My daughter, Little Miss, wanted to try out some origami with me, so we went searching on YouTube for something she could try out. Finally decided on this rather cute Japanese school bag, designed by Fumiaki Shingu. Like most of his origami, this one is also fairly easy to do. It is made from 3 squares - one forms the back, one the front and the third one forms the front flap and the back straps. 

Little Miss decided to go for a multi-coloured bag, so it is easy to make out where each of the squares fit in. We used 6 inches squares and the final bag ended up around 2 inches tall. 

The front flap opens up, so it is possible to fill the little bag with tiny, little things to carry along! Talk about impractical!! But Little Miss simply adores the bags :) 

Model Details:

Model: Backpack

Creator: Fumiaki Shingu

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 6 inches

Model Size: 2 inches

Modules: 3

Diagram: Origami-club

Tutorial: Youtube 

Sonobes are beautiful, decorative origami created by Mitsunobu Sonobe. In addition to the original sonobe, thanks to its versatility and ease of folding, there are many, many variations created by Tomoko Fuse, Meenakshi Mukerji and quite a few other origamists.  

Narong Krined's variations caught my eye, while I was searching for my next model to fold. The one I have folded is the first of his variations that I was able to find. 

I used 7.5 cms squares, 30 in all for this model. As for the eye-popping colours, well, I wanted something attractive and multi-coloured. Since I am not very good with colour selections, Internet gave me this suggestion - Dark Purple, Mustard Yellow and Dark Coral. How does it look? Attractive or too candy-coloured? 

Model Details:

Model: Narong Krined's Sonobe Variation 1 

Creator: Narong Krined

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 3 inch squares

Model Size: ~3 inches in diameter

Modules: 30

Tutorial: Origamee.net 

I have started the year 2018 with a bang! I completed my first paper weaving project (a magazine holder) and here is my first origami of this year. This model is one of Tomoko Fuse's kusudamas, named Fuufuki Asagao Kusudama. It is taken from her book Unit Origami Fantasy. 

The kusudama is made from 30 smaller squares, folded and assembled together (I did the assembly with glue). I used fairly thick paper, by origami standards - 80 gsm regular printer paper, cut into 3*3 inch squares. I am not sure 60 gsm paper would have worked quite so well. 

What I loved about this kusudama was its angular, sharp appearance, something you don't usually see in kusudamas. Kusudamas, I think, are usually more flowery, soft and flowing. But here, I love the sharp dips that reveal the stars and the triangular peaks that remind me of Fuse's Little Turtle kusudama. 

Model Details:

Model: Fuufuki Asagao Kusudama 

Creator: Tomoko Fuse

Book: Unit Origami Fantasy
 
Author: Tomoko Fuse
 
Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 3 inch squares

Model Size: ~5 inches in diameter

Modules: 30

Tutorial: Youtube 

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.