The origami buckyball is the representation of the Buckminster Fullerene molecule - a stable form of carbon. The other 2 are, of course, diamond and graphite.

Some interesting facts about the buckyball:

• The buckyball family is an allotrope (different forms of an element - here, carbon) of carbon, very different from diamond and graphite.
• The buckyball is made from 60 atoms of carbon
• The shape resembles a football - 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons
• Each atom has 2 kinds of bonds - double bonds between 2 hexagons and single bonds between a hexagon and a pentagon

That is enough Chemistry I think!

As for the origami buckyballs, one version of these buckyballs can be made using PHiZZ Units. These buckyballs are very commonly done as they are made from squares and are relatively easier to complete. 

The other version of the buckyball, what I have done here, is folded from units created by Rona Gurkewitz and Bennett Arnstein. The units are folded from equilateral triangles. Cutting the triangles, 60 of them, is 50% of the  job! Folding those 60 triangles into the buckyball units completely another 30%. Assembling the units is what I found easiest and I believe that amounts to only 20% of the entire process :) And behold, a buckyball!

It is usually suggested that you use paper coloured on both sides. That ensures that the buckyball has the same colour throughout. But when I assembled with single-sided paper, I realised that the contrasting colours meant that I can clearly see those stars in the hexagon/pentagon faces. I like that. And maybe, one day, when I give it another go, I will try using copy paper and see how that compares to this one.

Model Details:

Model: Buckyball

Creator: Rona Gurkewitz and Bennett Arnstein

Book: Multi Origami Polyhedra

Authors: Rona Gurkewitz and Bennett Arnstein

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Triangle

Paper Size: 4 inches

Model Size: ~ 5 inch in diameter

Modules: 60

Tutorial: Youtube 

While folding the origami Mina from my previous post, I realised that it resembled Mio Tsugawa's Arabesque. Except of course, that for the arabesque the flaps are curled to give that rounded, softer look and we do not do that for the mina.

That does not mean we cannot add those curls :) So that is what I did. And it turned out to be exactly like the arabesque. In fact, comparatively speaking, I found the mina easier to assemble than the arabesque.

For this model, I worked with shades of orange and I am quite delighted with the outcome. Since I had orange yarn, I ended up making a tassle and converted my kusudama into an ornament. The problem is, I am so in love with the ornament that I have no intention of hanging it anywhere and allowing it to get dull or dirty! So it is already packed and kept safe, to be taken out only for special occasions and exhibitions :)

Model Details:

Model: Mina 

Creator: Enrica Dray

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 3 inch squares

Model Size: ~4 inches in diameter

Modules: 30

Diagram: Origami Modulari

The origami Mina is a modular origami designed by Enrica Dray. The model is a dodecahedron, assembled from 30 squares of paper.

The individual modules are pretty easy to fold. Assembling is done without any glue. Once you slide a flap into a pocket, it holds very well and taking it apart gives trouble. So the model is very stable and does not require any glue at all.

There are 2 ways to assemble the model - when joining the modules, we align the creases between the modules. Folding this crease down ie., making it into a valley fold, gives the first assembly. Folding it up and turning it into a mountain fold gives the second assembly. I have done the second version.

Model Details:

Model: Mina 

Creator: Enrica Dray

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 3 inch squares

Model Size: ~4 inches in diameter

Modules: 30

Diagram: Origami Modulari 

One of my favourite modular origami is Tomoko Fuse's Little Turtle Kusudama. I had made them a couple of years back, using beautiful, vibrant paper.

I had a workshop coming up and wanted to remake this model, since my previous kusudamas have been distributed long back! While previously, I had using paper that had colourful flowers on a white background, this time I wanted to go with a softer tone. And I quite like the paper I have used - cream coloured paper with a gold pattern on it. I had bought this paper more than a year back and found it while going through my huge stack of paper. 

What say you? Does it look good? Or is it too dull?

PS: While entering the model details, I realised that I had previously marked the difficulty as high intermediate. Well, it was quite difficult for me then. But now, I think it is a low intermediate model. So what do I do? For now, I am going to continue marking it as high intermediate, because my blog is mostly used by beginner origamists. And I believe I need to re-look at my past posts to ensure that the difficulty level is labelled correctly ie., for beginner origamists :)

Model Details:

Model: Little Turtle Kusudama 

Creator: Tomoko Fuse

Book: Multidimensional Transformations Unit Origami
 
Author: Tomoko Fuse
 
Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 3 inch squares

Model Size: ~4 inches in diameter

Modules: 30

Tutorial: Youtube 

Well, after a long time I worked on some modular origami - the origami football (soccerball). Absence really does make the heart grow fonder, cos I absolutely loved making the football. It helped that it very closely resembles a real football, so much so that my daughter wanted to kick it around! And everyone in my house is in love with it 😊

Unlike most modular origami, the individual modules are made from equilateral triangles. For my football, I had used A5 sheets (If you have A4 ie., the regular copy paper, cut it in half horizontally to give 2 A5 sheet). Each A5 sheet gives 2 white triangles and 3 black triangles. A total of 20 white pieces and 12 black pieces are needed. So that makes it 10 white A5 sheets and 4 black A5 sheets (In A4 terms, it is 5 white and 2 black A4 sheets).

