Methylcellulose cheap alternatives

General discussion area for learning about paper, and the different types available.
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Origami_Hunt
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Egg-wihite powder + PVA. Recommended.

Post by Origami_Hunt »

Recipe and how to use it

The same as the egg white powder one (the previous post) but add a bit of PVA. Perhaps a crispier than MC.
NOTE: for many models diluted PVA produces good enough paper.

Where can I find egg-white powder?

Usually in the backing section of the supermarket. British Tesco sells four sachets of 5 grams per £1.2. One sachet allows you to produce a 45 cm x 75 cm double tissue paper.
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Use sachets to give this a try. However, I would buy it in bulk, to get it cheaper. Amazon sells bags of 500 grams (enough for 100 sheets) for £13 (MC costs about £22 per 500 grams).

Index of sizing agents
Last edited by Origami_Hunt on March 10th, 2021, 11:42 pm, edited 10 times in total.
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Mashed potato powder from the supermarket

Post by Origami_Hunt »

It produces a crisp double-tissue paper that is a pleasure to fold. However, it tends to split. It is also quite sensitive to ambient humidity. I believe the sugar content is the reason for its sensitivity, although it may be that the stach itself attracts water. A bit a PVA cures the problem.

Where can you buy it?

In supermarkets.
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Recipe and how to use it.

Add a tablespoon of the power to an 8th of one paint (enough to produce 1 sheet of double-tissue paper).
Warm it up until you produce "mashed potato".
Do not eat it, just let it cool down.
Use it as methylcellulose.

I folded Miyajima Noboru's bat have used this method:

Image


I have also folded Anibal Voyer's witch with a 40 cm square of double-tissue treated with potato mash from the supermarket.

Image

Index of sizing agents
Last edited by Origami_Hunt on April 17th, 2021, 10:23 pm, edited 7 times in total.
Tankoda
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Re: MC substitutes: starches, gelatine, PVA, etc.

Post by Tankoda »

Hahaha you're breaking new ground here! Thanks for doing this, i need to explore these
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Agar-Agar

Post by Origami_Hunt »

It does not work well, but I thought it would. Agar-agar is a long carbohydrate; it belongs to the same chemical family as other starches and as methylcelulose. There are two problems using this:

You have to warm it up to dissolve it. This is not a problem, but then
1- It will form a gel with little material. Half a tablespoon in a pint will probably gel, so if you use this, you will add little sizing to the paper.
2- The paper warps as it dries.

The good side is that you can use it in cooking to produce nice desserts.

Index of sizing agents
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Potato flour - recommended

Post by Origami_Hunt »

Potato flour (not potato mash flakes) produces very good double-tissue paper. It is far far less sensitive to ambient humidity than potato mush flakes, so much so, that you do not need to add a bit to PVA (necessary for potato mash flakes). Recommended.

Where to buy it


I found it in an Asian mini-market. It costs £2-3 per kilogram. You need about 5 grams to make a typical 75 x 50 cm double-tissue sheet. You can buy it from Amazon; t costs around £3-4 per kilo (less than two pence per sheet), ten times cheaper than MC, which costs about £44-60 per kilogram.

How to use it

1- Mix 5 grams of flour (a tablespoon, not heaped) in a quarter of paint of water. The amount depends on your needs.
2- Boil it until it becomes a clear gel (potato mash flakes make a whitish paste).
3- Let it cool down a bit.
4- Add a bit of cold water and whisk it to break the gel. This is important. It removes lumps and makes it easier to spread the gel.
5- Paint the glass with it before the gel sets again. This helps in keeping the tissue paper straight.
6- Lay a sheet of tissue paper.
7- Allow the gel to permeate the sheet.
8- Lay another sheet on top of the first one.
9- Paint it with the gel.

Image

Interestingly, some popular wallpaper pastes are made using modified potato starch, in contrast with the popular belief that all wallpaper pastes are made of methylcellulose.
List of sizing agents
Last edited by Origami_Hunt on March 10th, 2021, 11:00 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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How to use sizing agents

Post by Origami_Hunt »

Method 1: Recommended for sizing agents that are fairly liquid such as methylcellulose, PVA, and egg-while powder. Gelatine is included if you use it before it forms a gel.

1- Lay two sheets on top of the glass one on top of the other.
2- Paint the top sheet with the liquid. The liquid with the sizing agent will permeate both sheets, so it is not necessary to paint sheets individually.

Method 2: Recommended for sizing agents that are gels or pastes that are not too thick. Most starches.

1- Paint the glass. This will size from the bottom and it will help faster the sheets.
2- Lay two sheets on the glass, one on top on the other.
3- Paint the top sheet. The sizing agent will permeate both sheets from the top.

Method 3. Recommended for pastes or gels that are thick and do not permeate easily the sheets or for papers that do not allow water to permeate (non-bleeding paper).

