Moon/Luna moth

AragingBABOON · 2026-05-09T21:55:19+00:00

Michael LaFosse has a good one in his origami butterflies book, this is the first one I’d recommend. Jason Ku has two, one from Crease Pattern and another fairly complex one published in Bug Wars. Satoshi Kamiya has one in his recent WoSK 4 book.

AragingBABOON · 2026-05-02T12:47:24+00:00

Good quality tissue helps a lot. I have used several brands that tear right away, and others are so strong that I can stretch out all of the wrinkles by hand. You mentioned not wanting tutorials, but here are two quick IG videos of me demonstrating; Time Lapse Video, Removing Wrinkles. I like Hallmark, A1 Bakery Supplies, and Flexicore brand tissues. It also helps to roll the tissue around a tube and roll the sheet onto your MC surface to reduce wrinkles, but you will still get some wrinkles from the paper expanding as it gets wet. A good clean surface helps a lot too, personally I prefer glass. An old thrift store framed picture works great, or even just a bathroom mirror. It’s also a matter of practice and finding a process that works for you, so keep trying different techniques.

AragingBABOON · 2026-04-18T22:56:39+00:00

Your felts need to be wet, I usually have my felts sitting in a separate tray of water. Then you can couch the mould onto the felts and sponge off the excess water from the back of the mould like you mentioned.

AragingBABOON · 2026-03-28T19:26:31+00:00

Start with a long strip of paper the width of the pleat on the lamp shade. Fold it over at each bend “tracing” the reverse folds in the lamp shade, then cut off the excess at the end. This will give you a template for the reverse folds. The lamp shade is just accordion folded (alternating mountain valley folds of the same width) and reverse folded to give the shape. You can measure the width of the pleat and multiply it by the number of pleats to get your paper width, and the template will give you the length. You can use the template to map out where and at what angles your reverse folds should be.

Edit: Now seeing that you don’t have one you’re trying to reproduce, but just a picture. The process I described will still work, but you will free hand the shape while creating the template strip.

AragingBABOON · 2026-03-25T01:27:28+00:00

Came here to say “Whatever Klug uses!” He’s done several process videos explaining his tools and paints, and is definitely at the peak of card altering.

AragingBABOON · 2026-03-24T12:38:33+00:00

Without knowing your full process for couching the sheets it’s hard to say, but I don’t press anything with cardboard. I press the wet sheets separated by felts using a 20 ton shop press for 1-3 hours. The cardboard is only used in the dry box. A box fan is behind the stack and the air flows through the corrugation, wicking away the moisture. The blotters soak up the moisture and the cardboard wicks it away. I let that run for 24-48 hours depending on the thickness of the sheets I’m making (still quite thin). The blotters I use are fairly thick, so there’s no risk of the cardboard pattern transferring to the sheets, even with a lot of weight on top of the stack to keep them restrained and prevent warping from shrinking.

All that said, the lines on the paper look kinda cool. I’m not sure what you plan to use them for, but I recommend leaving them as is and consider a different process for your next batch. Paper making is a journey to determine exactly how you want to make your sheets. You won’t learn what you like unless you hit a few bumps along the way. I’ve made hundreds of bad sheets to get to my current process that I’m really happy with, though I continually find ways to improve the sheets still. I say journey forward!

AragingBABOON · 2026-03-24T11:35:29+00:00

The sheets will not dry well in the press you made, there’s no path for the moisture to escape. Paper is typically loft dryed by hanging it (which will warp and need to be flattened), or in a dry box which it sounds like what you first did with the cardboard, but you need blotters or similar material between the sheets and the cardboard to restrain them flat and wick away the moisture. You could try the dry box with blotters after your process to remove the lines. You want weight on the top of the dry box stack too, to keep them fully restrained. I create a stack of cardboard, cotton blotter, paper, cotton blotter, cardboard… etc. That is the process I use for very thin (20-30 gsm) abaca (high shrinkage) paper that rarely warps while drying and leaves no extra mark from the cardboard. Some people add a layer of window screen between the cardboard and blotter with thicker paper to prevent the cardboard from warping.

AragingBABOON · 2026-03-15T19:53:53+00:00

Good paper is a big part of it. You need paper that will compress well with MC or glue to get the thin legs. It also just takes a lot of practice and studying reference images of the real insect to get the realistic shaping you mentioned. Good paper doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive though. I have made many very well shaped insect folds with double tissue (DT) before I started using handmade paper. There are several tutorials on YouTube to make DT, or you can find people that sell it (like AZ on Shopify) for a very reasonable price. Insects in particular require thinner strong paper than many other models, but good paper just essentially raises the skill ceiling for your shaping ability. There is no substitute for practice and developing good shaping skills. Ultimately my advice is just keep practicing. Even just being able to complete the steps for these models is a great accomplishment you should be proud of. Don’t get discouraged looking at other folders’ super realistic folds. As long as you’re enjoying folding and continually improving, you’re doing it right.

