The Origami Forum

what kind of paper you guys use for experimenting your model i mean what is the best cheapest paper that closes to tissue foil you can find for desigining your models.
and does this worth it? or can it get cheaper?
http://www.origami-shop.com/en/white-te ... 5_637.html

When you need thin white paper, just buy bakingpaper from the supermarket. It is the paper you put in the oven. It is thin, cheap, folds reasonable and you can make big squares.

Isnt that foil paper? And its silver

Depending on the complexity of the model in question, I just use standard kami to work out reference points and smaller collapses. It's not tissue foil in any sense, but it works.
For more complex things, I use smaller squares of foil, and I'm still practicing with treating paper for final folds.

7 or 8 lb tracing paper (30gsm) works pretty well. Cheap. You can get rolls in widths up to 36". 24" x 20 yd rolls are around $13 (amazon it).
You can MC it to tissue paper if you want duo color or slightly thicker sheet and it folds reasonably well. Takes a little longer to absorb the MC and will tend to bubble a bit more than tissue if you aren't careful, but nothing too serious.
Make double tissue MC. It's easy, cheap, and great paper for folding.

For test folding models, i do it almost entirely with 6" kami:
https://origamiusa.org/catalog/products ... -50-sheets
a few details of this paper:
I only use the Baby Blue color (though sky blue and medium blue work too). Why? to me, it feels the thinnest. Even yellow kami is thicker. with the baby blue color, i've had success with everything from the simplest traditional models, to modular origami (1 sheet cut into multiple squares) and even some of Satoshi Kamiya's insect designs. I think it works so well because it's thin but sturdy, doesn't tear easily (btw, beware of white kami, it tears easily compared to other colors) and is also not completely smooth, meaning the tiniest bit of traction that helps with many folds. I've found that red and purple papers kami's don't have this kind of traction, and greens have too much of it. Finally, in precreasing, creases show up better than plain white paper, aiding accuracy.

buyer beware! :
a year or so ago, i decided to go out and purchase a large amount of the paper above. Since i wanted a lot of it, i went for the 100 sheets packages. However, i would like you to know that it is NOT THE SAME as the 50 sheet packages. It is thicker, and has a paler and slightly mottled appearance (baby blue color). If you find you enjoy the Baby Blue 50 sheet package, beware of ordering a 100 sheet package! you may not like the results.

more recently, I've also come to really like tracing paper. Though it comes in rectangles, it cuts very neatly (going over the same crease 4-5 times then tearing) and its thin-ness and strength is very useful when it comes to complex models.

what about foil? foil can be very good for test-folding: it's thin (sometimes), holds its shape, and it's easy to get your hands on some. However, I find: it wears through easily with lots of folding, it's not the prettiest, and the american-style foil is too thick for some more complex models.

I'm a big fan of the Kami that comes in those blue boxes.
It is thin and strong and the colour doesn't crack on creases. There are also some foilpaper sheets in there.
That's the paper I usually use for test folds, together with simple note block paper. If I need something bigger, I most often take foilpaper or bigger Kami.
There might be cheaper options and you might also get those papers cheaper elsewhere.

@TootyFruty
You asked about the test sheets. Why don't you just try them?
Just a recommendation, but if you order them also order a Discovery Pack to get to know a bunch of different papers. Everyone is different and different people like different papers. Also taste changes over time. Some years ago I could not have imagined that I would ever like to fold Elephant Hide and now I prefer it for some models over other papers. Every paper has its specific strengths and not every paper is suitable for every model. You have to experiment and find out for yourself what works and what not.

Thanks a lot man. Speaking of elephant hide. Do you think there is a use of 25cm on 25cm of that paper since its thick and small would it be viable?
Thanks again

As test fold paper? No.

For small tessellations, Kawasaki Roses and other models that need a high tension without having many layers, yes.

origami_8 wrote:I'm a big fan of the Kami that comes in those blue boxes...

why wouldnt you buy this pack? lower prise and doubled the papers
http://www.origami-shop.com/en/1000orig ... -7910.html

To tell the truth I haven't tried them yet and therefore can't say anything about the quality. But there are two reasons that I would prefer the blue boxes over them, first the blue boxes have a variety of 60 colours whereas this box has just 7 that are not exactly my favourites, second, the foil paper sheets are missing too. Depending on the quality, they could however be used as test sheets too.
As I said before you can get the blue boxes cheaper elsewhere, so the price is no good reason to me.

can you use foil paper only to fold complex models or it will be too hard and creasy? like japanese foil with one sided color and other white

Not sure what exactly your question is. Whether you can fold Japanese Foil like it is? Yes. Whether you can fold aluminium foil? Try it, but I wouldn't recommend it, it folds terrible.

Foil works fine for simpler models too, if that's what you're asking. It's just that crease lines tend to show up more.