Double Tissue

Flushed with the success of MC on Ricepaper, I decided to try “Double Tissue” – a fine crisp strong medium that many origamists rave over.

I found some bargain animal-print tissue whilst looking on a whim in a “Crazy Clarks” wrapping section ($1.50 for 10 sheets 50x70cm), then went to the newsagent and purchased a packet of “Hallmark” brand tissue ($2 for 3 sheets 50x70cm) – both ends of the tissue paper spectrum I guessed.

Armed with some freshly congealed Methyl Cellulose, mixed to “stale egg white” consistency (so runny but goopy and slimy), a soft paintbrush (I use a 2″ natural bristle) and a wet rag to “prime the window” I began.

I decided to re-try out big sliding glass door because, well, it is large, the glass is smooth and it is boiling outside so the glass is hot and might make the drying time less?

Problem #1 – tissue is packed folded, quite aggressively it turns out, getting it flat is something I will spend more time on next attempt. Wiping the window with a wet cloth made posting the first sheet of tissue quite easy, and I was able to get it fairly flat before attempting to place the second sheet on and gooping the paper so the MC soaks through both layers and laminates them.

In all honesty I needed 2 extra sets of arms to make this technique easy – gravity is an issue and in the end both attempts misaligned a little – not a great issue as I will need to trim them square before folding anyway.

The Hallmark tissue, like the cheaper patterned tissue did not bleed – this in all honestly surprised me – I was expecting paper fibre and colour to clag up the brush (like the rice paper did) but this did not happen. I wonder if the cheaper plain coloured tissue paper would be the same, I suspect not).

I laminated 2 green sheets together and although there are some wrinkles and sheet misalignment I should be able to get a reasonably large square from the “good” part of the sheet. I laminated 2 patterned sheets (which were a lively black/grey on the reverse) with the pattern outermost – making a “sandwich” with pattern both sides which should be interesting, it looks a little like leather and has shiny and plain sides.

I then took to laminating pattern with colour – making sure the pattern faced the colour (grey reverse) – the result it a little like dragon skin

I am getting better with the technique, doing it vertically however is problematic as you need an extra set of arms to cope with gravity issues.

3 thoughts on “Double Tissue

  1. I like the idea of double tissue for folding. Gravity…. maybe some earth magnets on either side of glass to hold in place until set? Still need extra arms to reach and place the magnets I imagine.. I really liked the green frog and the suction toes detail wow

  2. As a modification of the technique, I plaster the glass with MC first and then roll the first layer on (I use a cardboard mailer tube with the paper rolled tight on it first) – works much better and there are way fewer wrinkles

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