Wyndstone Elephant Hide Paper

In 1995, Kim's Crane began business on the Internet. We had heard of a paper called Wyndstone sold by a store in Chicago, Illinois. We were also hearing of a paper called Zanders Elephant Hide Paper. Both papers looked the same and the description on diverse web sites read as if both papers were the same. The origami community was referencing the papers as two different papers. Kim's Crane wanted to carry this paper but was confused.

It was not until about 1996-97 that Kim’s Crane met with a representative for Zanders out of Germany. We explained to the representative the confusion we were having trying to source the Wyndstone Elephant Hide paper. He laughed and explained why there was confusion. It seemed a store in Chicago named Wyndstone was importing the Zanders Elephant Hide Paper and renaming the paper Wyndstone Paper. We told him that the origami community in the USA really loved the Wyndstone Elephant Hide Paper and that origami community was being misled to believe that Wyndstone was manufacturing this paper. The Zanders representative ensured us that he just got an order from the Wyndstone store for more elephant hide paper.

After meeting with the Zander representative, Kim's Crane placed an order to Zanders for the elephant hide paper and has listed the paper to our on-line shopping cart as Zanders Elephant Hide paper (the true name).   A few brave souls ordered the paper and commented on how similar it looked and folded to Wyndstone Elephant Hide paper. We tried to explain to each customer that it was the same paper but unfortunately, old habits (beliefs) die hard.

Even in 2017, Kim's Crane still get customers asking for Wyndstone Paper and we are still explaining the naming issue. The Wyndstone store no longer exists but papers called Wyndstone are still being sold. In addition, a few stores still label the Zanders Elephant Hide Paper as Wyndstone Elephant Hide Paper. We hope that this explanation will clear up the confusion.