In the past couple of years, I have made and sold quite a few of my origami earrings online. This has been a fairly easy job for me, since I could make the earrings I wanted and put them up for sale when I wanted to. There was no pressure and it helped me make more and more complex earrings.

This year, for the first time, I got a couple of opportunities to be a part of local market places that sold hand crafted goods. Since I have never been a part of such craft bazaars before, these experiences have been real eye openers!

Let me start off with the many lessons that I learnt during these forays: One - I could not gradually make earrings at my own pace! I needed enough earrings to at least cover the 2 tables that each stall would be provided with. And let me tell you, paper jewelry does NOT occupy space! So in the first event, even though I had about 200 pairs of earrings (Whew! Making them was an immense challenge! It felt like I was spending whole weeks at my work table..), my table looked half full! By the way, my earrings included leaf earrings, star earrings, umbrellas, pine cones, butterflies and hearts.

Two - So since my first stall looked hardly full, I decided that I need to diversify my jewelry. It was not sufficient that I made earrings, I needed to make things that take up space. So I started making bracelets and chains/necklaces. And that is what went into my second stall. I had a bigger variety of earrings - I included rose stud earrings, bird stud earrings, woven earrings, modular and wreath earrings. My bracelets included butterfly bracelets, star bracelets and bird bracelets. But still, I found that my tables did not look filled in!

Three - For my third event, I diversified even more! I included handmade bags, pillow boxes and little Christmas ornaments. And finally I was happy with the way my stall looked :)

Four - For a marketplace, it is not sufficient that you have just your products. In addition, a lot of accessories are needed. A major item was the packaging stuff. I needed boxes/zip lock packs to keep the jewelry in. Then I needed bags to put the boxes in. These bags also had to be handmade bags, to go with the handmade theme. I also found that having a stand listing the price of all the items was very useful. And a sign board was an absolute essential.

Now, these are things that I need not worry about in a online shop and they were all additional expenses! So now I absolutely need to participate in more events just to recuperate all that money that I have invested! :)

Five - A few of the buyers were not able to appreciate handmade works. To them, all I was using was paper. So they believed that I should be selling it for a 10th of the price I quoted. But thankfully, this was a minority. For the most part, people understood the effort that goes into handmade.

Among the positives, the biggest positive was the opportunity to meet a lot of handcraft enthusiasts who had put up stalls in the events. I was amazed at the creativity that I saw. Jewelry, clothes, greeting cards, paper bags, paintings, clay art, terra cotta jewelry, crocheted works - an absolutely mind-boggling array of talents were on display!

Two - I found a lot of people fascinated by paper jewelry! For a lot of them, this was the first time they were seeing something like that. In fact, a lot of them were not aware that my jewelry was made from paper. The moment I said that it was paper jewelry, they did a double take and immediately fingered the jewelry to check that it was in fact paper!

Then they had the usual questions on durability, water resistance etc.

Three - Children were fascinated  with the birds and stars. Young adults loved the butterflies. And those in their 30s were very appreciative of my rose studs. All of them were very appreciative of the effort. Quite a few of them were aware of origami and a few even knew that tiny roses were very difficult to fold. So they were all the more fascinated by the jewelry.

So these events have been learning, yet delightful experiences. I have made new crafter friends, I have got a list of people who want to learn origami, I have new clients who want specific jewelry in specific colours.

While I will continue with my online sale (it is hassle-free as compared to a bazaar!), I would love to participate in yet another event and exhibit more of my jewelry. Though, not any time soon!

I enjoy making paper bags from a variety of paper. Handmade bags make great gift bags, especially when the paper used is handmade paper. I find that scrapbooking paper results in some very beautiful bags, such as the 2 green bags in the pic. The one with polka dots was a big hit, when I had used it to gift a friend. The other green one, with mangoes, I have kept it aside to use later on. The bright red and green one is, of course, for Christmas and is made from handmade paper. The green patterns have a velvety feel to it, which made it difficult to glue but pretty to look at.

The cream and blue bags were made from some very beautiful handmade paper with gold and silver designs on them. I love the richness that they add to the bags. A couple of satin handles, and the gift bag is ready for use! These bags are small in size (about 6 inches by 4 inches) and are ideal for gifting jewellery. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any more of this paper, so it is just 2 bags with this gorgeous paper!

