'Mohalia' (Folded by Steve Bondy, Design by Ancella Simoes)

I thought of sharing this picture with all of you – its a rendition of my ‘Mohalia’ design and is folded by Steve Bondy of Steve’s Paper. The ‘Mohalia’ is one of my first designs last year and it was published in Reference fold #2 which is available on Origami-shop.com.

This design of mine embraces a floral concept and is of the modular kind. Steve generously shared this image of his rendition with me, with permission for using it in my blog post if i wished to do so.

I think the paper he selected to fold this model is fantastic and lends a very delicate and an oriental look to the design. He says the paper he used was Kimono patterned origami paper which he purchased in a local store. Do check out his blog post about folding my design here.

Originally I used 16 – 3 inch – sheets to fold my model, but this i guess, depends on the size of the paper you use to fold this model. Steve’s modular version took just 15 sheets to form the petals and the flower.

Personally, I love the outcome of this rendition and the paper choice is great – which adds to the elegance of the completed model.

Thank you, Steve, for folding my design, sharing the images of your completed model and for allowing me to blog about it!

Season's Greetings Everyone!

Compliments of the Season to all of you!

I have made it a point to have an Origami Star as my Christmas Tree Topper for the last couple of years and have continued with that for this year, too. I usually select a 3D model of a star, and mostly Modular, so that I can place it on the top most leaf / branch sticking out of my tree.

I chose Tadashi Mori’s Kusudama Sparkle to adorn my tree for this year. This is quite easy to fold and it has a pretty solid assembly. I actually found this a lot easier to assemble as compared to my last year’s assembly of Paolo Bascetta’s Stellated Icosahedron which I made for my tree in 2010.

So, back to Tadashi Mori’s Sparkle Kusudama… This is an ingenious model which has a very interesting folding sequence. The best rendition, in my opinion, would be with pearlized or tissue foil paper which has a slight metallic shimmer to it.

Paper to use:
The size of the paper really depends on how large you would like your finished model to be. I the instructional video shown below, Tadashi Mori uses paper measuring approx 9 inches in size – square shaped and single side colored.

I used Pearl Tissue-foil Paper – 40×40 cm (15.75″x15.75″) from Nicolas Terry’s shop. I wanted a shade of dull gold for the star and hence this choice. I cut 15 squares measuring 8 inches each from these sheets of paper (I used 2 in all), and then as the instructions in the video mentioned, cut each of these 15 into half… making it 30 rectangular sheets of paper in all.

If you would like a brighter star, you can choose the Gold colored tissue foil paper from Nicolas Terry’s shop. He even has a silver colored option in case you are looking out for that to match the decor of your tree.

How to fold the Sparkle Kusudama:

Tadashi Mori’s instructions are clear and detailed. Steps for assembling the star are also shown properly and he even uses markers to show the various folds, so you will definitely find it easy to follow.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, too!

8 Pointed Star (Design by Mélisande)

Being the Holiday Season, I have been busy with decorating and lighting up the place for Christmas. One of the designs I leep a look out for is variations of stars to decorate the walls or windows with. This is one pretty design which is not very difficult to fold, too. Designed by Melisande, it requires 8 sheets of origami paper of any kind or color you would like to use.

There are quite a few variations proposed by Melisande, herself, to this design. I am sure that once you get used to the folding sequence, you can come up with a few more variations, too.

Paper to use:
For my rendition, I have used regular Kami paper which is single side colored. The paper I used has a design of splashes of color which gives the completed model a nice look, I think. I used 8 sheets of paper measuring 5 7/8 inches in size, square shaped.

How to fold this 8 pointed star:
Melisande has generously created photo diagrams and shared them with us on her Flickr album. Further, she has also posted pics of variations she has come up with, using a similar folding sequence.

I have folded a couple of these as decorations for this year – in red and green – along with other designs and I have them hanging from my ceiling in a little area in my hall room.

Christmas Lantern (Design by Ancella Simoes)

The countdown to Christmas has already started and I have been busy deciding on the Christmas decorations and getting started on the decorating, too. I always make it a point to fold a few Origami ornaments or hangings for Christmas so I have been quite excited about what to fold and where to put it.

Tinkering around with a model – Tripoli – which I had come up with a few months ago, I came up with a great design which is apt for the Holiday Season!

Paper to use:
The units in this lantern design requires shaping, hence it is recommended that foil paper be used for folding. My version of the model is folded with single-side colored foil paper which I have purchased from Michaels – they have a lot of plain colored, printed, and foil origami paper in their paper aisle.

You could also use duo-colored paper (instead of just single side colored paper) – this would avoid the ‘white areas’ from appearing in between the assembled model. Another idea would be to make use of christmas themed wrapping paper to fold this lantern. These days, you can get foil like wrapping paper (not the flimsy type) in the local stores, too.

How to fold this design:
I am in the process of diagramming this design so the folding sequence will be available to you shortly. The only complicated step in the folding process is a sink which I have incorporated – so this model is pretty much simple to fold.

Update: The Diagrams to this model are available in the annual Christmas Origami Book 2011 which was released on 27th of December 2011.

These would make a great hanging for your home or on the Christmas tree itself. I will be folding a few of these to deck up my place, at least!

Square Squared (Design by Ilan Garibi)

This is a simple, easy to fold design by Ilan Garibi which was published a few days ago in Issue 6 of Origami-USA’s The Fold. It requires just 8 square sheets of paper, of any color of your choice. It incorporates a simple interlocking technique which holds the units in place.

You can vary the colors of paper you choose to make a striking color combination such as that used by the designer. I used shaded single side colored sheets of kami paper which measured approx 8 inches in size. I used a red and white combination and a blue and green shaded combination to give the model the colorful mix. You can also attempt folding this design with wrapping paper.

This design is pretty simple to fold and assemble and there are a couple of variations you can try, too, one of which is suggested by the designer himself in his set of diagrams.

How to fold this design:
Please visit Origami-USA’s The Fold for instructions to this model – Ilan Garibi has generously shared the diagrams with everyone in Issue 6 of this online magazine. You will also find Ilan Garibi’s diagrams to another star shaped geometric design on Origami-USA which is also easy to fold and has a few suggestions for variations.

Have a great week ahead!