The Braided Paper, designed by J C Nolan, is a very beautiful origami to fold. It does require some practise to fold it and one that I had tried when I was just a beginner in origami and failed.. It was quite some time after that that I tried another of J C Nolan's design, Andrea's Rose. Now I finally had enough confidence to give Braided Paper another try. And I did it! It is such a beautiful design that I am thrilled that I finally managed to do it! :)

I loved the paper that I used for this design, the same banana paper that I had used for Floral Top. The paper is crisp and thin but strong and very good for folding this model.

A square of 8 inches are higher would be ideal when trying this design for the first time. Anything smaller would lead to a lot of frustration when making the reverse and pleat-sink folds for the model.

Model Details:

Model: Braided Paper 

Creator: J C Nolan

Book: Creating Origami
 
Author: J C Nolan
 
Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 9 inches

Tutorial: Origami CZ  

I had first tried out J C Nolan's braided paper when I had initially started doing origami. Turns out it is not for a newbie!

I recently found the diagram for his Andrea's Rose and tried it out. The difficulty level is intermediate but still, it can be tried out by a beginner but requires some practise. The braided paper is still on the cards though. Maybe in a few months time..

The paper to be used should be thin but strong. The design involves making a lot of sink folds (the more levels of sinks there are, the better the rose looks) and if the paper isn't strong enough, it will tear very easily. The paper I had used for the rose above was regular printer paper. After 5 levels of sinking, the paper became too fragile. I had also tried with gift wrapper (my favourite for origami!) and with another solid coloured single sided paper. I was able to do upto 6 levels of sinks. J C Nolan's challenge is to make the rose with a 10 inch paper and have 8 levels of sinks!

Model Details:

Model: Andrea's Rose 

Creator: J C Nolan

Book: Creating Origami
 
Author: J C Nolan
 
Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 10 inches

Diagram: Origami CZ