Christmas is another 2 months away, but Christmas exhibitions and craft bazaars are sooner and well, I hope to participate in at least 2 Christmas events! So I have been busy making origami jewelry. 

These origami angel earrings, are something new that I have trying out this year. And going from the response on my Facebook page, I am sure this will sell well :)

This chain with a modular wreath as a pendant, is a favourite of mine. And I am in love with this colour combination too! I added the pendant to an 18 inch red organza ribbon necklace, using a very cute bail that I have been wanting to use for a long time now and finally got a chance to.

I went for the vintage look with this bracelet. Each star is made from paper that I cut from a discarded book, strung together with black beads and crystals. I almost always finish my bracelets with toggles - they are so much easier to close than lobster clasps I think. I used heart toggles for this bracelet. We do want to spread love this Christmas, don't we??

I regularly post my origami jewelry on my Facebook page. So if you haven't liked my page, do head over and take a look :)

Our Church Choir had recently gone on a 2-day trip to a nearby hill station. We usually make it a point to go out together, at least once a year to a resort or a hill station. At the least it gets us away from our busy lives and since a lot of our choristers are students, it gets them away from their studies, which absolutely delights them! About 20 of us had come for the trip and we had a truly lovely time. We had stayed at a Christian retreat centre, a lovely, well-maintained place, full of flowers and trees and absolutely picturesque.

Well, there were about 8 girls (well, not exactly girls, since ours ages ranged from the 20s to the 30s!! But hey, we were all young at heart :)) and about 8 also-young-at-heart guys. The rest were the super-seniors - those in their 50s and 60s, including our choir master and other long-time pillars of our choir. And with such equally distributed ratio of girls and guys, competitions were inevitable. This time, we had a quiz competition - girls vs guys.

There was no specific topic - anything from anywhere would do. One of our long-term choristers had prepared the quiz and he had done an excellent job of it. We loved playing the quiz. We had assembled in one of the rooms we were staying in. All the rooms had bunk-beds, which is very cool to sleep in, by the way! The girls settled down at the top of the bunk-beds and the guys took the lower beds. Once we settled down, the quiz began. It was fast and exciting!

The rules were simple - 30 seconds to answer a question, 10 points for a correct answer, 5 point when a question was passed on. Some of the questions (answers at the end of the post):

• When was the Book of Revelation written?
• What is the longest river in the world?
• What book does Torah, Neviim, Ketuvim represent?
• What is the heaviest element in the world?
• Washburn, Dobro resonator, Stratocastor - what are these associated with?

• What is the largest moon in the Universe?
• In the Bible, which community worshipped Baal?
• Which city was the centre of Renaissance art?
• Which is the company with the most employees?
• What language was the Old Testament written in?

And finally, we come to the purpose of this post! Well, the girls won the quiz, albeit by a narrow margin! The prize was to be any original gift that the girls liked, which fell within the budget. I was amazed when all of them suggested a handmade paper bracelet from PaperNPearlz!

Of course, they wanted it customized. So I gave them an option of butterfly or star bracelets and they got to choose their colours. All of them chose butterflies. As for the colours, as you can see, pinks abounded. The next favourite colour was purple. As much as possible, I added little touches which I thought would be appreciated. One of the bracelets had little jingles in it. Butterfly beads, round and tear drop crystals for a few others. One of the purple bracelets had little lavender pearls and personally this was my favourite.

Of the photos, my favourite turned out to be the pink bracelet, laid out into an off-centre hyperbole. I liked the combination of dark-brown background and pink butterflies, with just a tinge of green from the stem.

Overall, this has been a very exciting, but tiring experience for me. Making about 35 - 40 paper butterflies and turning them into bracelets is no joke - makes me appreciate all those handmade creators around the world! The photography part of this project was also an eye-opener. I had to experiment with so many backgrounds and colours.

I even ended up making a small, inexpensive light box, to provide the right light diffusion and a uniform background. 

And finally, to the answers to the quiz questions:

1. 1 AD

2. Amazon

3. Old Testament

4. Osmium

5. Guitar

6. Ganymede

7. Canaanites

8. Florence

9. Walmart

10. Hebrew

And with that, I come to the end of a rather long post!

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.

This month has been a busy time for me, as I am getting ready for an event. And here is what I have been working on..

These stars set in spirals are decided difficult to make! I wish there were some instrument that would make this easier, but for now, I make these spirals by hand. And those spirals add so much of beauty to these earrings. I have also made star earrings with a single crystal and a few with a coil as a dangler but these, I hope, will be the highlight of my star earrings. In addition to red, I am also making these earrings in rainbow colours.

Another of the star earrings. I must admit this is the first time I am attempting any wire work. And simple as it should be, it has its own challenges for a beginner. Considering the number I am planning on making, I think I should soon turn out to be fairly good at making these spirals! And these star earrings in spirals are by far my favourite in this collection! 

These heart earrings are another favourite of mine. Most of these earrings have a little dangle and are about 5-6 cms in height. Little Miss insisted that I make a few smaller ones too - she is very sure that kids will want to buy them and the ones with the dangle might be too big for them! :) 

Leaf earrings always, always catch the eye. Any time I have worn my leaf earrings, I always receive compliments on my earrings. And people find it so hard to believe that it is paper! I am making these earrings in 2 sizes - 3 cms and 4 cms. Most of them are made from pearlescent momigami paper which adds a beautiful sheen to the earrings. Once again, I am making them in a variety of colours. The little pearl on the top goes well with the pearlized paper :)

And finally, wreath earrings are something that I always make. Made from 16 little bits of paper, they are pretty difficult to handle but look great when worn! I am making these earrings in a variety of washi and chiyogami paper. The gold accents in the chiyogami paper adds definite appeal to the earrings. I am also trying to turn them into studs (earrings on posts instead of fish hooks), though I might not be able to work it out in time for the event. But even on fish hooks, these earrings aren't all that dangly or large.

I have more earrings that I am working on and will post them soon.

Did you know that the traditional gift for a first anniversary is paper? Well, with Valentine's Day so close, I ended up collecting my favourite paper heart earrings, a unique gift for a unique day.

I remade a few of my heart earrings for my daughter, Little Miss. The purple ones turned out to be her favourite and the right size for her :) 

Butterfly earrings are not very easy to make, but the earrings that result from them are quite beautiful. Well, what else would you expect from a butterfly? :)

I liked the green earrings that I made. I had included green butterfly beads as well and loved how the whole thing turned out! Another of my earrings that I ended up keeping with me, since I couldn't bear to part with them!

These earrings are made from a variation of the sonobe units, created by Mitsonobu Sonobe. They are easy to make and look very elegant. They actually look much prettier that this :) My photographic skills at fault here.

They are made up of 3 modules each. Each module takes about a minute to make, so creating the unit takes about 10 minutes maximum! Add a couple of beads and earring hooks and voila! You have a very nice pair of earrings.

I initially tried making it with 1 inch squares, but they turned out to be too small and all details were lost. This is made from 1.5 inch squares. I guess even 2 inch squares will look good.

Model Details:

Model: Diamond Earrings from Sonobe Units 

Creator: Mitsonobu Sonobe

Difficulty Level: Simple

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 1.5 inches

Modules: 3

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! :)