I recently sourced some Tant origami paper from a UK Etsy store called Lavender Home London – ordinarily I don’t mind mentioning where I’ve get my materials from (I don’t have affiliate links so all links are of my own discretion) but I thought I would give them a special mention since not only do they seem to be one of few shops that stock large Tant paper (project coming next month!) but also that they wrote and published this Origami + Kirigami tutorial book that I’ll be also mentioning in this blog post.

I think it’s pretty awesome that they sell the creations in the store if you don’t want to make them yourself, but also that they suggest that you can learn how to do the decorations yourself. You also get a tester pack of paper samples, containing various paper textures such as Yuzen washi and patterned paper.

I was interested in the book because I was looking up some ideas for functional and decorative origami. It comes with a few tutorials on making place card holders – this is something I have a great interest in for a far-in-the-future event!

There are two types of crane-based place card holders featured in this book. In both tutorials, you must know how to reverse fold as it comes up a lot. I tried my hand at both to see which one was superior! I also used both chiyogami (15cm) and washi (14cm) paper to see what differences I’d get.

The first is a Hinode crane. Hinode means “sunrise”, and you can insert a piece of paper to make the crane look like it is carrying a sun. You are required to use a little glue for this to create the flat surface on the back part, which I found a bit fiddly to do

Of note here is that you could use a square card for this, but it would not really fit properly and looked like it could fall out at any time. I cut a rectangle similar to the width of the crane, then I cut some parts out of the corners to make it slot in better. However, I think doing this might obscure the text on the place card.

The second is a Hakobu crane. Hakobu means “to carry” and this one covers less of the card. You can also use a rectangle place card, but I had to make sure when I reverse-folded the tail that it was completely at a 90-degree angle , otherwise it would not sit flat on the surface.

After making my first samples, I then picked out some nice washi squares and redid them. The washi squares were 14cm so it did come out slightly smaller, however the paper felt a bit sturdier compared to the chiyogami as it held the creases better. I often don’t make stuff with washi as I love to collect them, but I did get some free samples…

Chiyogami does have really pretty patterns and I like that they are usually double-sided, however it is usually printed onto regular paper. Washi is made with tougher fibres so it comes out sturdier in origami. It also has lovely metallic gold and silver overlays too, so it looks more luxurious.

I think my favourite of the two is the Hakobu crane, as I can just order regular rectangle-shaped place cards to go with them. In the far future, I will be ordering a lot of mixed washi paper, as I will be folding many Hakobu cranes for an event.

This year I will be looking a lot into small-to-medium-scale decorations for events. I can’t give too much away, but I’ve always wanted to make paper decorations for an event! I hope the attendees want to keep these as well, so I’d have to think of some nice place card designs.

Materials:
– 15cm chiyogami squares
– 14cm washi squares