1- Paint the glass. This will size from the bottom sheet and it will help fasten the sheets.
2- Lay one sheet on the glass.
3- Paint it.
4- Lay the second sheet on top of the first one.
5- Paint it.

Method 3 will add three times more sizing agent than method 1. Method 3 is good for models that require some bulkiness such as mammals, while method 1 is better for models that require several layers to overlap.
Last edited by Origami_Hunt on November 6th, 2020, 9:53 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Which paper?

Post by Origami_Hunt »

It works well with bleeding tissue because the paper takes water well. Often it is not necessary to paint every sheet because the sizing agents can permeate the paper.

Non-bleeding tissue paper. The non-bleeding treatment may make the paper a bit water-proof. It is often necessary to paint the glass and every sheet of paper.

Non-stick baking paper. This paper is coated to prevent food to stick to the paper, so it does not take sizing agents (or water) well.
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Egg-white powder and soya drinks

Post by Origami_Hunt »

It produces glassy results that are nice (but only for certain models).

The idea behind this is to increase the amount of protein you can apply in a single go. A typical soya drink has about 3 grams of protein per 100 millilitres. This is useful to produce thin double paper, but sometimes you need a bulkier paper. You have a similar problem if you use Egg-white protein powder . This is rich in protein, but the solubility is limited, so you end up with the same problem as with the soya drink. The solution: dissolve the egg-white protein powder in soy the soy drink.

The upside: it produces a beautiful glassy paper. Probably nice for flowers.
The downside: This paper is difficult to use if you need many folds.

TIP 1: You can use three sheets of tissue paper instead of two and use either egg-while powder or soya.
TIP 2: Use unsweetened soy drinks.
TIP 3: Use starches instead of proteins.

How to use it

Dissolve a table-spoon of egg-white power in a quarter (or less) of soya drink. Shake it until the powder dissolves.
Paint the surface with the mixture. Sometimes you can skip this step, as the liquid will permeate the paper.
Lay two sheets of tissue paper one on top of the other.
Paint them with the mixture.

Where to buy?

In the UK from Tesco, any supermarket. 1 litre of unsweetened soya cost £0.55. The four sachets (4 x 5 grams) of egg-white cost about £1.2 in Tesco; however, if you use a lot, you will be better of buying in in bulk from Amazon (for example) where 500 grams costs around £13 (500 grams of MC cost around £22).

ImageImage

List of sizing agents
Last edited by Origami_Hunt on January 6th, 2021, 5:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Potato mash flakes with and whitout PVA

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Image Image

I folded Fumiaki Kawahat's Yoda using double tissue treated with potato mash flakes and a bit of PVA.
I folded Miyajima's bat using just a double tissue treated with the potato mush flakes, but without PVA.

Enjoy!
Last edited by Origami_Hunt on January 16th, 2021, 6:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Rice flour

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I folded this model using a 40 cm square of non-bleeding double tissue paper treated with rice flour paste.

Image

Marc Kirschenbaum's Teddy Bear
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Gelatine + wheat flour: nice results

Post by Origami_Hunt »

Gelatine can produce very plasticky papers. It might be that lowering the amount of gelatine produces nicer papers; however here I tried to change the properties of the resulting paper adding a bit of wheat flour. In doing so we combine two types of sizing agents, protein based and starch based.

Image Image

I folded Brian Chan's katydid using a 30 cm square of single tissue treated with this method.

I could have narrowed down the flaps (the paper allows it).

Image

Index of sizing agents
Last edited by Origami_Hunt on January 25th, 2021, 10:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Gaviscon (alginate)

Post by Origami_Hunt »

Another natural polymeric carbohydrate is alginate. It has many uses. Have a look at the Wikipedia. Alginate is the main component of Gaviscon, a product used to treat heartburn. Gaviscon also has calcium carbonate. The later helps strengthening the alginate gels. I will try pure alginate as soon as I can get some.

How to use it?

Mix two parts of Gaviscon with a part of water (the more Gaviscon, the stronger the paper).
Paint the surface with the resulting liquid.
Lay two sheets of tissue paper on top of the surface.
Paint the top one with the mixture.

Where to buy it

In the UK, in Tesco, but you can find pure alginate in Amazon.

Image

Index of sizing agents.
Last edited by Origami_Hunt on April 5th, 2021, 8:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Conr flour

Post by Origami_Hunt »

I folded Brian Chan's katydid using a single sheet of tissue paper treated with corn flour. I could have shaped it better, but it shows that you can use corn flour to fold insects.

Image


List of sizing agents.
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Wheat flour - Brian Chan's katydid

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A variation on Brian Chan's leaf katydid. Made from a 30 cm square of single tissue paper treated with wheat paste.The method is described here. The paper was roughed up to simulate a decaying leaf.


Image

List of sizing agents.
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Egg-white powder - Anibal Voyer's witch

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I have folded Anibal Voyer's witch using double tissue (30 cm) treated with egg-whites powder.


Image

Index of sizing agents
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