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“Money Cat v2″ designed by Jo Nakashima. Folded by Annalisa from a US dollar bill (and a standard weight paper for the test fold). Video tutorial can be found here by Jo Nakashima.

This was the Christmas gift for my brother, Ben. It might have been the least successful of the bunch, because when we skyped on Christmas he asked me “I’m really sorry I can’t tell, but what kind of spaceship is this?” Apparently the cat had tilted in the mail, so he thought the tail was some kind of wing/stabilizer. I actually thought it was a little hard to parse out myself; the pattern on the money really hides the detail features. But once you know what you’re looking for, it’s pretty cute!

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“Money Rose” designed by Sok Song and Seth Friedman. Folded by Annalisa from a US dollar bill (and a standard weight paper for the test fold). Video tutorial available here from Seth Friedman.

After a brief interlude where the computer wasn’t working, we’re back to Christmas gifts! This was a gift for my sister-in-law, Aubrey. I’ve been wanting to make this since Seth Friedman originally posted his video, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try it. Aubrey’s just one of those people you want to give flowers to all the time.

As opposed to the star for Joan, this is a complicated model. I highly recommend doing a test fold or two. It was really helpful to have made Kawasaki roses in the past, so if you haven’t made one of those before, I would try that first; it’s good to get the feel of the twists involved in rose-making before trying it on a real dollar bill. Oddly, though my dollar bill rose looked better, the test fold photographed better, which is why I’ve included both, so you can get a sense of how the ‘stem�� looks from the front. Though, to be honest, I didn’t do the stem quite right on either model, which probably contributes to why it lies differently.

The one thing I didn’t really think through before making these gifts was the fact that one must unfold said gifts in order to use them. There’s either the reaction of “But it’s so pretty I don’t want to unfold it!” or “How do I unfold it without destroying the bill?” Maybe in the future I should send the folded fake bill and just lay it on the real bill. What do you think?

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“Waldorf Star Lantern.” I only know it as a design used in the Waldorf education system, so I think it’s a traditional design, but please correct me if you know better. Folded by Annalisa from an octagon cut from a 15 cm square of folia paper. Tutorial here by Lori of Waldorf Moms.

Last spring, I helped my friend’s kids’ school with their Mayfaire, so my friend asked me to help again with their Winterfaire. This time, they didn’t need me to teach origami, but they did ask me to make some “winter-y things” that they could have as prizes/gifts. While I did not end up making lanterns for Winterfaire, I did play around with a few designs while deciding what to make, which is how this lantern came to be. It’s very pretty, but, as you can see, the 15 cm squares of paper I had planned to use do not fit a tea candle, so I went a different direction. Perhaps next year.

Also, as a side note, while the origami instructions for this model are fine, some of the additional instructions are not great practices. Please don’t soak your paper in oil/paints then place a real flame inside. That is a recipe for disaster, even if you stay in the same room. Honestly, using real candles in the middle of any type of paper makes me nervous, so please find some fake, non-heat-producing candles to put in your origami. This has been your friendly fire safety reminder from someone who lives among piles of flammable material.

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“Money Star,” a traditional design, I think. Folded by Annalisa from US dollar bills (and some standard weight paper in the same proportions as a test fold). Photo tutorial available here by Homemade Gifts Made Easy.

And so the Christmas gift parade begins. This was a gift for my niece, Joan. She and her family are moving overseas next year, so my brother asked the family to avoid physical gifts that they would have to ship or store when they move. This kind of limited my options, since I’m--hang on, there’s a word for this...ah, yes--poor. But I figured even if I couldn’t give much, I could make it look pretty. Joan’s really into stars right now (there is nothing quite so cute as her excitedly signing ‘star’ every time she sees the top of the Christmas tree), so who am I to deny her one of her favorite things?

Even though I did a test fold just to make sure, this is actually quite a simple star. You could easily jump right into making it, and it will look fine. The only kind of tricky part is making sure the flaps fit into the other modules correctly, but one they’re there, they stay quite well, which is good when you’re sending a package cross-country. I’m all about the pragmatic aspects as well as aesthetics.

