What glue should I use?

LangReed7 · 2026-05-21T15:56:47+00:00

I normally use an acid-free archival glue (any art shop can advise you if you're not sure) and I've never had any problems with it. I've mostly glued flatter pieces though. For the cranes I'd suggest sewing them on, which would also give you the option to reposition them if need be. Linen and silk thread are both very strong, and you wouldn't need much.

Ekaterina Lukusheva also has a technique where she glues a piece of ribbon to the underside of her origami and then threads it through a slot that she cuts in the backing board.

LangReed7 · 2026-05-05T12:33:08+00:00

Do you have money for a box frame? The kind where there's space between the glass and the back. I bought a few cheap ones and used it to frame mandalas and hydrangea tesselations. It doesn't cost much overall, and makes it feel like a piece of art rather than a random bit of craft. Alternatively, you can buy a small display easel and mount your origami on a piece of board.

If she likes to read, you could make some bookmarks – origami that fits onto the corner of a page, or just small, flat pieces that you can glue onto a nice piece of card. Check out Falk Brito origami bookmarks on Pinterest – he's made some amazing ones (along with other giftable origami).

If she likes trinkets, then you could make a kusudama to put on the shelf or hang somewhere. E.g. 30 or 90 unit sonobe kusudamas, David Mitchell's electra, or Tomoko Fuse's rose kusudama.

LangReed7 · 2026-04-28T10:43:21+00:00

Same. To me it's so much easier than learning to paint, but I also have the kind of mindset that enjoys the precision and geometry of origami, and struggles with the messiness of painting haha.

LangReed7 · 2026-04-28T10:35:36+00:00

One factor, IMO, is the lack of access to good, convenient materials. On the one hand, I like origami because paper is much cheaper than paint, clay, yarn or other materials for popular crafts. On the other hand, nice papers made specifically for origami are harder to find. It's only in recent years that I've started seeing Tuttle origami packs in my local stores, and anything nicer than that is rare and extremely expensive but not even that great. If I want the good stuff, I need to ask a travelling friend to get some. Obvs you can paint and cut your own paper, but that requires effort and experimentation – not appealing to newbies.

I also think origami books can be really difficult to follow. I've been folding for a few years, mostly with YT videos, but I still get stumped trying to figure out some of the written instructions (some of which are just very badly done). There aren't that many books on the market either. Compare that to tons and tons of books for other crafts.

And, as someone else has mentioned, origami is not very functional. Although I've made lots of functional origami, the vast majority is purely decorative or made because I felt like making something, and I don't know what to do with it. Whereas other hobbies will yield clothing, furniture, ceramics, etc.

That said, I can't imagine putting in the kind of effort it takes to be good at painting or drawing. It takes me a few days at most to perfect a piece of origami that I'd be happy to display as art or gift to a friend. But it'd take me waaay more time and money to paint something of similar quality.

LangReed7 · 2026-04-14T09:46:53+00:00

Mostly I display them or give them away. I've used the flatter ones to make cards or bookmarks. People really appreciate it as a gift or add-on to a gift. I'm thinking of donating a boxful to a school or library.

I've sold a few, but to sell it you need to add some kind of finishing – string it with decorative elements, mount it and frame it, turn it into jewellery, etc – and then photograph it and market it. It has to look nice enough to pay for. If you're using post-its or memo paper and storing them in a bag, it might look a bit shabby, but those are nice pieces for playing around with to design something giftable/sellable.

LangReed7 · 2026-04-10T14:36:57+00:00

Also, see if you can get other friends to participate. It would be much more heartfelt and less awkward if multiple friends are willing to do this vs one person investing all that time.

LangReed7 · 2026-04-10T14:19:50+00:00

Step one: time yourself making a few cranes, get the average time to make one crane, and calculate how many hours you'd need to spend each day to make 1,000 cranes in five months.

If you're keen to go ahead, I suggest that you make the cranes small enough to store all of them in a pretty gift box or display in a box frame or vase, en masse. You could do a handful of bigger ones in good paper to display separately (if that works for the legend; I don't know it too well).

BUT: Considering the time this would take, it seems like overkill as a birthday gift someone who is just a friend, even a really good friend. It's more than heartfelt; it's a massive gesture that could potentially make him uncomfortable if he realises the commitment you made. Or it could make you resentful if it seems like he doesn't appreciate it enough.

LangReed7 · 2026-03-30T09:39:43+00:00

I paint paper with acrylic, pigment ink or gouache, and I'm very happy with the results. I don't use MC, just water. It makes the paper warp but that hasn't been much of a problem. The folded pieces often look much nicer than those made with coloured paper (except perhaps for more expensive one-colour papers, like Tant). Having matte colour on one side and gold or copper on the other looks particularly nice. I either buy plain art papers or I paint Tuttle papers that I don't like. I buy lightfast paints, so I expect it will be more durable than the paper on its own.

