Paolo Bascetta's stellated dodecahedron, also known as the Bascetta Star is, I think, the most well-known of Bascetta's creations. I also love this Compass Rose folded quite some time back. 

During these coronavirus times, I tried out yet another of his modulars - a modular 2D star, called the New Year's Day Star. While folding it, I was wondering if it was possible to restart this year, minus the pandemic! 

Coming back to the modular, it is folded from 18 modules and is similar to the Mette Ring. In the mette ring, the final step is folding the module into 2. This step is not included in the New Year's star. Instead, the unfolded modules are slipped into the little pockets to form the star. Though I assembled it with glue, it can be done without glue. I used 2 inch squares and 2 colours, in the classic black and white combination. And I quite like the way it has turned out. 

Model Details:

Model: New Year's Day Star

Creator: Paolo Bascetta

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 2 inches

Model Size: ~ 4 inches across

Number of Modules: 18

Tutorial: Youtube

Diagram: Free Download

Continuing with the project from my last post, I worked on a pen stand, using the same colour combination - dark purple, mauve and cream. It was again done using the coiling technique, using newspaper tubes.

Weaving the tray was easier because of the larger surface area. And another problem was maintaining evenness in the sides of the pen stand. I haven't completely succeeded in this regard!

The close up shows the colours and the smooth weave. And once I glazed it, I ended up with an incredibly strong pen stand! I just hope my brother likes it and finds it useful :)

And finally, here is a picture of the pen stand and the tray. I am quite pleased with how they have both turned out, but I think I will take a break from weaving using the coiling technique! It is quite time-consuming and frankly speaking, very addicting 😅😅

Model Details:

Model: Triangular Pen Stand

Difficulty Level: Complex

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial (coiling or root-weaving technique): Youtube

After completing the woven Mother's Day bowl, it appears that I still am a glutton for punishment 😅😅 I tried out more of the coiling technique, using newspaper tubes. Well, I had a second reason for going ahead with this tray - my brother's birthday had just gone by and thanks to coronavirus, I was unable to gift him what I had wanted. So handmade it was!

The triangle is a shape I haven't attempted before and I am happy with the way it has turned out. I love the slight curve in the sides. I also added some tubes in the edge, as handles for the tray. I don't know what purpose they would serve, but I like the way they look!

As far as the colours go, I went with a combination of purple and cream tubes. The purple was in 2 shades, since I wanted to do a gradient in the weaving. The darker purple was achieved by adding a little black acrylic to mauve acrylic paint. This resulted in a rich dark purple which was a pleasure to work with! The lighter purple was mauve with a dab of white acrylic paint mixed in. I wasn't too happy with the way the cream turned out! I wanted a mellower version. I need to experiment more with this colour.

I love this closeup of the weaving! Absolutely adore the way it has turned out. The weaving is the smoothest I have achieved since I started experimenting with coiling or root weaving technique.

I have also decided on weaving a pen stand, using the same technique and the same colours. Will have to see how that works out!

Model Details:

Model: Triangular Tray

Difficulty Level: Complex

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial (coiling or root-weaving technique): Youtube

As I had said in my previous post, while making the origami spiral cube, I wanted to retry this model using A5 paper instead of A4. A4 paper resulted in a fairly large cube which wasn't very appealing to me.

The coronavirus lockdown has given me ample time, so I decided to redo the model, using some lovely kami paper that I had. The paper turned out perfect for this model, since it was light enough that I could fold the spirals and assemble it easily.

Usually smaller origami models are more difficult to do than bigger ones, but in this model, I found the smaller one easier to assemble! Mainly because it was small enough to hold in hand while folding. I would definitely recommend the A5 size to the A4!

Model Details:

Model: Spiral Cube

Creator: Tomoko Fuse

Book: Let's Fold Spirals

Author: Tomoko Fuse

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Rectangle

Paper Size: 8.3 inches * 1.45 inches

Model Size: ~2.5 inches across

Number of Modules: 12

Tutorial: kusuda.ru

Stay home, Stay safe is the need of the hour! Well, during this coronavirus lockdown, this little horse by Oriol Esteve is one of the first origami that I tried out. Check out his Facebook post on the origami horse.

What I liked best about the origami is the suddenness with which the horse turns up! I mean, up to the 15th step, we are just folding along and there is no sign of a horse. But in 2 steps, 16th and 17th, there are 2 reverse folds and boom! You have a horse! 😄 And a super-cute little fella at that.

60 gsm paper would be the best, I thought, since there are multiple layers that are folded in the reverse folds. I used some lovely Momigami paper that I had (15 cms) which turned out to be a good decision. The final horse was about 5.75 cms.

Model Details:

Model: Horse 

Creator: Oriol Esteve

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 6 inches

Model Size: ~2.2 inches in height

Diagram: Facebook

Stay Home Stay Safe! Who would have thought that a microscopic virus could bring the world virtually to a halt?? While this pandemic has had a terrible impact around the globe, it is during the lockdown that I have been able to connect with friends from long back, get back into my blogging, work on some incomplete projects.

One of the projects is this newspaper weaving project - Making coasters from newspaper tubes, using the root weaving or coiling technique. I was kinda bored of circular shapes, so attempted something a little different. Not sure how well it turned out, but I can say for certain that the coasters are rock solid.

The holder was a last minute idea, since I had plenty of rolls left over. Turned out pretty useful too, since I didn't end up losing a coaster or two, just because they were left lying around! The edges of the holder leaves a lot to be desired and even now, I am not too sure how to go about making this, but hopefully in the future, it will get better.

On the whole, I am happy with the outcome.

Model Details:

Model: Coiled Coasters with Holder

Difficulty Level: Complex

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial (coiling or root-weaving technique): Youtube