After the round wreath made from little paper rosettes, here is another wreath - this one a red, heart wreath. I had used red/brown sheets, cut circles from the paper and rolled these rosettes before gluing them to a heart-shaped wreath base.

I had made one mistake that I will need to rectify in my next wreath. I think I should have painted my wreath base red before adding the flowers. Right now, I can see bits of the white base between the flowers.

But all in all, it was a fun project. Little Miss helped me too, so it turned out to be a time of mom-daughter bonding as well.

Model Details:

Model: Paper Rosette Heart Wreath 

Origin: Traditional

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Circle

Paper Size: 3 inches in diameter

Model Size: 13 inches in length and 12 inches across

Tutorial: Youtube

This dual coloured heart is designed by Andrey Lukyanov, an Ukrainian origamist, who has designed a whole bunch of heart/love-based origami! Using Google Translate, I gather from his website (which is in Russian), that this heart represents 2 halves of love which builds a new life.

As far as the model goes, the creator has made a detailed video on how to fold it (link below). After the initial pre-creasings, the model is collapsed on these creases. That point is not very clear in the tutorial. It took me a couple of tries to get this right. Another potential problem area is pleating the leaf. I had used 6-inch paper and the pleats are really tiny!

The obvious choice of paper is a single-sided red paper. I have used pearlized momigami paper and I love the texture it adds to the model.

Model Details:

Model: New Life Heart 

Creator: Andrey Lukyanov

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 6 inches

Model Size: ~2.5 inches in length and 3 inches across

Tutorial: Youtube (Part 1 and Part 2) 

This heart dish is a modular dish, made from 4 squares. An apt origami for Valentine's Day I thought. I am not able to find out the creator of this model. The youtube tutorial that I referred to, mentions that it is Tomoko Fuse, but unfortunately I am not able to find this model under her name on the Origami database. And well, whether the creator IS Tomoko Fuse or not, it is still a good one to fold, especially for a day of love.

Origami paper might be a bit too thin for the heart bowl. Printer paper or gift wrapper, about 80 gsm or so should result in a good, not-so-flimsy dish. Fill it with some hearts and it should make a very nice, unique, handmade gift :)

Model Details:

Model: Heart Dish

Creator: Tomoko Fuse

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 4 inches

Model Size: ~1.5 inches tall and 4 inches across

Modules: 4

Tutorial: Youtube

Hacky Sack is a football game played by 2 players. The origami hacky sack is an angled modular made from 30 units. The design is by Winson Chan. The modules are not too difficult to fold. The assembly is slightly more complicated and the end result is a very solid sphere that does not require any glue.

The sphere is assembled in modules of 3 and then joined together into pentagons. And joining 30 units results in the dodecahedron, with little triangular corners and a whole lot of open spaces.

I found it an interesting and artistic model to fold. And I must say I love the combination that I have chosen as well. The combination of green-yellow-orange is always a pleasure to look at. Makes one think of bright, sunny days!

Model Details:

Model: Hacky Sack 

Creator: Winson Chan

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 4 inch squares

Model Size: ~6.5 inches in diameter

Modules: 30

Diagram: Origamidiagram.com 

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