The Origami Forum

Having just taken stock of a large pack of Elephanthide paper, and having never used it before, could someone give me an idea of the best type of models to fold with it. Anything simple to complex will do, I just don't want to waste it on models that don't necessarily need it.

A lot of Hideo Komatsu's models come ou t very well with Elephanthide. Be sure to take a look.

Elephanthide is alo used a lot in tessellations, because it holds a crease well yet is strong.

Basically, Elephanthide is not good with any super complex models, becuase of it's thickness. But, it is very good with tension folding, because of it's great strength.

I remember Artur Biernaki folding Tenma H-7 out of elephant hide paper. It looks really nice.

How about some tessellations? Or a flasher by either Chris Palmer of Jeremy Shafer.

How about some elephants?! Try this for some inspiration:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gio_origami/2938635547/

Or if you are feeling really adventurous:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cavemanboon/3641484130/


b.t.w. where did you get your pack of elephanthide from?

aces21 wrote:b.t.w. where did you get your pack of elephanthide from?

Yeah, I was wondering that too. I live in the south of England and have found it very difficult to get hold of this paper.

Thanks for the ideas, will try the elephants and have just bought the Tessalations book by Eric Gjerde, so will give them a go to. I live in the North of England so have been hunting round for it, but I got some from Shepherds Bookbinders Ltd in London. Its a bit expensive with postage and packing, but travelling down to London next month so will pick more up then. Here's the link http://store.falkiners.com/store/depart ... page2.html

Hope this helps

Thanks!

Thanks for the link. I got mine from the same place, I was just curious when you said you'd got a 'pack' - I guess you must have just bought a lot of sheets?

Well, if you want to know specifically where Elephant Hide comes from:

http://www.zanders.com/en/brands/zander ... index.html

Here's the manufacturer's page with all available colors and sizes. (basically A4 and 70x100cm, although we often see those big sheets cut into 70x50cm halves and sold that way too.)

Currently Elephant Hide is not being sold in the US as they are lacking a distributor after M-Real's purchase of Zanders, and the subsequent loss of Wyndstone's distributorship of the EH product line. I'm hoping someone else will start carrying them soon here in North America. (maybe this has changed already, I am not sure? so don't take my word for it that there isn't something in the works already.)

EH comes in several weights, the best one being the 110gsm weight (which is the one most commonly seen). The others are a bit too thick to really use for much.

I absolutely love this paper for tessellations. I really cannot imagine using something else; while I often do use other papers, really they all pale in comparison to the pleasure of folding with Elephant Hide. That might sound a bit silly but after you've done a fair bit of folding with it everything else just feels "not quite as good".

Your particular London bookbindery shop is pretty expensive - when it was being sold here in the US I was paying $2 USD for a single 70x100cm sheet. Prices vary based on how much a shop buys of it in volume, of course, but still 3 quid for a single sheet is a bit steep. That being said, you do get quite a lot of paper for that amount, so you can easily fold 4 or 6 models out of that sheet.

I normally cut up a 70x100cm sheet into four 35cm squares, and then two 30cm squares with a bit of leftover. I find this to be the most reasonable use of the EH, although a big 70cm square is something to really tackle... you'll be feeling the pain in your hands after folding that one for a few days :)

Congrats for picking up this great paper, and I hope you find the book interesting - you've definitely got the best paper for it! Good luck!

-Eric Gjerde

Thanks for that Eric, I've never used it or even seen it before so was curious to give it a go. Your book hasn't arrived yet, but it sounds like I will be using most of the paper for tessalations. I'm new to tesselations as well, so may be shouting for some guidence in the near future!

If only someone could open an internet shop seeling tissue foil, elephanthide etc the'd make a fortune!

If you haven't come across it, Nicolas Terry's shop sells all sorts of good paper. The Euro exchange rate means its not great value for us Brits, but if you're flush enough to buy the EH then you can probably manage.

I'd definitely recommend trying tant paper if you haven't already. He also has foil paper which is good for test folds & shaping, plus you can glue tissue to it if you want.

I also noticed he has just listed some new papers from Tahiland that look nice (sorry, this wasn't supposed to be an advert for Nicolas' shop!)

Eric-

Paper Jade and Kim's Crane are carrying elephant hide now, but I don't know for how long or how they came to get it, and the color selection is very neutral. Paper Jade has free shipping too...

From my understanding both Kim's Crane and Paper Jade are importing their own supply of the paper, probably from some wholesaler in Europe or maybe from Zanders directly. (You could do this too, I know several origamists in North America who have done so... just be prepared to make a large order!)

The neutral colors, sadly, are because when M-Real bought Zanders they killed the colorful 16 color lineup and replaced it with 7 more neutral shades.
Sad, yes, but they introduced a new "bright white" which can be dyed to pretty much any shade you want, and is in many ways better than having the old 16 color palette to work with. Joseph Wu has done a lot of work with this bright white paper and dyeing it, I think a lot of his recent pieces are folded from this paper IIRC.

I still am looking for a true distributor for the paper in the US as I want to make bulk orders that don't require me to pay customs fees or additional taxes, or trans-atlantic freight charges :)