Someone was waiting for me! O.O

Hey! Look at all my little candies lol!

I know! I just made my post below and it hardly has had time for people to read! But i was just on Etsy forums answering a thread and i just had to make this new post.

The thread title was "Paper used in earrings" (broad smile..) Of course i had to poke my head in haha.

What really made my day was that the thread poster actually already came to my blog and knew i was going to post about what you can use to make paper water resistant! How can i keep them waiting? So here it is...

I cant water proof paper. I can only make it water resistant. There is a difference, simply speaking... if i said my beads are waterproof you should have no worries scuba diving with them. Being water resistant on the other hand means that they are resistant to rain, washing hands, snow... etc etc...

You can make paper waterproof by using a wide selection of gloss and sealant that you can find at any D.I.Y or craft shop. Just make sure that on the bottle it says that it is water resistant or for outdoor use and that can be used on paper. I also prefer to use the ones that say "non toxic" or "eco friendly"

Just like a photograph, you have to decide if your paper is to look glossy or matt. If you like matt finishes you can use decoupage finish. If you like the glossy look just pic something that says it will give a gloss effect. All my beads and accessories are coated with gloss finish.

Alot about making paper water resistant is NOT dependent on the gloss itself. Below are some important tips to note.

• - A whole lot of things are trial and error... there's a million types of gloss, varnish, paper, coloring, ink..... out there that can give different results.

• - Always brush on the coating, never dip your paper. Dipping makes the coating too thick and tends to drip.

• - Wait for each coat to dry. You may wish to apply 1, 3, or 100 coats. Whatever its is.. let your paper dry properly before applying another coat on top.

• - If you have modular pieces. Like my blue roses in the post below, each rose is made up of 3 different pieces of paper and then assembles together. Please coat each piece of paper separately.

• -If you don't want to make your paper stiff.... but you just want it to be water resistant, just wax it with a candle before you start folding it :) The paper will still remain soft that way.

I might add on to this post if i think of more. If there's any particular thing you wish to know, just ask. I'm no expert but i'll help if i can

Can you make origami waterproof?

Someone saw my paper cranes earrings and asked me on Twitter : " Is there a way to make them waterproof? "

First of all i would like to tell the world that (takes a deep breath and screams!) "All my items on Etsy ARE water resistant!" haha.

Ok now to tackle the question.....

Yes There is a way to make origami pieces water resistant. People want to do this for a number of reasons.

• - To protect their masterpiece origami pieces. (i understand how you'd feel if someone spilled water on your masterpiece)

• To make a piece weather resistant. This applies heavily for my case. I turn paper into craft and jewelry pieces i hope someone will wear and treat like any of their other accessories. I don't expect you to go scuba diving with my beads, but they must function fine under the rain, snow... tap (i wash my hands with paper bead bracelets on all the time).

• - Gloss and glue are used to make a piece of origami resistant to water. They also give the paper some hardness. Depending on the number of layers and type of gloss you apply you can make a piece totally stiff and unbebdable or in the case of these paper earring you can move the wings, head, tail but only with a little pressure.

• - Standing origami. Sometimes a piece of origami looks great but your crane or horse or dragon cant stand upright on its own. Using something to harden up the paper a little may help with this. Not all the time but it may allow you to display your structure upright.

As to how exactly to coat a piece and with what type of glue/gloss, stay tuned in my next post. I don't want to type a whole chapter each time i make a blog post haha.

1 million things...(an intro to origami)

I have so many things i want to say now that i have started this blog! Man where do i start?!

My love of paper crafts started from origami. Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding. Here it is often taught in art class to primary school children. But there is more then the typical paper crane out there. Artists like Satoshi KAMIYA work on inventing new origami, like Mr dragon here. I heard it took him 30 hours to fold. There are many varieties of origami folding and the type i like most are the type that look the most life like. I like it when paper is manipulated until it is no longer flat, no longer having sharp edges... almost
as if it were moudable putty. I like it when paper "flows".

What consists a good piece of origami?

- Distinct features and sharp lines and folds.

- The meeting lines of the paper and of the folds should not show of the white underside of the paper. The fold should meet exactly. Origami is like architecture, it is a precise art. If you start off with a piece of paper that is not an exact square or rectangle, you will not make the perfect piece. It is the same if you make a sloppy fold that does not meet edge to edge. This is how i tell the quality of a piece.

-Representation: This also has to do with the point above. A finished piece should look like whatever it is trying to represent. If you fold a crane, it should not look like a hummingbird or a swan.... it should look to the first person who sees it a crane. If it doesn't, either the origami diagram was ill invented or it was simply the folding technique.

If you would like to try your hand on origami, i recommend this site.

http://dev.origami.com/diagram.cfm

There are hundreds of diagrams to try from the very basic to the rather tough.