Origami #27: Pinwheel

Traditional origami design: the pinwheel. Laying flat side down on a flat surface, it will actually spin when I blow on it correctly.

Origami #26: Shirt

Today has been a day of figure skating (congrats Ryan Bradley), X-Games (congrats Shaun White), rinsing out some fabric that's been in dye for a week, and knitting (super-secret test knit that's been the bane of my existence for the better part of two-and-a-half months but is in the home stretch now).


Origami for today is a shirt -- Hawaiian style in celebration of the Pro Bowl.

Origami #25: Siamese Cat

Two-day, two-piece project from the Origami Fold-a-Day calendar. This siamese cat has one piece for the body and another for the head. Simple folds, both.

I do have to say, for some reason this cat looks a little mean or angry or something to me. My siamese is never mean or angry -- she's just a clown.

Origami #24: Crab

Pretty traditional origami crab, from the book Origami Jewelry by Ayako Brodek.


I ALMOST didn't have to check myself when the pattern started "start with a flower base". I am getting better at the basics of this, though for some reason my folding this evening was a bit "off".

Origami #23: Frog

A traditional origami frog. Instructions found at Origami Instructions. He didn't really want to inflate once I was done with him, but I think you can still get the general frog idea.

Origami #22: Gold(Pink?)fish

Today's project is actually today's project from the Origami Fold-a-Day calendar: a goldfish (though he's pink since that's what color the paper for the project is).


I am very, very proud of myself that when these instructions began, "Start with a helmet base" I did NOT have to go to the basic folds section of the calendar to find out what that meant!

Oh, the toothpick is just to hold him upright for his closeup -- he wants to fall forward when I try to stand him up and he still wants to pop open when I lay him down (a night between some books should fix that tendency).

Origami #21: Money Shirt

Today, simple money origami: a dollar bill becomes a shirt.


I should try doing this with a tip sometime.

Origami #20: Two Dogs

A pair of dogs for today.


The first, simpler dog for the day is a static guy, but he's kinda cute. He's actually the project for today from the Accord Publishing Origami Fold-a-Day calendar. Cute.


Second is a barking dog I found on YouTube. Some people did comment that he went a little fast in the video, but I just paused when I needed to. Ain't he adorable? And he looks a lot like my Louie.

Origami #19: Seal

From the fabulous intro origami book "Origami for the First Time" by Soonboke Smith comes this cute seal.


A fairly simple fold beginning with a fish base (my first fish base). Perhaps I should make him a ball?

Origami #18: Flying Fish

From the book "Under the Sea Origami" by Duy Nguyen comes this flying fish. Fairly simple fold. Not much else to say about it.


Today's been a cleaning-the-house, finishing projects, dealing with details kinda day, so again just a simple origami project.

Origami #17: Kitty

Today, a simple project for a busy day. Kitten walked into the office as I was contemplating today's project, so today we get a kitty.

Project is from Origami Club -- very basic. As you can see, drawing is not my strong suit.

Origami #16: Wallet (aka Jacob's Ladder)

Today a wallet. It's the same principle as the Jacob's Ladder children's toys which have fascinated me forever. I used to have one on my desk -- I'm guessing it's still in that box of stuff I packed when I left my job in CT.


This pattern comes from "Origami Card Craft" by Karen Elaine Thomas (a great book -- highly recommended and not just for origami).


Included is one KIP Bags tag (check out Rudawg's Etsy shop) to show that it really does work.

Paper this time was just plain ole construction paper, two sheets of purple and one of orange. I do have plans to decorate this and perhaps add some glue to make it neater.

Sorry the video's sideways, but you can get the idea -- don't have any video editing software and not really interested in adding that to my skill bank right now.

Origami #15: Cranes

Today I decided to fold a flock of cranes. The larger 6 are folded from 3" squares of paper. The teeny-tiny guy is folded from a 1" square of paper (that was tricky).


Only 992 more to go.

Origami #14: Flapping Bird (and a bonus)

This is a fairly basic origami project. I followed the animated instructions from the British Origami Society.

It's a simple project that starts with a bird base and adds a couple extra slight creases to make the bird flap his wings when you pull his tail.


Just for fun today.


The bonus: a crane. This one made without a pattern, just some basic origami I've learned over the past couple of weeks, and the crane that hangs over my desk as a model.

Origami #13: Butterfly

From the book "Origami Jewelry" by Ayako Brodek, this is a little butterfly (it's sitting on my self-healing cutting mat, and each of those squares is 1", so you can see how small -- I started with a 3" square piece of paper) which I hope we can turn into a brooch (after some gluing and sealing). Perhaps if I get really confident I can make two even smaller butterflies (starting with 1.5" squares) for the matching earrings.


Just one alteration from the pattern: I knocked in the top corners of the front wings a bit. It doesn't look so harsh to me now.

I spent a bit of time this morning with my cutting mat and rotary cutter cutting 12x12 calendar pages down to 6x6 and smaller pieces.

