Looking for origami paper in a specific color combination: purple/silver

February 9, 2013 8:36 PM

For our wedding, we've decided to go with origami flowers for the bride's bouquet and the groomsmen's and bridesmen's boutonnières. I'd like to be able to buy a bunch of origami paper with the wedding's colors: purple and silver. I've seen plenty of origami paper that's metallic on one side and solid on the other, but I haven't been able to find a way to buy just this one particular color combination. Any ideas?
posted by ErWenn to media & arts (12 answers total)

Silver spray paint? Lay them all out in the garage and spray one side.
posted by klausman at 8:52 PM on February 9 [1 favorite]

Get normal paper which is purple+silver, and then have a local print shop cut it into squares? You may be able to buy it at the print shop, even.
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:59 PM on February 9 [1 favorite]

http://kimscrane.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=21_27&products_id=3400
http://kimscrane.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=21_27&products_id=3401

The purple/silver is only one part of the pack, but a single pack contains 20 sheets of purple/silver, and that costs a dollar. You can get a 15 pack for $12, which is an awesome deal, even if you'll be stuck with lots of other pieces of metallic/color paper.
posted by dithmer at 9:10 PM on February 9

I was just coming to suggest kimscrane.com. Here is one I found that appears to be purple only. They have a few other sizes as well. Scroll through the "origami papers" section.
posted by rakaidan at 9:15 PM on February 9

It'd be a pain in the ass, but if the ideas above don't pan out, you could also consider laminating, using spray adhesive to laminate two papers that are exactly the colours that you want. I use this method fairly frequently, and granted it is a hassle, but it allows me/you to get exactly the combo I/you want (you won't have to settle on a shade of purple that is off, just to get something with silver on the other side). I'd do a test first, as you'll end up with something that is thicker than typical origami paper, but for a wedding, I'd think that might actually be a good thing (likely depending somewhat on the complexity of the folding).
posted by segatakai at 9:22 PM on February 9

Could you use one sheet of each color- so there would be two sheets total?
I'm hoping it would not be too thick to fold.
posted by calgirl at 11:59 PM on February 9

Transfer silver craft foil onto purple paper? The material seems to be like gold leaf.
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:55 AM on February 10

Actually, I should have mentioned that I'd seen the kimscrane paper. It looks great, only it's tiny (only 40mm across). But otherwise, that's exactly what I'm looking for. I'm willing to pay a little extra for a combo package if it has a significant number of the color combination I'm looking for.

The two-sheet solution might be possible, at least for the boutonnières; those are very simple folding patterns. But as the number of folds increases, it would become almost impossible to keep things lined up unless I did some kind of lamination process as segatakai suggests. I'll keep that in mind (along with the painting options). I'm thinking that the "silver leaf" might start to flake off once I started folding things. These ideas are worth looking into, but I'd prefer something with a little bit less effort. It's not the only creative project I've got associated with this wedding!

Cutting from larger paper could also work for the boutonnières (again, simple folding pattern), depending on the kind of paper. Has anyone seen this color combination for other craft paper?

Also, if anyone sees any other good origami paper with a purple/silver pattern of some sort, that could be useful.
posted by ErWenn at 6:32 AM on February 10

Expensive and 10x10 inches from Kims Crane, but might work if you cut them down: http://kimscrane.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=21_27&products_id=1428
posted by amileighs at 6:56 AM on February 10

Yasumoto sells foil including that combination, but only 2 sheets out of 18. But perhaps if you got in touch with them, they could help you out?
posted by jeather at 7:03 AM on February 10

Try Hollanders. They have a huge selection of papers, and also have papermaking classes, so might be able to make just what you want, if they don't already have it. If you can't find what you want on their site, it's probably worth a phone call; I don't think they have everything listed online.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 7:29 AM on February 10

I was able to find what I wanted by calling Hollander's. Wasn't even all that expensive!

Thanks everyone!
posted by ErWenn at 6:49 PM on February 15 [1 favorite]