After completing the Birdwing Butterfly from a few days back, I gave Michael LaFosse's very famous Alice Gray Butterfly a go. This is a much simpler butterfly to work on, but looks as beautiful as his more complex designs.

And to aid me in my origami, I had recently purchased Margaret van Sicklen's book 'The Joy of Origami'. The reason I had purchased the book was because of the beautiful paper that comes along with the book! The book has instructions for beginner origamists. But the paper is very good. It is glossy and thick magazine kinda paper. The beauty is in the designs and colours of the print. Very lovely! Unfortunately, due to the thickness, I wasn't able to make too many folds, but the Alice Gray butterfly isn't very complex, not too many folds. And the print was perfect for the butterfly. Well, actually, the paper was meant for the butterfly, this was among the first diagrams in the book, so everything was quite perfect :)

And I think the butterfly turned out quite well too. I love the shades of green and blue, very lovely! I think I should make this into my Favicon or something..

Model Details:

Model: Alice Gray Butterfly

Creator: Michael LaFosse

Book: Origami Butterflies
 
Authors: Michael G. LaFosse and Richard L. Alexander
 
Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 6 inches

Instructions: Origami.cz

The origami birdwing butterfly is yet another of Michael LaFosse's beautiful butterflies. I love folding LaFosse's butterflies, as they are not very simple but at the same time, not so complex that they give you the shivers, just looking at the instructions either!

The book 'Origami Butterflies', by Michael LaFosse, takes you through a system of discovery for folding an unlimited variety of origami butterflies. The book is great to add to your collection, if you are fascinated by origami butterflies. The book also gives instructions for folding a whole lot of butterflies, including the very famous Alexander Swallowtail butterfly and the Alice Gray butterfly.

But the butterfly I have folded here, the Birdwing butterfly, is actually from another of LaFosse's books, 'Origami Art'. The book  talks in depth about LaFosse's Origamido Studio. It then moves on to origami design and display, gives expert advice on making your own paper, explains how to mount origami for display and then finally has a beautiful selection of models to fold. Most of them I found to be too complex for me. This butterfly of course, caught my interest. LaFosse has suggested using black and iridescent green duo washi paper for the model, a suggestion that I was unfortunately unable to follow.

The butterfly was not very difficult to fold, though the pleats took a good deal of time. I was not able to get the long abdomen that was visible in the completed model in the book. But overall, I am happy with this little butterfly :)

Model Details:

Model: Birdwing Butterfly

Creator: Michael LaFosse

Book: Origami Art
 
Authors: Michael G. LaFosse and Richard L. Alexander
 
Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 5 inches

A few days back I read a joke that 90% of people using Google.com, use it to check if their internet connection is working and only the remaining 10% use it for searching! Well, it looks like most people I know were busy checking their internet connections today, cos I have got endless messages, pings, calls informing me that today is Akira Yoshizawa's birthday, thanks to the Google doodle today :) I have got suggestions on what I should post and what I should make!

I did take the suggestions to heart and made a little something with Akira Yoshizawa's very famous butterfly. The Yoshizawa Butterfly is, I think, one of the most beautiful yet simple butterflies that I have tried. It starts with a waterbomb base and is very quickly turned into a butterfly!

What I did with the butterfly, was to make a whole bunch of them in rainbow colours (or at least most of the rainbow colours) and place them randomly to a while background to form a collage of sorts.

If you notice closely, you will see that the butterfly wings are not completely flattened and the butterfly itself does not lie flat. This was a small variation I picked up from Nick Robinson's blog, where the wings are folded but not creased and a mountain fold holds the butterfly shape well.

Model Details:

Model: Butterfly 

Creator: Akira Yoshizawa

Difficulty Level: Simple

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 2 inches

Tutorial: Youtube

Instructions: Sanrio Town

With Valentine's Day coming up, a lot of us must be on the lookout for pretty things to make and gift. So naturally I went googling and came across this lovely heart box on Flickr!

The creator of the heart box is Natan Lopez. I understand that the diagram for the model will be published in the magazine '4 Esquinas' but am not sure when it is to be published. But in the meanwhile, the diagram and CP have been kindly shared by Natan on his Flick! profile (links below).

Some points that I learnt after trying out the heart a few times:

• For the base, I used a square that was slightly smaller than the one for the lid. I wasn't able to make them fit together well when I used squares of the same size.
• In Step 23 in the instructions, it is suggested that the corners be either folded or cut off. I suggest cutting them off; else there is a lot of folded paper which didn't make the folding easy at all!
• For the lid, in Step 25, adding one more valley fold around the box ensures that the base is slightly taller than the lid.

Model Details:

Model: Heart Box 

Creator: Nathan Lopez

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 7 inches for lid and 6.75 inches for base

Instructions: Flickr!

Instructions (CP): Flickr!

With Valentine's day coming up, the origami cube of love would make a great DIY gift 😀 It is a modular cube with a whole bunch of hearts in it! It is made from 6 units, each unit with a heart in one of the corners. The modules are made from half a square, that is, rectangles in the ratio of 1:2. They are quite easy to make. Duo-coloured paper must be used to get the contrast between the heart and the rest of the module.

The cube makes a great decoration and will make a good gift for a loved one..

Model Details:

Model: Cube of Love

Creator: Fumiaki Shingu

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Rectangle in ratio 1:2

Paper Size: 5 inches * 2.5 inches

Modules: 6

Diagram: Origami-club

The 8 cornered box or vase is a traditional origami that is made from a single sheet of paper. It starts off with a frog base. The origami is essentially a simple origami to make, though it involves a fair number of steps to complete.

Printer paper or other similarly thick (ie., 80 gsm) paper works well for this model. Thicker 120 gsm paper can also be used.

Model Details:

Model: 8 Pointed Star Box 

Origin: Traditional

Difficulty Level: Simple

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 8 inch squares

Model Size: ~3 inches in diameter and 2 inches in height

Instructions: Marigami's Site

Tutorial: Youtube

Valentine's Day is coming up and this time, I thought I would try out some handmade gift bags to go with the Valentine Day's gifts.

I tend to hoard paper pack in various themes. These are essentially 160 gsm thick paper with print that is coordinated under specific themes. Though they are not usually used for origami, they are great for making paper bags!

So I broke out the Valentine Day themed pack and ended up making these bags which are about 6 * 4 inches in size.