The origami gyroscope, created by Lewis Simon, is actually an octahedron skeleton with a cube-shaped opening in the center. It is an easy modular origami and can be attempted by those new to origami.. It is made up of 6 square bases and 6 waterbomb bases. The square bases are placed over the waterbomb bases and connected together.

And by the way, the square bases are the only ones that are visible in the completed gyroscope. The waterbomb bases are not visible at all. When I had made it for the first time, I thought that both the bases will be visible and had used contrasting paper for them. And after assembling a couple of units, I realised that the waterbombs are not going to be seen at all! So you might want to just use white paper for creating the waterbombs :)

Model Details:

Model: Gyroscope

Creator: Lewis Simon

Book: Modular Origami Polyhedra

Authors: Lewis Simon, Bennett Arnstein, Rona Gurkewitz

Difficulty Level: Simple

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 4 inches

Number of Modules: 12

Tutorial: Youtube

I have been trying out more of the star earrings.. Those are the easiest earrings to make I think and I love making these tiny little stars! :)

When we were kids, we used to make these bracelets and use them as Friendship bracelets. Unfortunately we didn't have access to colourful paper, so we used to make do with paper torn out of our notebooks (very naughty I know!), or paper from comic digests or magazines that we managed to get hold of.

So anyway, after many, many years, now my daughter wanted me to make something for her friends. There are 3 of them in her gang and these 3 are very close, even though they are all of 4 years old! So when she wanted me to make something for her friends, I thought of these bracelets :) I needed to really wrack my brains to get going, I had more or less forgotten how to make them! But I finally managed to do that. And made some really colourful bracelets for her friends, in their favourite colours too!! I am not their favourite mom-of-friend! :D

Since I needed to put in a lot of effort to recollect the instructions for making the bracelet, I figured it made sense to make a tutorial, so that later on if my daughter wanted to make them, she could give it a go. So, stick around.. A tutorial coming your way soon!! :) And my first too..

Model Details:

Model: Paper Bracelets

Origin: Traditional

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

A traditional origami tried out by many is the frog. It is made from, surprise, surprise, the frog base! And as with most traditional designs, there are numerous sites with instructions on the net on how to make it.

Frogs are best tried out with thin origami paper, since there is a lot of folding involved and a thicker paper will not hold these folds. Try them out with a green paper to make your frogs more realistic :)

Model Details:

Model: Frog 

Origin: Traditional

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 6 inches

Tutorial: Youtube 

An origami hyperbolic parabola, called be various other names such as saddle and hypar, is made by pleating a square of paper along the diagonals. Plenty of pleats will give a parabola looks really intricate and delicate.

It is also possible to form modular units from the parabola. This is done by gluing individual units to form various shapes. Such modular, closed models are called Hyparhedra. Another such model can be formed by gluing 60 hypars together. This forms a dodecahedron structure, with 12 pentagonal faces.

The creator of this model is not known but John Emmet is considered to be the rediscoverer of this model.

Model Details:

Model: Hyperbolic Parabola 

Creator: John Emmet

Book: The Complete Origami Course

Author: Paul Jackson

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 8 inches

Tomoko Fuse's 'Home Decorating with Origami' was my choice of book for the day. I tried out the Hana. As described in the book, this is an abstract flower made from a square of paper.

The pleating is similar to the Balalaika and the thinner the pleats, the better it looks. She suggests that you start with a 6*6 inch square and that is what I did. She also suggests that it is possible to make the Hana with 5, 6 and 8 sides.

Model Details:

Model: Hana 

Creator: Tomoko Fuse

Book: Home Decorating with Origami

Author: Tomoko Fuse

Difficulty Level: Simple

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 6 inches

A very simple modular origami is the fluted diamond by Molly Kahn. In addition to being simple to make, they can also be used in many places. They make beautiful decorations, make them small enough and you can turn them into earrings or pendants or even bracelets or maybe mobiles.

These are made from 2 squares of paper, from the square base. The units have pockets and flaps and are assembled using those. This can be a bit tricky at first.

Model Details:

Model: Fluted Diamond 

Creator: Molly Kahn

Difficulty Level: Simple

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 4 inches

Modules: 2

Instructions: Origami Resource Center