This Way Up Update.

Today I folded a couple more copies of the This Way Up box. The one made from Stardream text weight paper came out well.

The one I made from wet-folded card-weight Sorbet Duo was not so successful. The paper is just too bulky to look good.



This is one of my first experiments with wet-folding. It should really be called "damp folding" as a soggy piece of paper warps horribly. I lost a few good pieces of paper this way over the last couple of days.

Michale LaFosse recommends using a spray bottle to dampen the paper. This did not work very well for me. The bottle I purchased from the super-market was meant for cleaning fluids, not for plant misting. Even the finest setting was too coarse to provide an even non-blotchy film on the paper.

I discovered that a wrung-out common-or-kitchen-variety sponge wiped across the paper several times produced about the right dampness. I rinsed the sponge thoroughally first. This was fortunate as it was primed with some detergent. Check for this possibility if you aim to copy this method.

I used a large deep flat bottomed plastic tray to sit the paper in as I sponged it. After about a minute I transfered the damp paper to a large piece of plastic. This was cut down from a large zipper bag from which I had removed the zipper and the front section. This protected my Division Helper sheet. Trying to align wet paper on top of a printed card was obviously not going to work.

Dampening the paper certainly helped to avoid the cracks which can appear in card when it is folded. The method resulted in a very firm and stable set of modules.

Putting the modules together, however, was very difficult. The dampness prevented tears but the paper marred when bulky sections were dragged tightly across adjacent sections.

My conclusion is that card weight material is not suitable for this model, or for any other modular creation where assembly requires that several layers of material be squashed tightly together.

Success with card weight material is dependent on a suitable design which factors in the thickness of the paper, its strength and its spanning ability. This is what I did with my card weight "sox box". The design for this does not work with text weight material without a few adjustments.