The Origami Forum

is gift wrapping paper good material to use for some complex to intermediate models?

It still depends on the quality of the paper.
Is it durable enough? i.e. How much abuse can it take before ripping/tearing?
Is it thin enough? i.e. How many layers of paper can you fold through?

Anyway, the only way to really find out is to try.

When i first started complex models the only available large size paper i had was wrapping paper. I finished the models with the wrapping paper but after using better paper and refolding the models i realized how bad the paper really was, and how my results were much better when i used better paper I guess it can be good for cheap large size squares or test folding?

But overall i really does depend on what kind of wrapping paper. I used gift wrap paper.

I know Cecilia on flickr uses wrapping paper to amazing effect. Link to her photostream.

I used wrapping for my first folds of Kamiya's bahamut, unicorn, and flying hercules beetle. They looked absolutely terrible, but when I folded my second try of each model, I already had some experience with the diagrams, and they ended up pretty good. So for test folds, go ahead and use it, but if you want to show it, stay away from it.

can someone show me something they made with wrapping paper?

I have models folded from gift wrapping paper on my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imperfect-origami/page3/

On that page, the models that are folded with black and red paper are from wrapping paper. Bahamut, Ancient dragon, chocobo, pegasus, lion fish, sparrow, etc.

I folded those models about a year ago though...

I made some The Last Waltz models with red wrapping paper.

http://home.roadrunner.com/~hanksimon/o ... ncers.html


- Hank Simon

If you use a wrapping paper or some
other large bulk roll what's the easiest way to make proper squares, rectangles etc

wquiroz225 wrote:If you use a wrapping paper or some
other large bulk roll what's the easiest way to make proper squares, rectangles etc

If i can use one of those large guillotine cutters, i just use one of those and cut a whole bunch of squares from the roll. If i dont have one readily available, i just fold the corner over to line up the edges and cut along the line to make a square.

Measuring isnt hard and using a meter stick can help make straight lines.

WhisperPuffin wrote:I know Cecilia on flickr uses wrapping paper to amazing effect. Link to her photostream.

Yes, Cecilia uses craft papers to fold all of his models and he did a great job on that, but noticed that he applied lot's of glue on all his models in order to get that great shaping result.

To chasenguyen,
I personally find Origamido papers are still best. My second choice would be tisue foil, of coz.

MC or water can be also used to create nice stuff with gift wrapping paper though.

Here's one from me, carefully wet-shaped only:


Shuki Kato's evangelion unit, 70x70cm gift wrapping paper

I agree though, it's not the best paper ever. But it folds well, is cheap and comes in huge sizes. So I like to use it.

lol nice last waltz that was exactly what i wanted to make with wrapping paper to lol

I guess that answers the question

I find it difficult to use wrapping paper on the first attempt, but after I practiced with nicer paper, the wrapping paper was fairly easy to do... depending on the texture.

Pls post pix after you finish. If you're ambitious, animation would be cool.

- Hank Simon

It really depends.

There are many different classes of wrapping papers. In my country, there are the fanciful wrapping papers which can hardly hold a fold. I still remember struggling making my model stand up after folding it due to the paper being too flimsy.

Than there are the plain wrapping papers, like those above. Those are rather great for folding and generally produce good results, though some brands may require MC.

Then there are those specialty wrapping papers that cost alot for just a small roll. Those look great and regal, but most don't cut off for folding, with an exception of a few, which I have presently.

Wrapping paper is great for folding models that require large paper, but don't expect the results to be as good as those folded from more expensive papers.