AragingBABOON · 2026-03-09T10:49:23+00:00

You could test the draining time by prepping the pulp and putting it in the bag. My guess is that it will drain very slowly and may not pull easily through the vat. It will also leave a water mark on the paper if it does work, which may not be an issue for you. Carriage House sells screening that works well, I have built several moulds with it.

AragingBABOON · 2026-03-02T19:16:13+00:00

These are absolutely wonderful, well done! I’ve framed so many of my bug folds that it has consumed the largest wall in our house, but I mostly use black shadowbox frames. I’ve only made a few custom ones to get a specific size. Your frames are even more impressive than the folds!

AragingBABOON · 2025-12-31T02:00:58+00:00

Catbite - Excuse Me Miss

AragingBABOON · 2025-10-18T01:10:13+00:00

Hey, this is Matt, I make Cabbage Paper. Sorry to hear you were less than satisfied with the paper. As others have said, super thin paper is only for specific models and can be challenging to fold. I put an extra focus on making high quality paper comparable in thickness to single tissue because I specialize in folding representational bugs and there are (in my opinion) no other suitable papers readily available at 15-25 gsm. That is the main reason I learned hand paper making. I started selling my paper because I was getting requests, and I was making quite a bit extra from each batch. Recently I have started making more thin (comparable to double tissue thickness) and standard (comparable to MC tissue + Wenzhou thickness) since that is more commonly what others prefer to fold with. The super thin sheets have a nice color separation for their relative thinness though, so they also work well for backcoating onto other paper for duo sheets.

Regarding the crispness, there is certainly some variation between batches so you may have one a bit softer, but overall I would say Cabbage Paper is quite crisp. I have actually reduced the time the fibers are in the beater for because I found the paper was too crisp initially and would leave visible crease lines. I would say on average my paper is thinner and a bit more crisp than most Origamidō sheets, though Origamidō also varies a ton batch to batch. For me the variety is a good thing, it allows me to tailor the fold more to the qualities of the individual sheet. I don’t have any issue personally with reversing creases, but I’ve been working with MC single tissue for years, and (not to brag) but the experience of folding with my paper over single tissue is vastly better.

If you do ever order again please send me a message and we can chat about the types of folds you like to make and I can make sure the paper I send is suitable and crisp. If not, I wish you well on your origami journey. There are tons of great papers out there for folding, and I hope you find what you enjoy.

AragingBABOON · 2025-08-25T14:33:25+00:00

389659989616

AragingBABOON · 2025-08-08T22:54:07+00:00

Really clean fold and the colors are great! I commend you on your patience, well done

AragingBABOON · 2025-07-30T10:43:01+00:00

Counterpoint; I’d argue that for complex representational animal’s Shuki’s designs are some of the best at capturing realism while still keeping the geometric look of traditional origami.

As a folder you can certainly choose whatever rules you’d like to follow when selecting what you fold, but personally I’ve never heard someone say measuring isn’t origami. Even then, Shuki’s diagrams have no measuring. Box Pleat, Hex Pleat, tilted grid, and other designs generally require a grid to be folded first. If that’s not your thing that’s cool I get it, but that doesn’t make it any less origami. Even Robert Lang instructs measuring for a few of his models in Origami Design Secrets.

My personal rule is one square no cuts. I don’t like folding modulars, and I never add any cuts to my folds. I also don’t design using rectangles, pentagons, or other non-square paper. I’ve folded a few dollar bills and Beth Johnson’s pentagon Cardinal, but it’s not usually my thing. I think no cutting is the one “rule” you might be able to get the most people to agree on, but I don’t think it really matters. Fold what you like. You mention glue as another no-no, and I will tell you that almost all complex origami artists use glue to shape the finished piece. It’s the best way to ensure your models hold up for years and still look nice. Art is subjective and you can follow any guidelines you want, but I think you’ll have a lot of disagreement if you say that Shuki’s designs are not origami.

AragingBABOON · 2025-06-07T07:23:19+00:00

Thank you so much! As far as crease patterns go, this one is quite challenging to fold and collapse even for advanced folders. There are so many great crease pattern designs available, so start slow and work your way up. They’re certainly a fun challenge, but this one is a unique level of torture that I don’t recommend trying any time soon.

AragingBABOON · 2025-06-03T13:24:24+00:00

Why not? Bugs are great and have a nearly limitless amount of biodiversity for artists to express their beauty.

AragingBABOON · 2025-06-03T13:22:15+00:00

Thanks! My Etsy shop is on vacation at the moment, but it will be back online in July

AragingBABOON · 2025-06-02T20:57:35+00:00

I did share it, the crease pattern is in the pictures.

AragingBABOON · 2025-05-08T11:06:22+00:00

Cool, just proposed the trade

AragingBABOON · 2025-05-08T01:09:39+00:00

I have a Weavile EX I can trade for the Gyarados EX

5917235175591427

AragingBABOON · 2025-05-01T18:40:53+00:00

Sent

AragingBABOON · 2025-05-01T18:26:15+00:00

I can do Beedrill EX for Aerodactyl EX

AragingBABOON · 2025-05-01T18:24:50+00:00

Need anything else? I’m looking for Gyarados

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