I am always on the lookout for some easy origami to teach Little Miss, my daughter. And when I find modular origami that she can do, I am doubly delighted. So yesterday, I happened upon this beautifully easy modular action origami, the origami magic circle and of course, had to immediately fold it. It is so simple that it took me all of 15 minutes to fold and assemble the 8 modules!

Each module starts from a waterbomb base. When assembling, absolutely no glue is required since each module locks well into the adjacent module. When assembled, the model resembles a flower (second pic). When the pointy ends are turned inwards, they end up meeting in the middle and the model becomes a circle.

A few tips:

* Use double-sided paper. Copy/printer paper is perfect for this model. This will ensure that the uncoloured side of the paper is not visible at the open end.

* If kids are attempting the model, use paper that is at least 4-5 inches in size. Little Miss, who is 6, found it difficult assembling the model when I gave her 3-inch square papers (slotting the two tabs simultaneously into the two pockets turned out to be frustrating for her).

Model Details:

Model: Magic Circle

Origin: Traditional

Difficulty Level: Simple

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 5 inches

Model Size (circle): ~5.5 inches

Model Size (flower): ~8 inches

Modules: 8

Tutorial: Youtube

I have not been the most active blogger these days, mainly because I am experimenting with paper jewelry and well, that is pretty time-consuming. Though I enjoy making paper jewelry, there is nothing like folding a good solid modular origami to get one back in the blogging game! This modular icosahedron is a fairly easy model to complete and is folded from half a square. So 15 squares, cut into half gives the 30 rectangles required for the icosahedron. The base unit is Lewis Simon's Triangle Edge Module.

Some points to note:

* I worked with coloured copy paper (80 gsm), which resulted in a good, sturdy model.

* If you are working with single sided paper, be sure to start with the coloured paper facing down (as given in the diagram).

* If your model is going to be tossed around (and believe me, this icosahedron very quickly becomes a football!), then be sure to add a dab of glue at the joints.

Model Details:

Model: Icosahedron from Triangle Edge Modules

Creator: Lewis Simon

Book: 3D Geometric Origami

Authors: Lewis Simon, Bennett Arnstein and Rona Gurkewitz

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Rectangle

Paper Size: 3.5 inches * 1.75 inches

Model Size: ~3 inches

Modules: 30

Tutorial: Youtube 

My daughter, Little Miss, has recently become very keen on recycling and reusing whatever she can. So when I was recently asked to make a few origami lotuses, she came up with the idea of making literary lotuses! And we are both delighted with the way the lotuses turned out. We initially tried a complete literary lotus - that is, the flower and the leaves were an old book paper. But our second attempt - book paper lotus with green copy paper leaves were more to our liking.

One thing I did find was that, the book paper is much thinner than the copy paper - which meant pulling out the petals had to be done with more care, else we risk tearing the paper. And since the paper was thinner, the literary lotus turned out a little smaller than the one made entirely from copy paper.

Model Details:

Model: Lotus

Origin: Traditional

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Rectangle

Paper Size: 3 inches * 5.2 inches

Model Size: ~4 inches

Modules: 12

Tutorial: Youtube 

This month's theme at the Origami Society of Madras is a little different from usual. This month, we are working on a theme author instead of a theme object. And the author we have voted for is the grand-master of origami - Akira Yoshizawa.

The beauty of Akira Yoshizawa's models lie in the simple, elegant lines of his fold. His genius is evident in the way he captures an animal or an insect with the fewest folds possible! Ofcourse, there are a number of complex models to his name but his simple ones are the ones that capture the attention of even a beginner origamist.

His most popular model is the butterfly. I love this butterfly. When I first started teaching my Little Miss some basic origami, this was among the first models I taught her. And she became quite famous in her class, because she could fold a butterfly while most of her classmates folded only boats :) And inspite of the butterfly being an easy model to fold, it still looks amazingly like a butterfly! No wonder Akira Yoshizawa is credited as an origami grand master!

So today, what I folded was the origami shrimp from his book "Origami Museum Animals". Though the model is called a lobster, I think it resembles the shrimp more than it resembles the lobster. Again, with the fewest of folds, the grand-master has beautifully helped me fold a couple of cute little shrimps! Each shrimp is folded from a triangle formed by cutting along the diagonal of a square. In the notes, he has said that if the paper is thin enough, we can fold the square along its diagonal and then proceed with the shrimp, but I preferred folding it from a triangle. It helps that we can fold 2 shrimps from a single square which is what I did.

Model Details:

Model: Shrimp / Lobster

Creator: Akira Yoshizawa

Book: Origami Museum Animals
 
Author: Akira Yoshizawa
 
Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Triangle

Paper Size: 9.5 inch square cut along the diagonal

Model Size: The body measures ~ 3.5 inches and the antennae measure ~ 3.25 inches

The kusudama spiral, which looks to me to be less of a kusudama and more of a modular design, is created by Irina Krivyakina. The design is very similar to Tomoko Fuse's spiral origami.

In this design, the 6 sides of the cube are first assembled individually and then put together using connecting units. Each side of the cube is made up of 4 units which are folded together to form the spiral. A total of 24 units are required for the cube faces. The connecting unit is basically a bird base. 12 such units are required for assembling the cube.

3 inch squares are the perfect size for making the cube. I would not suggest a single-sided paper for the units used for assembling the cube. When using single-sided paper, while forming the spiral, I discovered to my dismay, that however I folded it, a little bit of the white was visible at the corners of the spirals. And it was very obviously seen in the completed cube :(

Model Details:

Model: Kusudama Spiral

Creator: Irina Krivyakina

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 3 inches

Model Size: ~4 inches

Modules: 36

Photo Tutorial: Stranamasterov

Tutorial: Youtube

I am not sure of the creator of these origami pleated boxes. My guess would of course, be Tomoko Fuse. But I am not able to find any reference to the box in any of her books. Unfortunately I do not remember where I learnt to fold this either. And I do not remember the name of the box either. Since it has got a whole bunch of pleats, I just call it the pleated box. So, not knowing any of these details, I have had little success in finding out the creator. But for now, I am tagging it as Tomoko Fuse.

The box can be made from a variety of paper. I have tried mine with wrapper paper, hand made paper, origami paper, printer paper and it turned out well in all of them. The one made from origami paper (the variations-in-blue one) is my favourite. I tried it out in a variety of sizes too. From 5 inch squares to 2 inch squares. All look fantastic I think :)

Model Details:

Model: Pleated Box 

Creator: Tomoko Fuse

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Modules: 4 for the base and 4 for the lid

The truncated icosahedron is another of Tomoko Fuse's modular creations. This is from her book Unit Polyhedron Origami. The model is fairly easy to do. It rather reminds me the origami football I had folded nearly a year back!

The model is made of a combination of hexagonal flat units and connecting units that connect the hexagonal units. Usually modular units have a pocket and a tab - each tab fits into its adjacent unit. But in these models, the hexagonal shapes have 3 pockets and no tabs. So the connecting units fit into the pockets of adjacent hexagons and hold the model together.

I like the little windows in the model as well :) Also, though the backs of the hexagons can be seen through the windows, the reverse side of the paper is not seen in the completed unit. So single-sided paper works perfectly well. I had used 80 gsm paper which turned out to be great for this model. The completed truncated icosahedron is sturdy - so sturdy, in fact, that my brother suggested we use it as a football! 😮

Model Details:

Model: Truncated Icosahedron

Creator: Tomoko Fuse

Book: Unit Polyhedron Origami
 
Author: Tomoko Fuse
 
Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 3.5 inches for the hexagons; 1.75 inches for the connectors

Model Size: ~5 inches in diameter

Modules: 50