Happy New Year, dear readers! 😊

I haven't been the most regular blogger these past few months, but I have been quite busy, making paper products, rather than working on origami! I make paper bags and pillow boxes and of late, this has been quite popular on my Facebook Page. So I have been inundated with orders to make these bags and boxes.

In addition to this, I have also been working on my origami jewelry. My favourite and most time-consuming one has been these leaf earrings. Each cluster is made up of 15 leaves, each leaf measuring 0.5 inch in length. Folding these leaves was an amazing lesson in patience! I worked completely with tweezers and tooth picks, for a total of 3.5 hours, to make these earrings. The earrings measure about 2.5 inches in length and are super-light.

Another personal favourite is the leaf earring. I love that these earrings can be made in a wide range of colours - washi and chiyogami paper is the best since it has the best print for these earrings. These earrings are delightfully unique and are sure to be conversation starters!

In addition to origami jewelry, I have been making quite a few paper bags, from handmade paper and scrapbooking paper. These bags measure 6*4 inches in size and are very colourful to look at. Every time I make these bags, I have to force myself to give them to my clients! With Valentine's Day just round the corner, I am now making valentine-themed bags, which look absolutely adorable :) More pictures on my Facebook Page. 

And finally, pillow boxes are also in demand. Right now, I am working on an order to make 50 boxes. Making such large quantities of handmade goods is tiring, which I am learning to my dismay! But these boxes are perfect for small gifts like jewelry, and add a beautiful touch of elegance, even to the simplest gifts. So I think I will get a whole lot more orders and I better find out more efficient ways of making them!

Finally, I am trying to understand Google+ pages. I have now created a page for Paper N Pearlz. I am yet to understand the repercussions of claiming a custom URL, though I do understand that Google can make it chargeable in the future. If you are on Google+, please do +1 Paper N Pearlz. I have also added a Google+ badge at the top of the page and hopefully that should make the process easier 😊

And with that I come to the end of my first post for this new year :)

The origami birdwing butterfly is yet another of Michael LaFosse's beautiful butterflies. I love folding LaFosse's butterflies, as they are not very simple but at the same time, not so complex that they give you the shivers, just looking at the instructions either!

The book 'Origami Butterflies', by Michael LaFosse, takes you through a system of discovery for folding an unlimited variety of origami butterflies. The book is great to add to your collection, if you are fascinated by origami butterflies. The book also gives instructions for folding a whole lot of butterflies, including the very famous Alexander Swallowtail butterfly and the Alice Gray butterfly.

But the butterfly I have folded here, the Birdwing butterfly, is actually from another of LaFosse's books, 'Origami Art'. The book  talks in depth about LaFosse's Origamido Studio. It then moves on to origami design and display, gives expert advice on making your own paper, explains how to mount origami for display and then finally has a beautiful selection of models to fold. Most of them I found to be too complex for me. This butterfly of course, caught my interest. LaFosse has suggested using black and iridescent green duo washi paper for the model, a suggestion that I was unfortunately unable to follow.

The butterfly was not very difficult to fold, though the pleats took a good deal of time. I was not able to get the long abdomen that was visible in the completed model in the book. But overall, I am happy with this little butterfly :)

Model Details:

Model: Birdwing Butterfly

Creator: Michael LaFosse

Book: Origami Art
 
Authors: Michael G. LaFosse and Richard L. Alexander
 
Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 5 inches