The Origami Forum

Very different. I think kraft paper and elephanthide have almost similar weights, but elephanthide feels a lot stiffer (~2 sheets of copy paper put together). It's a lot easier to dry tension fold elephanthide than kraftpaper.

Elephanthide also feels a lot smoother than kraft paper.

Yeah I agree Elephant hide is much stiffer than kraft! Think like those stiff canson sheets.

For dry folding you'd be better off with kraft or vellum imo.

Unlike Canson, elefantenhaut has a smooth finish. The closest "normal" paper to compare it to would be parchment paper.

DavidW: I'm not sure if you mean dry folding or dry tension folding (there's a difference). For dry tension folding, I wouldn't normally use kraft or vellum. Kraft paper softens too easily with repeated folding, and vellum tends to crack. Elefantenhaut is somewhere in the between those extremes, making it a superior choice.

Well now I've stumbled upon something I didn't know about-- what's dry tension folding?

Dry tension folding is a combination of a folding method and a design paradigm. It involves designing a model in such a way that the tension of the paper, which normally makes models spring open, is harnessed to lock the model into a 3D shape. It's been around for years, but has not enjoyed the fame of sculpting with tissue foil or wet folding. Those two techniques can be applied to many different designs to give beautiful, sculptural 3D models. Because dry tension techniques involve designing the model in a way that opposing tension forces in the model hold it in a 3D shape, it cannot be applied to just any model.

I first discovered dry tension folding when I saw Herman von Goubergen's gorilla. It features a number of curved shapes that are formed by the tension of the paper. From there, I started to design dry tension models. Two models I mentioned earlier, the baby elephant and Seren's horse are both dry tension designs (and thus folded out of elefantenhaut). The person who really made people aware of dry tension folding was Leong Cheng Chit. His tension folding designs use almost no straight folds at all, relying heavily on curved creases. That, plus the fact that he likes to fold from tracing paper, gives his models a very striking appearance.

Thanks for the description. That makes sense. You know I folded a Komatsu's Rabbit that sounds like that-- tension giving it it's shape.

Michael Lafosse's "Happy good luck bat" found at http://dev.origami.com/images_pdf/luckbat.pdf is a good example of dry tension. The 3 d shape is obtained by folding only

Thanks, I'll fold it.

Brimstone wrote:Michael Lafosse's "Happy good luck bat" found at http://dev.origami.com/images_pdf/luckbat.pdf is a good example of dry tension. The 3 d shape is obtained by folding only

Except that he teaches it as a wet fold model... It has some finishing maneouvres that make the model 3D at the end, but they don't really lock into place using the paper's tension. That's why it works better as a wet fold model than as a dry fold one.

For a better idea of what a dry tension model is Herman's gorilla. It's in the same book as Michael's HGL bat: Origami USA Convention 95 Collection.

i used to hate foil but now i cant get enough of it. it is easy to shape and if folded well it looks great, but wet-folding still looks the best

I only use normal copy paper because it can be found freely everywhere, and i don't really fold for the final result but for the "folding pleasure", so i don't need any better paper.
I tried to fold a little bit with newspaper : in a way it is good because it provides a big sheet of paper, which makes small details easier, but it doesn't keep the creases, it falls and it's easily unfold.
However, i may change my opinion if I try something else.

at Micheals art stores you can buy rayon mesh paper; its sorta like a windo screen, but it holds a fold better. The advantage (and disadvantage) of rayon mesh is that the folds don't appear on the paper. For example, all of the prefolding for the kawasaki rose becomes invisible. The folds are stil there, but you can't see them. At $10.00 for 20 sheets, it isnt cheap, but it is worth the money.

Rdude

I had to vote copy paper because that's all I can get. I'm from South Africa see and above that I'm virtualy one of the only folders here so it's not really a craze here. I folded a "Dama" or Lady last night from rice paper, but that's it. (The rice paper keeps giving of fibers which gets irritating, but the finish looked very nice) I'm also more into modular origami at the moment (I'm big on math) thus copy paper works fine.

And no, importing is not an option. It's way too expensive, I'm talking 'rather buy a car' expensive. Just btw. South Africa has the lowest priced hamburgers in the world, but the most expensive cars. Comparitively of course. Go figure

Does anyone else find standard white photocopier/printer paper horrible to fold? (I think it has this really nasty limp, flaccid sort of quality; there's no crispness to the paper at all. It's also quite weak.)

The odd thing is that coloured printer paper is often fine (i.e. crisper and stronger). Is it the pigment in the paper that makes the difference, or is it something else?

I find that 80gsm white printer/copier paper is usually quite bad to fold. 90 or 100gsm is usually OK - as long as you don't expect too much of it.

As to colours, I have found that "bright" coloured printer paper is usually good to fold, while "pastel" or "soft" coloured paper is usually horrible - worse than white paper - even when they have the same brand name and, presumably, come from the same manufacturer.