My name's Sara Adams, and I discovered origami for myself during Christmas 2005. I've been hooked ever since. The intention of this site is to get you hooked, too. You've been warned! — Now go enjoy some instructional videos, pictures in the gallery, and all the rest of it. And most importantly, happy folding!

Glassine Review

9 April 2013 - 8:29pm — Ilan
Authored by Ilan Garibi and Gadi Vishne
Weight (gsm) Sizes Color Palette Texture Aging
40 10cm, 15cm, 20cm, A4, 10x100cm 11 Smooth Unknown
Attributes:
Wear and Tear Memory Forgiveness Tensile Strength Bending Restistance
4 / 10 9 to 10 / 10 6 / 10 8 / 10 4 / 10
Model Suitability:
Classic Action Tess. Complex Modular 3D Wet Folding
n/a 8.5 / 10 n/a n/a 9.5 / 10 n/a n/a
Paper type: 
Glassine

One aspect of paper that is of particular interest to tessellators is its translucency, so finding a translucent paper to test was high on my list. One such paper is Glassine.

Glassine is made exclusively from cellulose. It is very thin, smooth, and is both air- and water-resistant. It is translucent unless dyes are added to color it or make it opaque. After pressing and drying, the paper is passed through a stack of alternating steel and fiber-covered rolls (called supercalendering) that flatten the paper fibers. This process produces a firm, yet very thin paper with a glossy effect.

Color is added in the pulp stage. The colorless version is food-safe, grease-proof, pH-neutral, as well as chlorine- and acid-free. This is why glassine is often used for food packaging and storing films and documents.

Related images

as selected by Sara Adams

Interview January 2013

25 March 2013 - 10:00am — Sara

Liliana Badillo interviewed me in January 2013 via email for Mini Neo. The interview was translated into Spanish and published in Mini Neo Issue Number 14. The English version of the interview (i.e. untranslated) just also got published with OrigamiUSA's TheFold. Perhaps you'll enjoy the read: http://origamiusa.org/thefold/article/interview-sara-adams-promoting-ori...

-- Sara

Unryu Paper Review

13 February 2013 - 1:37pm — Sara
Authored by Ilan Garibi and Gadi Vishne
Weight (gsm) Sizes Color Palette Texture Aging
27 40cm;60cm 10 Hand-made Many years
Attributes:
Wear and Tear Memory Forgiveness Tensile Strength Bending Restistance
9 / 10 7 to 8 / 10 8 / 10 10 / 10 5 / 10
Model Suitability:
Classic Action Tess. Complex Modular 3D Wet Folding
n/a n/a n/a 9 / 10 n/a 9 / 10 n/a
Final score: 9 out of 10
Paper type: 
Unryu

Unryu is absolutely beautiful paper, there is no doubt about it. It has long fibers that swim majestically in all directions, a huge palette of colors, translucent appeal, and a perfect wow-effect.

But the moment I got my package and opened it, I knew I was in trouble. Unryu is soft, seems to be too arrogant to hold a crease, or to remember it - hence totally unfit to origami - unless you treat it nicely.

There are multiple ways you can treat such soft paper to make it origami-capable. You can coat it with Methyl Cellulose or paint it with acrylic color. You can make tissue foil by gluing tissue paper, such as Unryu, to kitchen foil, or even make a foil sandwich, by gluing tissue paper to both sides of the aluminum foil. You can use another thin paper, like Onion Skin paper, and glue them together. And finally, you can fight your way through the natural stuff and work with it as it is.

Knowing all that, we realized reviewing Unryu would have to be done differently. No one buys Unryu to cut it to 30 small squares for a modular, nor would they fold a crane or a barking dog from it. So this review will be dedicated to complex and 3D animal models only, the main reason people will buy this paper. And we will test such models on Unryu after treating it in different ways.

Update and Giveaway (deadline Jan 31st 2013)

25 January 2013 - 8:03pm — Sara
Diagrams included in the book: 
"Licence to Fold" by Nicolas Terry

Update Feb 1st 2013: Thanks so much for the tons of supportive messages. I haven't had the time to answer any yet, but have read all of them and appreciate your kind words greatly. I'll answer as I find the time, but right now time is short. Especially the last days Felix was much worse again, but he's getting better now.