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“Nativity” designed by Leyla Torres. Folded by Annalisa from tissue foil. Joseph is made from a 30 cm square, Mary is made from a 26.25 cm square, Baby Jesus is made from a 7.5 cm square, and the manger is made from a 15 cm square. Video tutorials are available from Leyla Torres for Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus and the manger.

Merry Christmas to all! No matter what you celebrate this holiday season, I hope that you are having a wonderful time with people you love and who love you.

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“Santa Claus” designed by Camila Zeymer and Jo Nakashima. Folded by Annalisa from a 15 cm square of kami. Video tutorial here by Jo Nakashima.

It’s that time of year again! My family volunteers at NORAD to help track Santa. If any of you have young siblings, children, cousins, etc who want to find out exactly where Santa is, have them call 1-877-HI-NORAD beginning at 0400 MST (1100 GMT), December 24. A volunteer like me will answer the phone and let them know exactly where Santa is at that moment. It’s so much fun to answer the phones and talk with the little kids who are so excited to hear about Santa. You can also visit www.noradsanta.org for more info and games. May you all have visions of sugarplum fairies!

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“Square Weave” on a 32-grid designed by Eric Gjerde. Folded by Annalisa from a 7.5x15 cm (1:2) rectangle of duo kami. Instructions found in Origami Tessellations by Eric Gjerde.

I liked both sides of this tessellation so much that I decided it needed to be done in double-sided paper. And I thought I might try to make it into a bookmark. I’m not sure that this is quite the right proportions for a bookmark, but it still looks cool, so I’m happy.

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“OASIS Star” designed by Francesco Mancini. Folded by Annalisa from 6 sheets of foil paper. Each unit was folded from a 7.5 cm square. Diagram by Francesco Mancini and Francesco Decio is available here courtesy of OrigamiUSA.

This is a really simple star, but very fun to fold. I taught it to some people at the guest house where I volunteer, and we had lots of fun putting together some cheery Christmas decorations for the house, and we’re going to do more next week. Tuesday afternoons have turned into a little origami club!

By the way, in the diagrams this is a flat star, and I have made it that way too. However, since the foil curves so nicely, I decided to do that, but it can definitely be flat (in case you are a person like me who cares about sending things through the mail).

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“Liść” (Leaf) designed by Rafal Sabat. Folded by Annalisa from a 15 cm square of folia paper. Diagram provided here by Rafal Sabat.

Another remnant of the autumn that was. I like how the folds give it a natural slight curve, much like real leaves.

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“8 Pointed Flowery Star” designed by Ilan Garibi. Folded by Annalisa from a 15 cm square of variegated kami and a 7.5 cm square of regular kami. Diagram by Ilan Garibi is available here courtesy of OrigamiUSA.

This star reminds me quite a bit of this Scheestern by Carmen Sprung, but once again we discover how entirely different fold sequences can have similar results. I like how Ilan Garibi’s design is actually a base for you to play around with. That why, when I made the smaller version, I decided to just slightly curl the flaps instead of squashing them. It’s not that much of a difference, but I think it gives a surprising amount of motion to the star. I love being able to experiment with designs like that.

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“Triphilia” on a 32-grid designed by Robin Scholz. Folded by Annalisa on a hexagon cut from a 15 cm square of harmony kami (after not doing it right on the folia paper). Video tutorial for a 16-grid version available here from Sara Adams.

There are all sorts of fun twists and turns when making tessellations, and this time it was figuring out how to repeat the single molecule on a larger grid. I had already made the 16-grid version, so, as I am wont to do, I immediately pulled out another sheet of folia and made a larger grid. Such is the madness of tessellators.

I got the triangle twists and the first molecule folded just fine, but then I made a judgment error. I tried to put the next molecule immediately adjacent to the first one instead of leaving some room for those rectangular squash folds on the back, so the paper was way too crowded and ended up a mess. Once I realized my error, I had to unfold the entire grid, refold the base triangle twists, then get back to placing the molecules. Unfortunately, the folia paper just isn’t robust enough to stand up to that much manipulation, especially when you have to then continue with more squash folds, so at that point it was ripping all over, and that’s what you can see in the pictures.

