Month: October 2009
Preparing Origami Boxes
- by Jyoti
Origami is an age old art evolved in Japan. Learning the art of preparing origami boxes will definitely give you a sense of conceit and triumph.
Any local hobby or art store carries the desired colors of origami paper that are required to create your own origami boxes. You can even use regular newspaper but it is always advised to use origami paper because that is easy to fold and cut into right shape.
When making an origami box, you need the desired color origami paper, a pair of scissor and ruler. Here we have described step wise instructions for creating origami boxes.
1. Cut a square piece of paper.
2. Fold the square piece diagonally into a triangle.
3. Unfold the paper and make sure that the crease is visible.
4. Fold the first corner to the center creased line and unfold it.
5. Repeat the same with the other corner.
6. Hold the tip of one corner and fold it to the creased line caused by folding the corners.
7. Unfold the flap and repeat with the other flap.
8. Fold the edge of two corners to the first creased line and unfold.
9. Make sure that you can see 7 creased line on an open square piece of origami paper.
10. Repeat all the steps of folding and unfolding the corners, edges and flaps to form a checkerboard on the piece of paper.
11. From the two ends of the paper, cut the sides of opposite sides by two folds.
12. Turn the direction of paper and fold the uncut sides inwards till it reaches the cut ends of the paper.
13. Repeat the same from both ends.
14. Fold the side of the walls inwards on the turned pieces and hold it securely.
15. Repeat the same from all edges to make four walls of the box.
16. Hold the cut flaps and fold it inwards over the side walls. Make sure that these flaps fall within the box.
17. If you want to have a lid, repeat all the steps starting from a square piece of paper with the paper slightly bigger than the base box.
18. This will help the lid to comfortably fit the box.
How To Make Origami Swan
- by Jyoti
Origami swan is also a part of the fascinating ancient art of Origami. Here we have assorted various steps to help you learn the art of making origami swan. You will definitely enjoy this form of art.
Not only kids, even teens and adults enjoy this kind of art. If you feel, you have missed the chance of learning origami craft in your childhood, you are at the right place. Here we will make you learn this craft, so that our children don’t miss the chance of learning this exciting form of art and craft.
So, get ready with colored papers, scissors and excitement. Here are some steps to make you learn how to make origami swan.
1. Cut a square piece of paper.
2. Fold the sheet diagonally along the center.
3. Unfold the sheet and then fold the edges along the center crease.
4. Lift the opposite edge of the square and fold it to meet the folded edge at the center.
5. Turn the paper and fold one edge to the center crease and the other edge meeting the first fold.
6. Lift the pointed edge and fold it upwards.
7. Slightly lift the folded edge and fold the pointed tip downwards to form the head.
8. Fold the paper lengthwise along the center line.
9. Pull the neck away from the body.
10. Slightly pull the pointed tip from the head and extend the beak.
11. Squeeze the rest of body slightly.
12. Make sure to make the folds accurately to clearly distinguish the body parts of the swan.
13. And there you have your beautiful origami swan.
Preparing Origami Animals
- by Jyoti
Preparing origami animals is a traditional art and an inexpensive hobby. The only thing you need to learn the art is the right directions and instructions. Once you get the right instructions, it is really easy to make various animals using origami paper. If you have not learnt to make these origami animals, then you are the right place.
You can make any desired animal like dog, elephant, cow, frog, whale, horse, cat, panda and many more using origami papers. All these origami animals are really easy to prepare and fun to make. The best thing you can do at the end is to decorate these created animals with colors and embellishments like eyes, nose and fins to give a real look of the animals. It is even more interesting to create patterns on the animal body if you are making a tiger, whale or zebra.
Following are the step wise instruction for making origami whale.
1. Take a square piece of paper.
2. Fold one corner to the adjacent side.
3. Cut out the remaining portion from the piece of paper.
4. Fold two opposite edges in such a way that their corners meet.
5. Lift the open fold and fold it to touch the edge of other folds.
6. Fold the piece along the center.
7. Lift the pointed end and slightly fold it.
8. Make a short cut in the folded part of the pointed tip.
9. Fold the cut edges outwards to form the tail.
10. Draw eyes, fins and any desired pattern on the body to make it look like a whale.
11. Here completes your whale.
How To Make Origami Flowers
- by Jyoti
No object or thing can replace or beat the beauty of colorful flowers. But, origami flowers if crafted beautifully with creativity and imaginations can be as beautiful and as colorful as natural flowers.
The trend of making origami flowers is a very old craft tradition. Since the invention of origami, these flowers are used to decorate homes and gift loved ones. With the moving wheel of time, this became a hobby and today making origami flowers is believed to be the most interesting and exciting craft activities.
If you have the question, ‘how to make origami flowers’, waving in your minds, then here we have the step wise instructions to make origami flowers.
1. The easiest origami flower is the rose.
2. Take four sheets of origami paper, three red sheets for petals and one green sheet for leaves.
3. Make sure that the second red paper is about three quarter the size of the first sheet and the third is three quarter of the second sheet.
