 | Be accurate with your folding otherwise
your tiles may not fit together to make a nice looking medallion and the
pattern may not be the same on each tile. There should be no gaps between
the points of tiles or odd corners sticking out. |
| Try the fold with a
larger piece of plain paper so that you can easily see what is happening.
There are little blocks of paper used for leaving messages that are about 4
inches square that are very handy for this. Make sure you get ones that are
square otherwise you will have problems with accuracy. |
| Make definite folds. When you have to reverse a fold it is much easier to
do if you have run along the folds with your fingernail, a paper creaser, a
ruler or anything like that. Once you know the fold it may not be so
necessary to do a definite fold. |
| Long nosed pointed tweezers are a great help when folding or making the
medallions. |
| Use a placement diagram. There are some folds that don’t need a placement
diagram but most look better if you use one. |
| When gluing the tiles together use minimal glue because it gives
you a chance to adjust them a little to fit in with the backing mat if you
are using one. It also allows you to take them apart without damaging the
teabag too much if you have to redo the assembly of the medallion. |
| Thinner paper is easier to fold with than thicker paper. |
| The main difference between folding with square and round teabags is that
square teabags have corners to make it easier to line up the pattern so
every folded teabag ends up with the same pattern showing on them. With
round teabags it is harder to make them all the same but the easy way to do
it is to fold the teabag in half with the pattern on the outside then
reverse the fold if you are using the pattern on the inside. |
| When using cutaway tiles most people use a kite fold but if you look at
some of your favourite folds you might find that they adapt well to cutaway
tiles. It just takes a bit of experimenting. |
| Sometimes the back of the medallion is as pretty as the front. There
are several ideas to allow you to do that.
 | Cut a hole in the front of the card, put a piece of acetate
(overhead projector sheet) behind it, then stick the medallion to the
front of the acetate. |
| Use these diagrams. |
| Attach the medallion to a ribbon or fancy thread so it can dangle. |
|
| I always print my teabags on a premium inkjet paper. It is a little
more expensive but the colours are much better than on ordinary paper. If
you only use part of the sheet of paper you can cut straight across and
use the rest of the paper another time. |
