This project is inspired by orizomegami, a Japanese art of dipping pleated rice paper into vegetable dyes to make beautiful designs. Learn more about other forms of Asian art at the Smithsonian's Freer|Sackler Galleries (asia.si.edu).
The really cool part of this project is experimenting with different folds and color combos; to get you started, follow these steps for a few basic motifs.
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THE SETUP
Iron a few coffee filters to make them flat. (An adult’s job — iron up to four at a time on the highest setting, no steam.) Set them out on a covered surface with lots of paper towels and a few bowls of liquid watercolor paint. (We used Sargent Art Watercolor Magic, $11; amazon.com.) You can also make it from cake watercolors: Remove each one and place in a bowl, then add a few drops of water at a time, mixing as you go, until the paint becomes a thin liquid.
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FOLD THE COFFEE FILTERS
Show your child these techniques to start— then encourage her to experiment on her own!
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FOR STRIPED DESIGNS
Accordion-fold the coffee filter in 1-inch segments to get one long rectangle. Then accordion-fold the rectangle in 3/4-inch segments to get a small rectangle.
—SMALL-SCALE PLAID: Make smaller (about 1/2 inch) folds to get more stripes — try pleating 11 times in both steps.
—LARGE-SCALE PLAID: Dip the filters slowly to get all over color. (This works nicely with hues near each other on the color wheel.)
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FOR CIRCULAR DESIGNS
Fold the coffee filter in half three times so you have a cone shape. Unfold into a half-circle, then use the creases as a guide to accordion-fold the filter along its radius, like a fan, until you get a skinny triangle. Fold one corner of the rounded edge down to meet the opposite long edge, forming a triangle. Then accordion-fold the paper two more times, matching the corners to long edges, to get a small trapezoid.
—FLOWER: To get color in the middle only, don’t fold up the point before you dip.
—MANDALA: Dip very quickly to leave white space in between the colors.
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BONUS FUN
Play with other porous materials (such as tissue paper, newspaper, or fabric) to see how the paint absorbs with each.
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