The Origami Forum

i have folded this thing multiple times from kami, and i have a confession. the "locking" folds for me never really keep the model in place and it begins to splay (almost immediately)--the forelegs move back away from the head, and the layers of the tail spread. i confess for gift/display purposes i put a few touches of glue to keep it together. i see lots of people on this site have also folded the model from kami, and the pictures look great.

am i doing something wrong?

Not at all. You shouldn't feel dirty for violating some rule of purism. It is fine to use glue (some people consider methylcellulose glue) or wire or anything else if you so choose. I myself frequently use wire to help models hold their shape. Don't feel guilty for doing something that others say you can't-you need to decide for yourself what you're OK with.

what i was actually wondering was if there was a way to fold this model (using ordinary kami) and make it hold its shape without glue. i see many beautiful pictures of it where it looks like kami to my eye, but i can't tell if they've used glue.

I don't know. It could be that you are using a smaller size than others. There are many sizes of kami: 3", 6", 10", and 15" as far as I am aware. It can be hard to get kami to hold its shape, especially with complex models, so don't worry yourself if the model starts to splay apart using kami-it isn't your fault. Commercial foil paper tends to hold its shape much better than kami, but has some other interesting properties as well (wrinkles a little, the foil can flake off, the shiny side photographs poorly, but it is very easy to shape). I would recommend Japanese foil over American foil if you want to try it out-Japanese foil is thinner and the foil doesn't flake off nearly as easily.

I am not positive, but I was under the impression that most of the models in Origami Fantasy, including the Steg, were best wet-folded ?

Having said that, you may be able to spray the paper with water after folding, depending on the paper. That is not "purist," but you'll be in good company with Yoshizawa and Lang, as well as many others

- Hank Simon

How is that not pure? I suppose it all depends on one's personal origami ideology, but I believe it is commonly accepted that wet-folding is 'pure.'