Literary Origami – Book Folding 202 – A Paw Print

The following is my attempt to further explain Book Folding. I say attempt, because writing instructions is actually quite difficult. I have a new found appreciation for people who write manuals…

Paw Print

The Basics of Book Folding are covered in this post: Book Folding 101. Here is a video that will help you visualize what I explained in that post and what I am explaining below: DIY Marta. Though Marta isn’t the greatest at making videos, she is a big help in understanding what the process is. (I don’t do everything just like she does – but close enough.)

Moving on. In Book Folding 202, I’ll tell you how you use a printed Paw Print design. (If you have never folded a book before, use a practice book to test to see if you are on the right track…

1. Here is the pattern for the the Paw Print. If you right click on the image you can download it. Save it as a .jpg file and print it full size on an 8.5X11 sheet of paper. This should give you a paw print that is about 4 inches high.

2. If you use the pattern as printed, you will need a book that is  about 8 inches high and has at least 200 numbered pages, which gives you 100 leaves of paper. (1 sheet or leaf of paper has two numbered pages.)

3. Each line on the pattern represents one leaf of the book (two numbered pages) – but only where there is one element, like the left and right toes where there isn’t a second element (the foot pad) below it.

4. Where there are two elements (the toe and the foot pad), you will use two leaves per line on the pattern.

So, although this paw print pattern looks like it only needs 60 leaves, you are actually going to need a book with at least 99 leaves (200 pages). The top element is always folded on one leaf, the bottom element is folded on the next leaf.

Fold Line at the top of the pattern. Elements of the pattern: four toes and the foot pad.

5. Once you decide how the paw print will be positioned on the page (lets say the top of the paw is 2 inches down from the top of the book), then you will fold the paper pattern on a fold line that is 2 inches above the top of the paw print (see ‘Fold Line’ above). You will align this fold line with the top of each leaf of the book.

In the photo below, you can see how the pattern was folded on the fold line. The folded over piece of the pattern creates a ledge that makes it easy to align the pattern on every page.

 

6. The photo above shows the pattern if you were at about the half way point of folding. You can see that the toe and the foot pad are both shown on a single line of the pattern.

7. The toe element will be made with two folds on one leaf – from points #1 and #2. The foot pad will be folded on the next leaf from points #3 and #4. (The top element is always folded first.)

8. You can either make the folds directly from the pattern, or you can make pencil marks on each leaf, remove the pattern, then fold. Either method works. Put a tick mark on the pattern to show what you have finished folding or marking.

9. Folding always starts at the front of the book, but there will probably be some unfolded pages at the beginning and end of the book. So, to find the first leaf you will need to:
a. find the middle of the book.
b. take the number of leaves that you need (99), divided by 2 which gives you 50 leaves. Count back 50 leaves from the middle of the book to the front of the book. That will give you your starting point.

Clear as mud?