Origami Bouvardia box (Design by Tomoko Fuse)

This is the first time I tried my hands at folding an origami box. I decided to fold this for a friend of mine as a gift and thought that this was a pretty concept (and design, of course) to try out!

I referred to the book – Fabulous Origami Boxes (Tomoko Fuse) – for the design and instructions for this particular model. You can check out more details about this book as well as a review about it on the page – Origami books.

What you need:

For this particular model, I used construction paper (cut down to a 9” approx. square) thinking it will add to the ‘soft feeling’ of the design.

For the ‘lid’ - you need 4 square sheets of paper sized 7” to 9”. These can be of different color each, 2 sheets each of a different color or simply all of the same color.

For the ‘body’ – you need 4 more square sheets of paper the same size as used for the lid of the box. The folding is a lot easier than the folding of the lid sections and can be done in a matter of a few mins in total.

The beauty of Fuse’s origami box designs is that, once you get the hang of the basic folds required for a plain box, you can fold almost any decorative pattern for the lid, that too in various combinations. This particular model is taken from pages 51 to 55 from her book.

One must be aware though, that the decorative bouvardia, lily, hydrangea, crane or whatever else you choose, is ‘fixed’ or a part of the lid itself i.e. that section you are putting together to form the lid of the box. Hence, there is a limit to the kinds of patterns you are thinking of incorporating onto your box.