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Bringing your own chopsticks to restaurants instead of using disposables is smart and green, and it's easy and stylish when you can tote 'em in your own recycled chopstick carrier! Here's how to whip up a cool little origami container that'll keep your chopsticks clean and safe on your way out to eat, and keep 'em from dripping soy sauce all over your pocket or your bag on the way home.
Some travel chopsticks come with their own armor, but if your favorite set of sticks is nude, dress 'em up in a little case you can fold out of recycled paper.
- Grab an old sheet of giftwrap, or tear a page out of a magazine you've finished reading. Cut it into a rectangle that's just about two inches longer than your chopsticks, and about three times as wide as you want your finished carrier to be.
- Fold your paper lengthwise into thirds, the same way you would as if you were folding a letter to mail, then run your finger along the edges to press the crease, and unfold the sheet so that it lies flat.
- Fold the top corners of the paper down, so that the tips of the corners meet the creases, and the side of each folded down triangle lies flat against the long crease. This should give you a shape that looks sort of like a cape wrapped around someone's shoulders.
- Now, both long sides of the paper in along the crease, so they overlap, again like they would if you were getting ready to send a letter. It should look sort of like a burrito right now, but with both ends open.
- Turn the case over and seal up the end by folding the whole thing over at about an inch and a half up from the bottom. This'll turn your project from a tube into a pocket.
- Secure that flap with a piece of tape, and you've got a slick little portable carrier that you can stash your re-usable chopsticks in!
For pictures that'll help you see how you're supposed to fold your paper, check out these chopstick case instructions.
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