Dyeing washi paper

[CyberSphere]

Hello everyone!

I bought the book Origami Art by Michael LaFosse and Richard Alexander a few days ago, mainly to learn how to prepare certain types of paper. I got some questions answered, but now a few more have arisen (not answered in the book).

First of all, one thing that is not clear to me is the dyeing process. It is suggested that acrylics should be used, and so far I'm with the author(s). But how should it be applied? If dilluted, should it be in MC or water?

Secondly, most of the models (if not all) are recommended to be folded with washi paper. Does anyone know a good thickness to use for the models in the book? The book recommends this site for buying paper, and they have a large variety of different thicknesses, so choosing one is quite hard.

Of course, if anyone know a good supplier of uncoloured washi in Europe (origami-shop does not have it) I'd rather buy from there as I live in Sweden.

Thanks in advance!

[DadiK96]

I use washi 40g/m2
I paint ordinary acrylic paints.
Effect:

[CyberSphere]

Ah, that looks very neat! How do you apply the colour? And also, have you painted one sheet with two different colours or have you glued two sheets together?

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

If you search the forums for the words methylcellulose and acrylic, I promise you will find detailed instructions on how to tint your paper with acrylic. I personally have explained it in great detail no less than five times

Here....this is a link to one of the posts

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6384&p=66784&hilit ... ler#p66779

[CyberSphere]

Ah... I searched a lot for paiting, dyeing etc, why didn't I think of searching for the word acrylic? *doh*

As for different colour on each side, is it possible to paint a single sheet on both sides or should I paint two sheets and MC them together? The reason why I'm asking is because I haven't bought the washi paper that I intend to use yet, and I still have to decide about the thickness.

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

you can paint a single sheet on both sides, but it gets a little weird due to the bleed-through. You CAN get some really neat effects by doing this, but it requires some experimentation. If you get sheets that are thin enough you could just paint them apart and then MC them together. I can show you what happens when you paint both sides:

This paper for this slug was done yellow on one side of the paper, and then turned over and tinted a medium brown, and the result (because I had done this before by accident) i knew would make some interesting shapes from air bubbles and whatnot.




This Fugu, I used a sea sponge on one side to make the dark color splotches, then waited for it to dry and painted both sides yellow. See, the yellow wouldn't really cover up the dark blue, so doing it on both sides only served the purpose of making it a more intense yellow. If you decide to try both sides, I would recommend doing the lighter side first, then doing the darker side. This way, the darker side will only make the light side a little bit darker. If you do the darker side first, the light side will not really show up.