Origami Rose

Since this is my final post, I wanted to try a particularly tricky origami. I picked the rose since it not only look complex, but it also required attaching multiple parts with difficult folds.

The piece started off with making six of the same piece. This starts off by folding the paper in half diagonally and then to fold it corner to corner to create a crease.

The next fold is to fold the triangle corners against the crease I just created. Since this is a fold that typically ends up messy for me, I turned to the beginning of the book to see if there was a trick that could help me. The books says "hold the corner in place with your left forefinger and make the crease with your right thumb" (Nakano 6). I'm glad to say that my fold turned out significantly cleaner than it was previously. 

The book then says to "overlap the two front flaps and glue them together" (Nakano 57). 

I repeated this five more times as stated by the book to not only have everything ready for the next step but to also let the glue dry for each piece. 

Once every piece was dried, I folded the overlapped corners forward as instructed by the book (Nakano 57).

I then glued the sides to each other as shown in the book. However, I ran into a problem with gluing as I used liquid glue as well as the fact that I did not wait for the glue to dry because I wanted to just glue it all at once. I also felt that I did not understand the diagram well as the folded corners got in the way when I tried to attach it all. I guess it was a little too complex for me.

The final product doesn't look the best. I'd like to be able to create a vase of origami flowers. So, is the any other way to fold the rose origami or just any other flower origami, that anyone knows of? 

Origami Box: But Really Flat

I decided to create an origami box as it has proven to be simple enough for me to understand, but has also helped in learning a new technique that I could use for future origami projects.

For the first step, was to fold the paper in half horizontally, unfold, and then fold the sides into the center of the paper where the crease was created (Nakano 40).

Then, fold the corners of the rectangle against the line of blank paper and then pull out the hidden corners (Nakano 40). I had not understood this when I read this, but after looking at the helpful picture provided, I figured it out.

The hardest part was creating the "pull-to-perpendicular fold." According to the book, "hold the paper as shown... and draw the upper layers toward you. At the same time, push against the folded edge with your thumbs" (Nakano 40). As told, I pulled the edge from underneath the paper and pulled it upwards to stand it up as a side of the box. I did the same for the other side to create my origami box.

It's not as expertly folded I would've liked, but it certainly is a good place to put my phone charms, so I'd say this was a success. Does anybody know of other variations of origami boxes? I'd like to get a deep, sturdy one to hold my pencils.

Bird and Wreath Mobile

I decided to do a bird and wreath origami mobile since I wanted to create a larger project with more steps as well as to add more spice to my bedroom. The book uses two of previously taught origami to create the mobile, the flying saucer and the hen origami.

I had folded the hen origami first as I had learned it prior to the book. The book didn't really give me any tips, so there was nothing to really improve my folding.

The flying saucer was an origami that I had not learned to fold and was my main concern to making this. The origami consists of multiple parts being connected.

First, I made eight of the pieces. The pieces are made by a diagonal fold from corner to corner, then a fold of the bottom corner to the top corner (Nakano 28).

A tip that is given in the book to make connecting the units together, "if you open the pocket by pressing down on the ridge... it makes it easier to tuck the point in" (Nakano 28). Unsurprisingly, this helped significantly on tucking all of the pieces together.

One thing that I had not thought of folding the flying saucer was gluing the pieces together since my perception of origami has been strictly to folding. When sticking the pieces together, "Make sure each point fits tightly into the pocket and fix it in place with a little glue" (Nakano 28). This made it stabler and held it together even when I accidentally dropped it.

The final step was to attach it all together into a mobile. The book tells us to use cotton thread and needle. The thread goes through the middle of the hen, then to the center of the saucer with a piece of scotch tape to prevent the hen from slipping (Nakano 34).

It now hangs on the ceiling of my room and looks great. Does anyone else know any more decorative origami? I would love to have a whole matrix of hanging origami.

Simple Leaping Frog

The leaping frog origami has always been a fidgeting tool that I've always wanted to fold myself, but never took the time to learn. Now, I have a reason to learn origami and a reason to learn the leaping frog.

The version that I picked was fairly simple, seeing as the book I picked is called Easy Origami. The origami wasn't too hard to fold, but I did learn small quirks that had improved my folding.

At the first step, the book had already fixed a mistake that I had repeated time and time again. I have always folded the cross shaped folds, first by folding it in half from side to side, then folding once again. I never once unfolded the paper during this. But, in the book, they say to "fold opposite edges together in turn; crease and open up" (Nakano 8). I noticed that my folds were more even and sharper than they were before.

The book gives small tips when folding. In this piece, a strong fold needs to be made for the frog to spring up. For this fold to be made easier, it is recommended that it is done solidly with both hands (Nakano 8).

The final result looks simplistic and nothing like the ones that my family has folded before, but a fidgeting tool comes a long way. I could honestly spend hours with this thing.

I would like to learn the more complicated versions of the leaping frog. Could anyone send these same kinds origami to play with?