The white and black pieces are folded differently, as we need white hexagons and black pentagons. While assembling the ball, each black pentagon will be surrounded by 6 white hexagons. You should be aware that of these 6 white hexagons, one side will have a pocket which will be empty. That is because of the combination of hexagons and pentagons and nothing to worry about :)

So give it a go and have fun with the football. It is pretty robust, so you can even throw it around a bit!

Unfortunately I am no longer able to find the diagram for this model. It used to be hosted on Mark Leonard's site but it is no longer available. But all is not lost! I have linked below a youtube tutorial for making said football.

Model Details:

Model: Football

Creator: Mark Leonard

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Triangle

Paper Size: A4 and A5 paper

Model Size: ~4 inches in diameter

Modules: 32

Tutorial: Youtube

Summer is a time for beach-themed projects and challenges I think. Last year, I had made a summer-themed origami composition. This year, a Facebook group had a challenge for May, which comes to a close today. I tend to wait till the last minute before completing projects! The theme was simple - Beach. Anything to do with the beach is good. The challenge was that we are not to use our usual craft medium. In my case, paper. That proved very complex for me!

Anything and everything crafty that I can think of, is of paper. I am pretty good with my sewing machine but I really couldn't find something that I could do easily. I finally chanced upon this beach-themed wreath that seemed do-able. So I went about collecting shells, pearls and more shells! And managed to complete my wreath today.. finally!!

I started off with a wreath base. After completing 2 wreaths, the base is turning out to be pretty quick to make. And very eco-friendly, to boot! And this time, instead of adding my shells directly to the base, I wound it in cream-coloured satin ribbon first. This gave me a three-fold advantage - the back of the wreath (see next pic) had a very smooth and neat finish, the gaps between the shells and pearls wasn't obviously seen and the sheen in the ribbon added a nice touch to the wreath. To wind the ribbon and to add the shells, I used my latest craft purchase - a glue gun :) Ah, the joy of getting things to stick well and quickly, without messing up your fingers! After the ribbon was done, I started adding the bigger shells, followed by the smaller ones and finally the pearls.

One thing I hadn't anticipated was the weight  of the wreath. So now I need to get some good thick ribbon to ensure that the whole thing doesn't fall down when I hang it! And that is my beach-themed project for this summer :)

The Little People's Festival, which was the event I was participating in, an event which I was eagerly looking forward to, finally happened on 27th April. And if you are wondering why I took so long to post details of the event, well, I just turned lazy after a month-long effort of preparing for the sale!

The day of the event started off bright and sunny as most days do in this part of the world! The event was mainly for little people, so we had a number of them participating in some of the games and events planned for them. And once their events were completed, a number of them visited the stalls that sold handmade things.

The PaperNPearlz stall was near the entrance, so we had a lot of visitors. My earrings turned out to be quite a draw too and I am ecstatic! A lot of people had difficulty believing that it was paper until I assured them that it really was :) Kids loved star earrings and I regretted not making more of them. Almost all my star earrings were sold by the end of the day.

Butterfly earrings were another hit. They were small enough for even kindergarten children to wear, so they also sold quite quickly. The geometric earrings and heart earrings were the next popular ones. Leaf earrings and wreath earrings weren't as popular as I would have liked. Smaller sizes would have been more appealing I think.

I had asked my sister-in-law to help out. She, being the amazingly creative person that she is, had worked on some very pretty handmade cards. She had a variety of punches which she had put to good use :) And our recent purchase of card stock paper was a true blessing! A surprising number of children were quite delighted with the cards and picked up quite a few! So did their moms.. and me.. and my parents.. I must say, it is lovely to know that people still give greeting cards in this age of e-cards and online greetings.

And finally, I had made a few hundred little stars and sold them in packs of 15, to be used as confetti, table decor, on gift tags or as I had done - to teach children to count! These star packs were also very popular among the little people. They loved the colours and that they could choose the colours they wanted :) I had a girl pick out only red, yellow and orange stars - amazing how children know exactly what they want!

Well, we all had a lovely time. It turned out to be all that we had wanted it to be. I am delighted that people liked the earrings. I made a lot of new crafty friends and I had a dozen or so people ask me if I would please conduct origami classes. A big thank you to the organizers of the Little People's Festival, for the invite, for their encouragement and their support :)

And of course, all this would not have been possible without a lot of support from my family - My husband, patient with me, even though he never understood why I spent so many hours making tiny little stuff with paper, my Dad, always a support and my constant admirer, my Mom, full of ideas and themes and our cashier, my brother, a source of inspiration who gave me a lot of tips on how to market better, my sister-in-law, a very creative person who helped out with the lovely cards, also my biggest critic encouraging me to go a step further, a fellow paper-buyer and paper enthusiast and my daughter, my biggest fan, my model who patiently helped with my trials to get my earrings to the right size. And finally, I cannot complete the post without thanking God, for the talent, for the opportunity and for all the support and encouragement that I have received.

And with that, I come to end of my first public event! Yay!