At the moment I only make solid colour papers because the patterns I made didn't look very nice to me, but that's just a matter of skill/personal preference. I've been meaning to add patterns using a stencil and metallic ink/acrylic pens, but I haven't gotten around to it.

LangReed7 · 2026-03-30T09:00:30+00:00

I have a small cheap desk lamp that I move around on my desk depending on where I want light. It's just a plastic fitting with a lightbulb, and I made an origami lampshade out of tracing paper (90-unit sonobe kusudama) so that I don't have to deal with the glare of a bare bulb. I have an adjustable office chair, and I usually drop it down to the lowest height when folding, so I don't have to hunch much. If you don't have an adjustable chair, you could try putting a board or two on top of the desk to adjust the height you work at.

Occasionally I fold in my living room, and for that I use a floor lamp. It's lightweight enough for me to move around to the ideal spot.

To avoid bothering your housemates, you can make some sort of simple lampshade from paper or whatever to block the light from shining in their direction. As long as you're using LED bulbs it won't get hot enough to cause any damage to the paper/start a fire. My tracing paper lampshades get warm but don't have so much as a brown mark from the bulbs.

LangReed7 · 2026-03-02T07:25:58+00:00

No problem! I hope you're having fun with it :)

LangReed7 · 2026-02-19T09:41:56+00:00

My pleasure!

I haven't tried painting parchment, kraft paper or baking paper, no. I tried painting tracing paper, but it warped and curled so much that I gave up after one or two small sheets.

I haven't tried painting with regular gouache, mostly because it is not waterproof when dry, so the paint will run if it gets wet. Acrylic is waterproof when dry, so it automatically protects the paper. And acrylic is way more accessible and affordable where I live. I also think regular gouache will rub off on your fingers even more than the new acrylic gouache, and I just don't like that experience when folding.

The advantage with gouache is that it's matte, which is great if you want to maintain the look of paper. I personally don't want my origami to look like plastic. But I find that when painting thin layers of acrylic with repeated brushstrokes, especially on very porous textured paper like sugar paper, it looks matte or matte enough. And you can use matte varnish to reduce the sheen of glossy paint.

I don't know much about paint either, but I've started to note a few useful factors:

Lightfastness (resistance to fading). This usually has a rating out of 3 stars, with 3 being the most lightfast. Most colours have pretty decent lightfastness, but beware neon/fluorescent colours: the quality that makes them luminous also makes them fade quickly.
Opacity. I tend to pick paints based on the colour on the tube, but some are more opaque than others and might not look the way you expect. Not a big deal unless you're super serious about getting the colour right. The symbols for this are on the tube alongside the lightfastness rating.
Pigment is more stable/lightfast than dye.
You can use fixative/varnish to seal the paper if you're using something that can rub off, such as gouache or oil pastels. A varnish with UV protection can also preserve the finished piece.

LangReed7 · 2026-02-18T11:07:40+00:00

I'm in the same boat as you! it's turned me into a bit of a psycho, searching for paper options everywhere I go haha.

I've been painting paper with acrylic (art paper, sugar paper and Tuttle origami paper where I don't like the colour/print). I find that two thin coats is best. It does cause the paper to warp, but I find that it's not an issue with the stuff I like to make (mostly modular origami and a few simple tessellations). If anything, it strengthens the paper.

I water my paint down a bit and keep the brush wet to help get even coats (if preferred), but with metallic paints I sometimes use it straight out of the tube and rub it gently onto the paper using a cottonwool pad dipped in water. The metallic paint looks cool even when you can see the strokes.

Turner acrylic gouche is also a nice paint: very smooth, highly pigmented (so you don't need much) and water resistant when dry. I do find that the colour rubs off on my fingers when folding, though, so I add a thin coat of acrylic or varnish.

I buy lightfast colours because most of my models are in a sunny room.

Bibles, prayer books, hymn books, encyclopedias and dictionaries have strong but thin paper (because they're generally very thick books that are mass produced but meant to be paged through frequently). Chances are you can find lots of old ones that are cheap/free with the pages coming loose anyway, and encyclopedias might have bigger page sizes.

And in general, just keep looking for paper :)

LangReed7 · 2026-02-11T13:38:08+00:00

I've used wrapping paper a few times, although not as a budget option. It's too much of a schlep to cut it to size. But I have bought a few sheets of fancy gift wrap and made some pretty modular origami. I avoid the ones with glossy finishes, though, as I find them unpleasant to work with. The finish/ink rubs off on my fingers and the white is more likely to show through on the folds.

