Happy New Year 2018! 365 new days, 365 new opportunities. Here's to hoping that we make good use of it. 

My first project this year is a woven magazine holder. This project has been in the works for a couple of months now - mainly because I wanted a very sturdy base, so that the holder would not topple over once a few magazines were placed. So after trying out a woven base followed by a cardboard base, I finally decided to use a wooden base - got a carpenter to cut out a 10 inches by 4 inches plywood and drill holes into it. I spaced the holes 1.5 cms apart. Then I covered it will some pretty paper that I had from one of my old origami projects. I hope you are able to make out the lined based in the pictures below. 

Naturally I used the colours from the base for the tubes as well - cream, light green and pink. The cream was the dominant colour and the light green was sparingly used. 

I also wanted to try out different types of weaving, so I ended up using this opportunity to do just that. The bottom most weave is the standard Rope Weave. This is the one that is the easiest for me. And I think this comes out the best, if I say so myself :) 

The next layer is for the Cotton Weave. This is generally the easiest weave. The one that everyone tries out first. But for some reason, I still haven't got the hang of this one! And I am still not comfortable with the weave. 

The third layer is a type of Openwork Weave. Not clear on the name. I used a mix of green and cream for this layer. This weave looks much better if this is the only pattern used, but mixed amidst all the other layers, I guess it loses the appeal. 

Finally, the last layer is the reverse rope layer. Since I needed to go back and forth with weaving this layer, this seemed the most practical. 

Tutorial links: 

Rope Weaving

Cotton Weaving

Openwork Weaving

I guess my post has been sufficiently long for the first post of the new year! Hope I get to make many more of these holders :) 

Merry Christmas!

After viewing many, many, MANY images of newspaper woven, Christmas themed articles on Pinterest, I decided to try out Santa's sleigh - seemed easy enough - oval shaped basket, a couple of runners and we are pretty much done. Or at least that is what I thought!

The basket was easy enough to make. I used an oval container as a form, cut out a cardboard base, covered with Christmas themed paper, weaved the basket with red and green newspaper tubes.

The challenge turned out to be the runners! Threading my tubes with wire so that it will hold the shape was itself quite a challenge! The wire needed to be thin enough to go through the tubes but thick enough so that it did not bend too easily. Once I threaded the tubes, using red tubes, I made 2 long lengths, similar to the cup handle. Here, it appears I did not wet the tubes, because quite a few of them cracked repeatedly :( Finally, I needed to figure out a way to hold up the sled above the runners. I am still not happy with the way this turned out and I am yet to figure out an effective way to do this.

Finally, this was the result:

Not what I had hoped for, but I know that my next effort will be better :) 

A few months, my daughter, Little Miss and I had made a few pen holders using rainbow coloured newspaper tubes. I had a few tubes left over from that project, so this trial turned out to be a good use of those tubes. 

This project almost turned out to be too much for me, a beginner, but I was determined to see it through! The difference between this and the usual weaving I have done is that there are multiple working tubes in this style, so keeping track of which tubes I was working with was quite a challenge initially. Maybe once I have gained more experience, I will attempt this weave again. 

I had made a few errors in my calculations, so there is some slight discrepancy in the arrangement of tubes, though this isn't really noticeable. Another error was in the way I finished up at the end. This turned out to be more obvious, especially in the second pic - the circle is slightly flattened in one place. 

Model Details:

Model: Woven Wall Hanging

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Picture Tutorial for this weave: GoldenerWidder

When it comes to newspaper weaving, I tend to colour the tubes before I start weaving. But for a change, I attempted a weave with the newspaper print still visible. I saw an apple container while surfing the net and decided to have a go at it. And this was the result.

The start of the apple container and lid was done using black newspaper tubes. And the rest was made of regular newspaper tubes - no colour. As much as possible, I went for plain print without any pictures and other colours.

I love the way the stalk came out. Wetting the tubes before winding it works wonders and prevents cracking. The leaf also came out great. While the container was nothing unusual, the lid was done differently. To give an apple-like shape, after winding the stalk, there is a dip and then the lid is formed. Well, the dip came out well, but the lid turned out to be slightly skewed.

I added a little decoupage to the container. And that too turned out great I think.

I thought it came out great for a first attempt, but clearly there is still work to be done. 

Yet another of Tomoko Fuse's models - this one from her book 'Floral Origami Globes', called Parallelogram Floral Globe.

The thing I love about this book is that each module is made of 2 parts - a basic unit (which looks like a sonobe module) called the 'Base',  and an insert, called the 'Face'. Each unit is assembled by joining the base and the face. So this basically means that I can use the single-sided paper, that I have plenty of, and still manage to get some colours in my model.

The other point about this book is that, in each section, there are only subtle differences in folding one model and the next. But these difference still result in new, really cool variations. And of course, the fact that you use only half a square for the base unit and a quarter for a face unit means the whole model is very economical!!

Model Details:

Model: Parallelogram Floral Globe 

Creator: Tomoko Fuse

Book: Floral Origami Globes
 
Author: Tomoko Fuse
 
Difficulty Level: Complex

Paper Ratio: Rectangles in ratio 1:2 for base and Squares cut into 4 quarters for face

Paper Size: 4 inch squares

Model Size: ~4 inches in diameter

Modules: 30 rectangles + 30 quarters

In recent days, I have been experimenting with newspaper weaving. So what exactly is newspaper weaving? In this art, we roll up newspaper strips into tubes, paint the tubes using acrylic colours and then weave the tubes into various shapes.

Easy to write, very difficult to do - at least for me! I have been trying out various methods of rolling, painting and weaving the tubes. Have been fairly successful, but if I browse the net for what others have done, I can see exactly how amateurish my attempts look!

But in recent attempts, the output has been pretty good, if I do say so myself! My latest attempt at weaving is this cup and saucer combination, made from lavender and brown tubes. Tutorials abound on the net, both written and video tutes and I have used them as much as possible to finally complete this product. And I must confess, I am quite proud of how it has turned out :)

The saucer measures about 7 inches in diameter, the cup (which is attached to the saucer) has a 5-inch base and measures about 6 inches in height. The toughest part was making the handle, I just couldn't figure out how people got such close loops!! Finally, practise paid off and I managed to shape the handle well.

At the end, I coated the entire thing in a mix of fevicol and water and allowed it to dry overnight. And now I have a good, very sturdy (you would be surprised to see how sturdy newspaper tubes turn out to be!) and pretty cup and saucer set, made entirely from newspaper!

An excellent way to recycle, I think :) 

After my Christmas bells made from newspaper tubes, I have been working with a fair amount of enthusiasm, on a rather large project! Making a trash can!!

It has been a fairly large project for me, because everything about this is new! I am new to newspaper weaving, so rolling the tubes itself is a challenge. The shape I have chosen is also new - till date, I have only attempted round structures, so a square is another challenge. Then there is the painting - as you can see, I have used lavender, green and white tubes. The white tubes were tricky because they weren't as bright white as I wanted them to be; hopefully I will get there in my next few attempts. Finally, I am not sure how clear it is, but I have used lavender/white paper beads around the middle of the basket. For some time I had the feeling that I had bitten off more than I could chew, but finally, I managed to complete the basket 😀 And really really proud of what I have done. I do realise there are a lot of faults, but at least I completed it!! So yay me!!

Model Details:

Model: Woven waste basket

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Model Size: ~15 inches tall 

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube