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Tissue foil: wrinkles make me sad...

Posted: November 15th, 2005, 6:51 am
by Brian
Hi everyone, this is my first post here. I must say I'm a bit humbled to be posting among such skilled folders.

I've just started experimenting with tissue foil, and it's pretty nice. But let me show you my problems with wrinkles, if I may. (Sorry the pictures are huge, but it will help you see what I mean...)

My first attempt is here. (Stegosaurus by Kawahata) I didn't have tissue paper, so I used plain old tracing paper and covered only one side of the foil with it, attached via spray adhesive. For foil I grabbed a roll of Reynolds Wrap out of the kitchen. This actually worked OK, except that the the tracing paper was so brittle it ripped in many places; you can see one scale on his back that tore almost in half. The final model is very sturdy and not particularly wrinkled, and has a nice texture to it.

My second attempt is here. (Samurai helmet beetle by Lang) At this point I did have real tissue paper. I made a big piece of foil and then covered both sides with one sheet of tissue each using spray adhesive. This worked well except that it turned out awfully wrinkled.

My last (and not best) attempt is here. (Allosaurus by Kawahata) For this I decided to try covering only one side of the foil with tissue paper. Oh the wrinkles! For a dinosaur it looks semi-OK, but... ugh. I can also barely touch it without putting huge dents in it, so it's almost impossible to position or sculpt into something nice. Lesson learned.

In general these were pretty fun / easy to fold, but the final product isn't the greatest-looking, to put it mildly. I'm saving up my colored paper for after I have better mastered the technique; I think some color will help a bit with presentation.

Is there any technique that helps you avoid turning tissue foil into a wrinkled ball of mush? I believe I've learned to put the old bone folder aside; very sharp creases seem to be the enemy of tissue foil. Beyond that, it sometimes seems like folding tissue foil is often hardly like "folding" at all. More like mushing the foil into place. Maybe I'm using the wrong kind of foil? Maybe I should put more than one layer of tissue on each side?

Posted: November 15th, 2005, 8:45 am
by wolf
Take a look at this thread:

http://snkhan.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=764

Matt and Phil have done excellent videos on making tissue foil. Using some form of tissue support, like a paper roll, is absolutely necessary to get (almost) wrinkle-free foil. A quicker method is just to wrap the tissue around a flat object, like how Gilad Naor does it:

http://www.origamitips.com/articles.php ... =show&id=8

It's much faster than doing the roll-wrapping thing. Use a blunt plastic edge (like the edge of a plastic card) to smooth out any air bubbles after sticking the tissue down.

Also, don't use Reynolds Wrap if you can help it. Get the cheapest roll of no-name foil that you can find; either the house brands at supermarkets or at dollar stores. These are often much thinner than Reynolds Wrap, so any tissue foil made from them is a lot more pliable. This is what you want, because it's usually the bending of the thick aluminium that causes the tissue part of the foil to rip.

Don't toss out the bone folder yet either. If you use the tip of it really carefully, you can mostly smooth out small wrinkles in the foil, even in the finished model - run the blunt tip of it firmly across the wrinkle and slowly 'erase' the unwanted crease.

And yes, folding with tissue foil involves using the 'scrunch into shape' fold most of the time. That's just how the thing behaves. Changing the type of foil or tissue just changes how easily (or how hard) you scrunch it into shape.

Posted: November 15th, 2005, 12:05 pm
by thedeadsmellbad
When making creases with tissue foil I try to make sure the folds are as sharp/crisp & as accurate as possible. Take as long as you need to with every step. If I I need to unfold it, it rubs out leaving only a line with no fold.

Posted: November 16th, 2005, 1:12 am
by Morgan
you know whats cool about aluminum foil? if you rub a small peice of foil using your nails, it produces a very amusing thing. can that "curling" be applied to foil that has been folded so much? like maybe it would be cool in a "wavy" "hair" type of thing?it would deffintaly shine up a model, but how to cause enough friction is the real question ..hmmmmm

Posted: November 16th, 2005, 1:41 am
by wolf
Morgan wrote:Can that "curling" be applied to foil that has been folded so much? like maybe it would be cool in a "wavy" "hair" type of thing?
It depends on the thickness of the sandwich. For a single tissue/foil/tissue stack it'll work, if your tissue is thin enough. But when you've got two or more such layers, you're better off just folding the sandwich using soft curves.

Posted: November 16th, 2005, 5:10 am
by Brian
My wrinkle problems are usually more from misfolding/unfolding/refolding repeatedly than from the creation of the paper. I've managed to make the paper fairly wrinkle-free to start with (though I'm going to try rolling it, it seems much easier).

I tried rubbing out the wrinkles using my bone folder / fingernail and it worked pretty well. Not perfectly, but it looks much better than before. Thanks for the tip. :D I also bought some dirt cheap (45 cents a roll!) aluminum foil, I'll give that a try next.

Posted: November 16th, 2005, 10:47 am
by thedeadsmellbad
Just remembered, before I rub out a fold, I try to "spread the paper where it is creased first. Gradually re-opening the paper's fold as much as possible.

Posted: November 18th, 2005, 1:49 am
by wolf
Brian wrote:My wrinkle problems are usually more from misfolding/unfolding/refolding repeatedly than from the creation of the paper.
Yes, foil is bad that way; it's the work hardening property of the aluminium that causes it to behave like this. Reversing an existing crease (ie valley -> mountain or vice-versa) will inevitably result in a set of parallel wrinkles. What you can do to minimize this is to use the 'rub out' method before reversing the direction of a crease. Also, if precreasing is required, try and keep this to a minimum, and observe the subsequent direction of the fold. If possible, try and keep the pre-crease and final crease directions the same.

Posted: November 18th, 2005, 5:13 am
by Brian
Thanks a lot everyone. :D Buying the cheaper foil really made a difference, and rubbing out the creases actually works very well now compared to before.

I manged to make this unicorn and nary a wrinkle in sight! I'm becoming addicted to foil I think. Thanks again.

Re: Tissue foil: wrinkles make me sad...

Posted: January 17th, 2018, 1:26 am
by Andre-4
Dinosaurs look better in exclusive papers .Foil defeats the purpose its not a car or plane.Your losing much in texture and if you're tactile its not pleasant

Re: Tissue foil: wrinkles make me sad...

Posted: January 17th, 2018, 10:11 am
by origami_8
Andre-4, whom exactly do you think you answer?
This topic is from 2005, now we are in 2018. Do the maths!
My beloved Wolf hasn't been to this Forum in 8 years (hope she lives a happy live and still folds her wonderful creations, one of the best origami artists I ever had the pleasure to know), Brian hasn't been here for a similar period of time. From the ones who wrote here only thedeadsmellbad is still active, even though he paused writing for an extended period of time, before he became active again.

Re: Tissue foil: wrinkles make me sad...

Posted: January 17th, 2018, 10:11 pm
by Brimstone
origami_8 wrote:Andre-4, whom exactly do you think you answer?
This topic is from 2005, now we are in 2018. Do the maths!
My beloved Wolf hasn't been to this Forum in 8 years (hope she lives a happy live and still folds her wonderful creations, one of the best origami artists I ever had the pleasure to know), Brian hasn't been here for a similar period of time. From the ones who wrote here only thedeadsmellbad is still active, even though he paused writing for an extended period of time, before he became active again.
Finally someone noticed this troll. It is time he/she is stopped.