Napkin Virtuoso

Not your ordinary table linen

The closest I’ve come to the art of napkin folding is when I worked at a country club and we had to fold the napkins into fans.

It was my most dreaded side work.  I could never understand why I had to spend 45 minutes after my shift folding napkins into lame designs just to have the members shake it out and fold it onto their laps the second they got to the table.

Perhaps if Joan Sallas had trained me in the art of napkin folding, I would have appreciated it more.

Joan Sallas is known as the world’s best virtuoso napkin folder.  He specializes in historic sculptures.

“My favourite piece is always the one I haven’t deciphered yet, the one I don’t know how to fold yet,” he told AFP in 2010. “It is incredibly exciting for a researcher to investigate how an object was folded: you can sit there for days and nights, until you understand how an object was folded.”

Joan began his career as an origami paper artist, but soon became intrigued with the almost dead art of napkin folding.  Joan loves his work, but don’t expect to see his pieces immortalized for all eternity in a museum.

At the end of each of his exhibitions he dismantles his work.  He says the short life span of his work symbolizes our lives.

Want a napkin folding lesson from the master?  Watch the video posted at the top of this blog and see Joan demonstrate how to fold a water lily.