Origami Paper

Different types of paper are used for folding origami. It depends on the origami model, what is available and personal preference. Different shapes of paper can be used for different origami models. The standard is square, but rectangular, triangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, octagonal, circular and oval are also used. There is a wide range of special origami paper available to buy. It's not necessary, though, to spend money when other paper can work well; anything from printer paper, newspapers, note paper and magazines to napkins and money.

It is important that the paper is the correct shape and cut precisely. It is very difficult to fold an origami model when battling with crooked paper. This will very much affect how the model turns out.

Origami paper can be the same colour on both sides or dual-coloured (one colour on one side and another on the other side). Some models have both the coloured and white sides showing on completion. If we don't have dual-coloured paper, instead of buying, we can make it ourselves.

Some origami models become rather thick after many folds and don't hold their shape. In this case we can rely on foil-backed origami paper. The foil helps the model to stay in the position that we want. Foil-backed paper can have one sheet of paper over one sheet of foil, or a sandwich with a sheet of foil between two sheets of paper.

Making Dual-Coloured Origami Paper

Making Foil-Backed Origami Paper