The exotic paper I mentioned in my previous post is now on sale at the Paper Jade site. It’s called Elephant Hide paper, presumably because of its durability and not because it’s made out of the skin of pachyderms. (Honestly I don’t know what it’s made out of, but it doesn’t feel like it’s made from fibers commonly used in either domestic or Japanese papers.) It’s made by one mill in Germany and is difficult to obtain–or rather, it was difficult to obtain until Paper Jade started carrying it. I learned about it from Eric Gjerde’s wonderful book on origami tessellations, but my understanding is that it’s also used for book binding, exotic stationery, wine lists (so I’m told!), and so on. Click here to visit the appropriate section of Paper Jade’s site.
Paper Jade Now Carries Elephant Hide Paper
I do love Elephant Hide! And you have no idea how upset I was to find that Wyndstone was not going to be carrying it anymore after Zander’s little problems last year… nothing like writing a book all about using a wonderful paper, and then having it disappear from the North American markets 🙂
I’m very glad to hear that stores are carrying it, it really is a fantastic paper for folding tessellations and other sorts of origami. I believe it has some plastic polymers embedded in the paper which give it such strength, but that’s really just a guess more than anything. I haven’t taken the time to do the research on the actual makeup of the paper, but whatever it is I love it dearly 🙂
Thanks so much for the kind words about the book, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it!
best wishes,
-Eric Gjerde
I’d love to know what’s in the stuff; it certainly feels unusual. I’ve thought about asking my contacts at Zanders but I suspect they consider its content a trade secret. In any case, I’m very glad to be able to carry it at Paper Jade.
I just completed the Pinwheel pattern from your book, using a 20x20cm square of Elephant Hide. This was the first thing I’d folded with it, and I was curious to see how it would behave. I was able to divide it into 32, and it held up to all of the pre-creasing and folding with no trouble. It’s impressive paper.
BTW, sorry that your comment got held up for moderation. I don’t know why it set off my site’s spam alarms. Maybe it doesn’t like two smilies in one post.