The Origami Forum

i just got a new modular origami book. u know the stacker type origami like a bunch of these v looking things that u can make pretty much anything with. well i don't like cutting paper... and i need non square pieces of paper; so anyone have any ideas on how to get paper that is by set specifications that are accurate and bulk?

Grimatoma wrote:i just got a new modular origami book. u know the stacker type origami like a bunch of these v looking things that u can make pretty much anything with. well i dont like cutting paper... and i need non square peices of paper; so anyone have any ideas on how to get paper that is by set specifcations that are accurate and bulk?

1. Please use proper English. It's one of the forum rules.
2. Go to a print shop or photocopy centre where they have powered cutter. Those machines can cut an entire ream of paper at once.

My friend has friends in the bookbindery and they time to time make for us squares from big packs of the non-square paper (for instace from A4) on big professional cutting machine.

But if i needed set dimensions, couldn't that be a problem using a power cutter? one of my friends owns a printing shop and they told me that the cutting machines do not cut straight they end up being 1/8in off near the end because the paper moves. couldn't that be enough to mess up the project?

it might help if you specified what shape paper you need.... pentagon? hexagon? dodecahedron?... as there are definitely sites that sell packets of sheets cut in circles, triangles, etc., though not necessarily in bulk.

lastly, i don't think precision is as important with modulars as it is with representational origami... there is more leeway, depending.

It could be more important depending on how you look at it. Modulars tend to rely on precise, sharp, geometry for their beauty. Precision is needed to achieve that.

that's why i said depending . seriously, though, i'm on a fuse spree, i've definitely unknowingly fudged a few box units, and there is definitely some "give."

for those 1000 units chinese modulars to make swans/pokemon/dragons, if some units are based off squares/hexagons/dodecahedrons that are 1/8" off, i'm not sure if it would be that devastating.

also, i forgot to mention... there are definitely kits to make those things, and that would be another source of those papers in bulk...

sorry i forgot to say what i was gonna make. i plan on making the swans and stuff. also another question is there any way to score paper in masses? to make the folds quicker?

maybe you could help me out then... is there a reason why you don't just buy one of the kits to make these things? (i don't have any experience with those kinds of models, as i just wouldn't have the patience.

it seems like they should already have the paper mostly to your specifications.

To safe time and folds, try to use big sheets of the paper, fold it in the right way and cut it in the right way. You obtain many pre-folded units and can just folding on existing creases.