Origami #12: Four Hearts

A small collection of origami hearts (which will probably be used as bookmarks around here -- you can see how they interlock). Pattern is from Origami for the First time by Soonboke Smith.


Largest heart is made from an 8.5" square and measures approximately 4.25". Then they go down to 6" paper for a 3" heart; 4" paper for a 2" heart; and 2" paper for a 1" heart. The small one is the smallest thing I've made and good practice for some origami crane earrings I'm considering.

Origami #11: Water Bomb Tessellation

I've been fascinated by tessellations in general for a very long time, so I was very interested to find the book "Origami Tessellations" by Eric Gjerde. There are some truly stunning things in the book, and some truly stunning tessellations out there in the world -- made from a single square or hexagonal sheet of paper. Just take a look at the origami tessellations group on Flickr to see what's possible.


This project is called "water bomb" and it's in the beginner section of the book. It was relatively straightforward and (unlike many tessellation projects which start with 32x32 or denser grids) only required an 8x8 grid to do the basic pattern. If you look at the right on the first photo above, you can see where I made an error with the initial creases -- there's one errant crease in the middle of one of the squares.


Brownie first wondered why I was putting this thing on her bed -- then she decided to make off with it and eat it (she has a thing about paper).

Origami #10: Scorpion

In honor of my zodiac sign (still *, regardless of what you might have read recently), a scorpion.


Pretty straightforward -- did involve some cutting, but I was actually able to follow the instructions I found at Origami Club without difficulty. I may be starting to get the hang of this thing.

* I mean, really, now. First they demote Scorpio's planet, now they want to tell me that not only am I not a Scorpio, but Scorpio is really only nine days! Could give a girl a complex.

Origami #9: Turtle

This is a fairly traditional origami piece: a turtle. Instructions found at The Fold.


With this project I learned that I still have a lot to learn about following origami instructions. I've been knitting since I was old enough to know the difference between needles and yarn, so knitting language and knitting patterns are second nature to me. This whole origami experience is giving me a new appreciation for what people who learn to knit as adults must be going through when faced with a pattern for the first time.

I will admit that I found a great video that walked me through the process so I could understand the directions. And, in general, I highly recommend that adults learning something new watch other people do it, live or online -- at least for visual learners this is a big help.


Once I figured out what I was doing, I have to admit the hardest part of this project was opening it once it was done, since this was, once again, made with a calendar page that's a bit heavier than origami paper. Very pretty, and very fitting for a turtle, however.

Origami #8: UFO

Yet another project from "Amazing Origami" by Kunihiko Kasahara. This one starts with a two-sided regular octagon. Adding a few folds to the octagon creates this great UFO shape.


Here I'll just quote the book: "I would like to introduce you to a different technique here, called iso-area folding. This was invented by Toshikazu Kawasaki, a Japanese mathematician and prominent origami scholar."


Essentially, once this UFO is folded it creates a shape which can be turned (by pushing down on the top until it flips) and still have the same shape.

Origami #7.5: I Didn't Fail After All

Success! After posting to the blog last night that I had failed at figuring out this vase pattern, I sat back down in my chair, took one last look at the piece, and suddenly knew what I was supposed to do. A few folds later, and I had a completed vase.


Pattern is from "Amazing Origami" by Kunihiko Kasahara. It starts with a square piece of paper which is folded to create 6 60-degree angles, then cut to create a hexagon. This hexagon is then manipulated to become this lovely little vase.




And some bonus coverage of yesterday's project (which was finished late last evening and photographed under artificial light):

I think you can see the shape of it much better here.

Origami #7: Altered Cube

As promised, today's project is a slightly more interesting project from "Amazing Origami" by Kunihiko Kasahara. But first I need to admit to my first origami failure. My original plan for the day was to make a beautiful vase created from a regular hexagon, which itself was made from an equilateral triangle. But I couldn't. I got stuck. Sorry.


What you get instead is this cube (essentially two open boxes put together) with its 8 corners "knocked in" creating an interesting polyhedron shape (technically a triacontahedron with 24 triangular faces and 6 square faces). The pictures don't really show it well, but I think you can get the idea.


This shows the two pieces which were joined to make the polyhedron.

BTW, while searching for the correct term for a 30-sided polyhedron, I came across Daniel Kwan's Flickr photos. Wow, just wow.

Origami #6: Pentagonal Pyramid

This week: fun with geometry. I found a very interesting book called "Amazing Origami" by Kunihiko Kasahara. It has some very interesting projects in it, but it really focuses on the geometry behind origami. This project uses a few simple folds to create first a doubled pentagonal pyramid shaped something like an hourglass (see side view photo),


then shows how the whole thing can be taken apart, cut in half, and reconstructed into two individual pentagonal pyramids.


Okay, not a very exciting project for the viewer, but the geometry is kind of interesting and the explanations of how this all works are simple enough to understand even for someone who struggled with basic geometry in high school.

Tomorrow, something a bit more visually exciting from the same book.