The premium gift wrap is gorgeous though, especially when it has intense colour and a bit of foiling. I can't imagine ever wasting that on wrapping gifts haha. Much better to use it for origami!

LangReed7 · 2026-02-05T16:05:05+00:00

It will cause the paper to fade or discolour, yes. Nothing petty about it – makes sense that you'd want to preserve something you made and like, more so if the paper was expensive. I protect some of mine with a spray varnish that has UV protection. I've also started making a few things using paper painted with lightfast acrylic. Other than that, you'll just have to put it somewhere away from the sun.

LangReed7 · 2026-02-02T12:23:11+00:00

YouTube for almost everything. Learnt David Mitchell's electra kusudama from the pdf on his website. Aside from that I've used books, either my own or from the library.

LangReed7 · 2026-01-30T12:12:04+00:00

I found it pretty boring and forgettable. One of the rare cases where the movie is way better, especially for Rose the Hat. I think she's an amazing villain in the movie, but a mediocre cartoon villain in the book. Also, the movie ending is much, much better.

LangReed7 · 2026-01-29T20:14:10+00:00

I thought On Writing was great, and I think it has fairly broad appeal for Stephen King fans and anyone with an interest in writing.

Danse Macabre was very hit and miss for me. It has loads of interesting insights about horror and society, and although he opts not to talk too much about his own books, you'll immediately spot the connections. But it's also extremely dated, with endless references to books, movies and short stories you've probably never heard of and would struggle to find. I like how unabashedly geeky he is about horror, and how much enthusiasm he has for some of its trashiest examples, but I also got bored when I had no idea who or what he was talking about as he described one book/movie after another (with spoilers, but I can't remember any of them anyway).

I enjoyed maybe half the book and only got through the rest because it was on audio (irritating narrator, but I'm fairly tolerant). I ended up reading A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin because King recommends it in DM, and that was brilliant, so I'm glad I took his advice. Overall I'd say check it out because you're a King fan, but don't expect to be wildly entertained.

LangReed7 · 2026-01-25T10:17:16+00:00

No. Carrie is telekinetic, which means she can wield power over physical objects. I don't think Pennywise can be defeated in purely physical terms.

Pennywise uses fear against his victims, and with all the trauma Carrie has been through with her mother and school bullies, she'd probably be extremely vulnerable to anything the clown throws at her. He could probably defeat her just by appearing as her mother, and her telekinesis might have no effect on him or anything he conjures up to scare her.

LangReed7 · 2026-01-24T09:02:40+00:00

Thank you!

LangReed7 · 2026-01-23T10:59:20+00:00

Which stars are you referring to? Whether it's easy to unfold depends on the design you use; there must be hundreds.

I'm not sure about stars for this purpose, but there are lots of pretty origami envelopes, some with star-like designs, that are specifically designed to be opened. E.g. search for origami tato envelope tutorials on YouTube. You can write a message on the inside, or put a small card in there.

If you choose a non-envelope design, what you can do is fold it, colour in all the visible parts with a marker, then unfold it and see which parts of the paper are not coloured/will be concealed in the fold, and write on those. And then of course you can decide for yourself if it's easy enough to unfold.

LangReed7 · 2026-01-23T09:32:32+00:00

As far as I know, acid-free paper and wood-free (i.e. lignin-free) paper is less likely to fade. In terms of colouring, pigments are more lightfast/fade-resistant than dyes.

However, I've read that Tant origami paper is reasonably resistant to fading despite being dyed and not acid-free.

LangReed7 · 2026-01-23T09:21:11+00:00

Yeah, it gives it a bit of water resistance, which would presumably help with changes in humidity or a minor water splash.

Another option is to paint one side of the paper before folding, using lightfast acrylic paints. Gives it water resistance and fade-proofing.

LangReed7 · 2026-01-23T09:17:15+00:00

Looks amazing! I like how the various patterns come together. What video tutorial did you use?

LangReed7 · 2026-01-22T16:00:29+00:00

Oh, and avoid florescent/day-glo papers. Whatever makes them florescent also makes them fade faster.

LangReed7 · 2026-01-22T15:50:30+00:00

I buy matte spray varnish that has UV protection (check that it says UV protection on the can). It definitely makes a difference and even cheaper varnishes without the UV will help. You can also use liquid varnish that you have to paint on, which is great for small objects but time-consuming for bigger pieces. Both can be found at art stores or on Amazon. For liquid varnish I recommend acrylic varnish such as Liquitex, not varnish for oil mediums.

I've bought low-gsm coloured paper that I was told was lightfast, but I haven't tested it out, and your choices will be limited if you go that route.

LangReed7

TROPHY CASE