Making Tissue Foil

The tiger shown in the above picture is a wonderful model by the Japanese origami master Hideo Komatsu. This piece is one of the most fiendishly complex in the repertoire of the master folder and was folded by Gillian Buchanan from over 200 diagrams.

The reason I am showing you this work is that tissue foil is a special paper which is always hand made by the master using it, and which can be made fairly easily. Although not everyone will want to make anything as spectacular as this, many people will enjoy using the tissue foil, which is in effect a duo paper, with different colours on each side, for all sorts of other things.

MATERIALS

- Tissue paper (which can be bought from a stationer in lots of colours).
- Spray glue (the 3M spray mount adhesive is good because it does not produce too thick a layer of glue).
- Kitchen foil (Reynolds wrap is good but you can use any kind to get Started).
- Newspaper. Should be bigger than your tissue paper.
- Rolling pin (the kind used to make pastry - don't use the one from the kitchen, buy one to use separately).
- Sellotape.
- Cutting board, ruler and knife/rolling cutter.
- A well ventilated room (glue fumes can be poisonous - always work with door and window open).
- A table that won't matter if you get glue or tape marks on it.

First of all lay out several layers of newspaper on the table and tape them down absolutely flat. You want no movement at all from the sheets of newspaper.

Next, spread out a sheet of tissue paper and make sure it is absolutely flat on the table, then tape the corners to the newspaper to hold it in place.

Spray the paper thoroughly with a light layer of glue - make sure you don't miss any areas because especially if the paper is for origami you won't want parts of the paper to separate during folding.

Now get your kitchen foil. Tear off a piece that is a little smaller than the tissue paper (you want a couple of inches of tissue paper all round). Make sure you don't crumple the foil as you remove it.

CAREFULLY lay out the kitchen foil on top of the tissue paper - this is a crucial stage and it's very easy to get an unwanted crease in.

Use the rolling pin to make sure that the paper and foil are firmly laminated together. Just roll over it several times to get a nice, smooth layer.

For the tiger above, a second layer of tissue paper was laminated on top of the kitchen foil, in exactly the same way.

Wait until the glue has dried, then use your cutting board (better than scissors) to cut the paper to the size you want it. Now enjoy using your tissue foil!