So I made another grid. I was pretty sure that my revised plan for placing molecules would work, but I will admit to breathing a sigh of relief when it actually did. Moral of the story: know your paper’s limits, and keep trying!

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Hand-bound book, a traditional design (I think it’s called long stitch binding?). Bound by Annalisa. Made from drawing paper, a leather cover, and sewn together with waxed linen thread. I’m sure there’s a tutorial somewhere, but I learned from a friend of mine.

It’s a good think I didn’t name this blog after origami specifically, because I’m branching out into all sorts of paper arts. Fortunately they all involve folding still, so my handle seems remarkably prescient rather than merely a reference that only I find amusing.

But anyway, I have officially bound a book all by myself! It’s so pretty, I can’t decide what I want to do with it. This was always my problem with journals/diaries: the book was so beautiful that anything I managed to put in it seemed to ruin it. Especially when you get the one or two journal entries every 3 years. So embarrassing.

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“Four Seasons Quilt” designed by Christiane Bettens. Folded by Annalisa from kami. The main leaves are folded from 15 cm squares and the connectors are made from...smaller squares. I forgot to measure. Diagram by Christiane Bettens is available here courtesy of OrigamiUSA.

Back when it was fall (all of a week or two ago), I was in a leaf-making mood, so when I stumbled on this while exploring OUSA’s website, I had to make it. Someday I will make a nice big quilt, but for this first time I decided to mirror the name and simply make 4 leaves representing the seasons. It seems appropriate to post it now while it is technically fall, but feels like winter. And so the world turns.

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“Elephant” designed by Fumiaki Kawahata. Folded by Annalisa from a 15 cm square of kami. Video tutorial here by Leyla Torres.

If there is one model that I have folded many times over the years, it is this elephant. I’ve made it for my sister, while waiting at the doctor’s office, for cranky kids in airports, as a rather literal interpretation of a white elephant gift, and it even serves as my icon. The point is, I’m really familiar with this model, so it works really well as a test fold for new paper. So here is the debut of Jong Ie Nara kami: it’s square, and it works.

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“Snowflake” designed by Dáša Ševerová. Folded by Annalisa on a hexagon cut from a 20 cm square of glassine. Diagram by Dáša Ševerová is available here courtesy of OrigamiUSA.

Yes, this is another snowflake, but it was a snowy day and I discovered that OUSA had a bunch of really great diagrams available online, and they had this amazing snowflake design by Dáša Ševerová. How was I supposed to resist? And really, why should I? Who doesn’t need more fantastic snowflake designs in their life?

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“Dreaming Bear” designed by Giang Dinh. Folded by Annalisa from a 9 x 9.5 inch (or ‘slightly larger than square’) rectangle of Canson Mi-Teintes paper. Diagram provided here by Giang Dinh.

You can probably tell, but just so you know, this is waaaaaaaaaaay outside my origami comfort zone. Wet folding thick paper without references is not even in the same city, much less the same ballpark as tessellation origami. I wouldn’t give it a full ‘when origami goes wrong’ tag, but it’s definitely not my intended result. Oh well, we practice to get better! And attempting this model means I can link you to Giang Dinh’s website. It is well worth your time to go look at his beautiful designs.

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“Anniversary Bowl” designed by Lee Armstrong (aka @foldawayorigami). Folded by Annalisa from a 15 cm square of folia paper. Diagrams available here on Lee’s tumblr.

I’m always a fan of Lee’s designs, and he happened to put this up right as I was trying out some origami lantern designs, which was perfect timing. Not only did I get to play around with a new design, but I also was able to try out how it looks illuminated! Turns out, a tea candle (real or electric) fits perfectly in the base of a bowl made with a 15 cm square. My fake candle does peek out a little bit at the top, so if you want the light totally engulfed in the bowl/lantern, you might want to make it a bit larger.