The next pair of bags is also from handmade paper, but much thicker paper. The paper came with some beautiful self design and a slight shimmer. The bags were pretty difficult to fold due to the thickness. But once completed, they were very sturdy. The bag was so sturdy that I could have skipped the eyelets and directly threaded the handles into the punched holes! The only reason I went ahead with the eyelets was for uniformity. All my bags have eyelets and these were no exception :)

The next set were bigger bags (~ 8 inches by 6 inches), made from a variety of handmade paper. Here I experimented with the handles, using satin ribbons, rope-like wires, beautiful lavender-coloured organdy ribbon. Very pleased with this set too :)

Finally, I had some lovely polka dot gift wrappers that I converted into paper bags! The paper wasn't very thick though, so I will be able to use them only for the lightest of gifts, but still they are so beautifully attractive and I will be careful about who I gift them to!

The Stand in the Corner of the Desk Drawer Box (Whew! That is a mouthful!) is deceptively simple box/pen stand designed by Thoki Yenn, the well known designer of origami magic rings.

The stand is folded from a A4 sheet. I would suggest regular copy paper or something thicker for folding this model. Copy paper results in a pretty good stand, but the best stand is from scrapbooking paper (160 gsm or more).

Some things that I did incorrectly the first time (Diagram link below):

1. In Step 2, when making the 3 vertical folds, start from the left. The first fold is made at the diagonal nick made in Step 1.

2. Step 4 - easier if these are made as mountain folds rather than valley folds.

3. In Step 6, the little crease between the first vertical and the 3rd horizontal creases does not extend up to the 2rd horizontal crease, but with the crease before that.

4. Same with the next crease (between the first vertical and 4th horizontal creases). This is not so well defined as the previous crease and the first time I folded the box, I didn't make this crease, rather folded it while collapsing along the other pre creases.

In case you are giving this model a try, I hope that helps :)

Model Details:

Model: Stand In The Corner Box

Creator: Thoki Yenn

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: A4

Model Size: ~2.5 inches tall

Instructions: Erik Demaine

If you are wondering if I have abandoned the blog, well, that isn't happening any time soon! But I haven't been making a lot of origami per se. More of origami jewelry and experimenting with paper - what paper to use for what, size - what size is good for adults/children, design - what design is easy to work on and so on and on.

And the result of those experiments are the earrings and the bracelet. The butterfly earrings, I have found, are liked by children, but are much too large for them. So now I need to figure out a good size for kids. And folding such small sizes isn't a lot of fun either. And requires practise. The wreath earrings are also adult sized and I absolutely love them!  I have made them in a variety of colours and these are my favourites.

Coming to the bracelet, this was a complete experiment. And I am quite pleased with the result :) I have wanted to make these bracelets for a long time, but never did find the toggle clasps, till recently. Unfortunately my length measurements were off target, and the bracelet is a little small for adults but will fit a child perfectly - much to my daughter's delight! More bracelets on the way..

And I also ended  up making a rose ring - a tiny little kawasaki rose, fit on a ring base with a little pearl at the centre. I admit it does require a little tweaking though. Folding a kawasaki rose from such a tiny square requires more practise than I have had.

I put the ring through a stress test by mistake - washed my hands while wearing the ring, but thankfully I had glazed it before. The ring got completely drenched, so I set it aside to dry fully. And wonder of wonders, once dry, absolutely nothing happened to the ring! So if you are worried about buying paper jewelry, do remember that they are pretty water-resistant once glazed and if you do get them wet, just allow them to dry completely before using them again.

The Kawasaki origami rose is something every origamist tries. I too did. But my first attempt, about 3 - 4 years back, was not much of a success and that put me off roses.

But recently, there was a post in one of the Facebook groups I belong to, with pictures of their origami roses. So I decided to give it another go. I started with a 6 inch square and ended up with a pretty good rose in pink. Then decided to see what would be the smallest rose I can fold. So worked with a 5-inch square next, then 4, then 3. After that, 2 inches looked quite small, so switched over to cms then! The next roses were with 6 cms, 5 cms and 4 cms squares. The 4 cms square resulted in a rose small enough to become an earring. And that would be my next project I hope. The pale pink rose (next to the smallest rose) is my favourite one, though it was quite difficult to fold.

After folding all of 8 roses, one thing I realised was that the creases were the most important part of folding these roses. I found that the softer my creases, the better looking my rose. So when I creased well, as I usually do, I ended up with an angular rose which isn't very appealing. And now I think I will get started on more teeny tiny roses and try to make them into earrings :)

Model Details:

Model: Rose 

Creator: Toshikazu Kawasaki

Book: Origami for the Connoisseur
 
Author: Kunihiko Kasahara, Toshie Takahama
 
Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: varying from 6 inches to 4 cms

Model Size: varying from 1.5 inches to 1 cm

Tutorial: Youtube

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