Did you know that the traditional gift for a first anniversary is paper? Well, with Valentine's Day so close, I ended up collecting my favourite paper heart earrings, a unique gift for a unique day.

I remade a few of my heart earrings for my daughter, Little Miss. The purple ones turned out to be her favourite and the right size for her :) 

The Dodecaedro Traforato or Perforated Dodecahedron is a modular origami by Silvana Betti Mamino. Like most modular origami, the modules are pretty easy to fold. They are folded from a A4 sheet. Well, the A4 is actually cut into 4 rectangles horizontally. I felt A4 strips would be too big, so worked with A5 sheet cut into 4 rectangles. Worked perfectly well :) I used printer paper - 5 colours and 6 strips in each colour.

Folding printer paper wasn't that easy - 80 gsm paper requires more effort to fold than 60 gsm, doesn't it? Assembling for me, was the most challenging part. The reason was because of the colours. I wanted to ensure that there was some kind of uniformity in the assembly and after 3 attempts, I finally managed it I think.

The modules hold together without glue once fully assembled. But I didn't find it terribly stable, so if you will be moving it about, then a little glue helps. If you are assembling without glue, ensure you have a whole bunch of paper clips to hold the modules in place.

Model Details:

Model: Dodecaedro Traforato

Creator: Silvana Betti Mamino

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Rectangles from A5

Paper Size: 2.1 inches by 5.8 inches

Model Size: 4.5 inches diameter

Number of Modules: 30

Instruction: Modulandia.it

The dodecahedron kit is a part of a series of similar kits from the book 'Polyhedron Origami', by Miyuki Kawamura. The other kits in the series include the Edge Module, Tetrahedron, Octahedron and Icosahedron kits.

Each of these kits are made up of 2 kinds of modules - the vertex modules (which forms the corners of the polyhedron) and the edge modules (which connects 2 vertex modules). The vertex module is different for different polyhedra, with changes in the angle and in the number of arms radiating from it.

The dodecahedron kit is made from 50 modules - 20 dodecahedron vertex modules and 30 edge modules. The vertex modules have 3 radiating arms, so are connected to 3 edge modules. 5 such vertex modules link together to form 1 face of the dodecahedron. 12 such faces are joined together to form the dodecahedron.

I found it an interesting piece to fold and might also fold the other kits if possible. The only disappointment for me was that I had used single-sided paper. And when folding the vertex modules, a little of the white can be seen at the back. I didn't think much of it till I started assembling the piece and realised that, since it is a structure with a lot of big windows, the back of the modules are also visible - as can be seen in the pic! So, if you are folding this, remember to use paper coloured on both sides, at least for the vertex modules.

The model is pretty stable but if you are going to move it around a lot, then I suggest a dab of glue at the joints. Else the vertex modules tend to put out of the edge modules. And another thing, remember to use fairly small paper. I used squares of 2.5 inches and ended up with a model that measured about 7 inches across.

Model Details:

Model: Dodecahedron Kit

Creator: Miyuki Kawamura

Book: Polyhedron Origami

Author: Miyuki Kawamura

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 2.5 inches

Model Size: 7 inches diameter

Number of Modules: 50

Since of late I have recently been working on easy origami, I thought I would try out something a bit more challenging. This hydrangea cube was a good attempt and I am quite pleased with how it has turned out 😀

How to go about this? Well, we need to initially make 6 of Shuzo Fujimoto's hydrangea tessellations. In origami, tessellations are patterns that are usually folded from a single sheet of paper, that repeat themselves as many times as needed. They usually provide a dimensional appearance.

The hydrangea tessellation is one of the simpler designs. The paper that I have used is regular kami paper. The paper didn't tear while making all those sinks and pops!

Once the 6 hydrangeas are completed, it is just a matter of joining them in a cube. Joins are made by creasing a mountain fold along each of the longer petals, on all 4 sides. The creased corner can be slid into the adjacent hydrangea to hold it in place. Fitting the last of the 6 turned out to be very frustrating and I almost tore up the model! Only the thought that I would have to refold 6 hydrangeas, kept me from doing it!! 😄😄

And if you are the adventurous sort, you can also try the regular snooze assembly, made from 30 units!

Model Details:

Model: Hydrangeau Cube 

Creator: Shuzo Fujimoto

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 8 inches

Instructions (for making a single hydrangea tessellation): British Origami

Tutorial: YouTube

Modules: 6

After making origami prisms in the previous post, it seemed natural to try out the antiprisms next. Antiprisms are similar to prisms but the difference is that the side faces are triangles instead of parallelograms. Also, the top and bottom parts are twisted, relative to each other.

For these antiprisms, I used 3.5 inch squares - 3 squares for the triangular antiprism, 4 for the quadrilateral one, 5 for the pentagonal antiprism and 6 for the last one. The model isn't very stable though, and requires a dab of glue to hold it well in place.

A variation to the prisms gives a slightly different shape, when the sides are creased in. This gives a multi-sided star shape - like the 3-sided star and the pentagonal star in the pic.

This modular origami is again from Miyuki Kawamura's book - ‘Polyhedron Origami'.

Model Details:

Model: Antiprisms

Book: Polyhedron Origami

Author: Miyuki Kawamura

Difficulty Level: Simple

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 3.5 inches

Model Size: 2 inches in height

Tutorial: Youtube

A couple of years ago, I had attempted these heart boxes by Robin Glynn for the first time. While I had not perfected it, it still turned out great. So this time, with Valentine's Day coming up, I decided to give it a go again.

This time, I wanted to make it sturdier, so attempted it with thicker paper. That is, with 120 gsm from some of the paper packs that I had with me. So, in addition to being really pretty, these boxes also turned out to be functional.

The pink and white boxes are my absolute favourites. Naturally, these boxes have been duly handed over to Little Miss! She apparently is once again in need of boxes for her things!

The blue box, termed "Love is in the air", was specially requested by a friend.

And with that, we come to the end of the post :)

Prisms in Mathematics are polyhedrons where the top and bottom faces are polygons that are identical. The sides are parallelograms.

I was trying out the prisms from  Miyuki Kawamura's book 'Polyhedron Origami' for beginners. And it turned out to be really simple. Each of the prisms can be done in 10-15 mins in all.

Well, there really isn't much more to say! Give it a go :)

Model Details:

Model: Prisms

Book: Polyhedron Origami

Author: Miyuki Kawamura

Difficulty Level: Simple

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 4 inches

Model Size: 2 inches in height

Tutorial: Triangular Prism, Square Prism, Hexagonal Prism