4. The green sheet must be equal to the size of the largest red sheet.
5. Take one square of red piece and fold it diagonally.
6. Further fold it on the East-West line and then on North-south line.
7. While folding, always keep the colored side up.
8. Now, fold the diagonals downwards and the East-West and North-South upwards.
9. Repeat the same with other pieces of red sheet.
10. Through any imaginary line, fold and unfold the right corner of the base.
11. Fold the edge to the crease made by folding the right corner to the middle of the imaginary line.
12. Fold the right edge to the left.
13. Repeat the same steps for all red pieces of paper.
14. The petals are ready.
15. Now place the petal one above the other in order to give a 3 D look of a flower.
16. Shape the green piece of paper to make leaves.
17. Place leaves under each petal to create a beautiful red rose.
How To Make Origami Crane
- by Jyoti
Origami crane is the ancient and the simplest form of origami craft. Since time immemorial, origami cranes are taught in many schools across the country. Kids really enjoy making origami cranes. The trend of this craft is no more restricted to schools and kindergartens; it has widespread to all possible reaches.
If you are really keen to make your child learn origami craft, then here are some steps to help you learn how to make origami crane.
1. Cut a square piece of paper.
2. Fold one edge so that it meets the other edge. Make sure that if you use one side colored sheet, then the colored side is folded outward.
3. Unfold the paper and lay flat.
4. Again fold the paper from the other edge and then unfold it.
5. Now, based on the creased line, fold the paper diagonally with the white side out.
6. Repeat the same step with the other end.
7. Fold the side corners inwards and the top corners downwards.
8. With the open side, fold one corner of the square towards the left. Let the folded edge line up with the center line.
9. Turn the paper and repeat the same with the other flap.
10. Flip the paper and fold the edges of the other two flaps.
11. Fold the top flap to get a crease and then unfold it.
12. Lift the top flap to the open end of the square and fold upwards.
13. Flip the paper and repeat with the other open flaps.
14. Fold the top flap on the open end in such a way that the lower flap touches the upper flap.
15. It actually forms a kite like structure.
16. Invert one fold from the upper tip to form the head.
17. Pull back the upper tip from the other end to form the tail.
18. Pull apart the side flaps to form the wings and the body.
This makes a complete origami crane – Fun to make, fun to play and fun to keep.
Origami For Kids
- by Jyoti
Origami is a very enthralling and imaginative craft for kids, especially if there is something appropriate to their age. Kids will not only enjoy making these craft but they will also get a real sense of satisfaction of learning something creative and fascinating. These origami craft models will also help in enhancing manual dexterity of kids and producing an ornamental end product.
Earlier origami crafts were taught only in schools but gradually the art of teaching origami crafts spread to craft classes, summer camps and even houses. Today, most of the parents teach such kind of crafts to their kids at their homes or send them to summer camps during vacations to learn a variety of hobbies.
The growing technology and innovative techniques have also brought this art online. Various online sources can also help you learn this creative art. To learn through web sources, it is essential to learn the traditional origami diagrams, symbols and various techniques of folding origami. This learning will eventually make an ornamental and creative origami model. The most common origami crafts for kids are simple designs like origami flowers, origami boat, origami butterfly, origami cup, origami house, origami dog, origami flying bird, origami yacht and origami boxes.
A common learning for all these simple designs is the folding instructions. Kids can easily make this creative craft if they learn to follow the instructions. Most of these origami models require a square piece of paper. This piece of paper is further folded into a kite shape and from that kite shape various models can be crafted using wild imaginations and creativity.
What Is Origami
- by Jyoti
Origami is originated from a Japanese word ‘Ori’ and ‘Kami’, meaning paper folding. The word ‘Ori’ means to fold and the word ‘Kami’ means paper.
Origami is an ancient art of paper folding that is passed on from one generation to other since ages. The art involves creation of various paper models usually entitled by folding a square piece of paper. the most popular form of origami art are animals, flowers, toys, puppets, geometric shapes and masks.
This ancient art of paper folding was originated around the first century in China. The Chinese called this form of art as zhe zhi. After the spread of origami in China it was widespread to Korea and then to Japan. This traditional art was brought to Japan by a Buddhist monk in the sixth century. The Japanese took this traditional art as a pastime which further developed into an intricate and fascinate art form, developing myriad folds, styles and shapes. Origami crane is believed to be a popular and lucky origami model for Japanese.
The introduction of paper making and paper folding to Japan later coincided with the new technology, advancement and development of the Japanese religion. It further became an indispensable part of the Japanese. This was then named ‘Origami’ after the new advancements made by Akira Yoshizawa of Japan. The Japanese quickly took to paper folding as a pastime, developing a number of traditional folds, shapes, and styles, many of which were considered fortuitous for particular occasions or life events. The Crane is a particularly famous lucky origami shape.