paper. In fact, this is far from the case.Special paper will hold its shape for years and all those multi-layered folds and complex folds that you made on it. No other cheap material can boast of such characteristics.