Origami - The Art of Paper Folding

Today's theme is origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. :) I'm really getting very excited about the whole origami thing. I even went all the way to the dusty bookshelf downstairs to search for my ancient origami guidebooks. And guess what? I found them! Those babies are still around! I found "Amazing Origami For Children" by Steve and Megumi Biddle and "Animal Origami" by Yoshio Sato. The latter even comes with "Folding paper included"!

And I quote from the summary on the back of the book by the Biddles...

"Origami is the exciting and easy way to make toys decorations and all kinds of things from folded paper.

Use leftover gift paper to make a party hat and a fancy box. Or create a colourful lorry, a pretty rose and a zoo full of origami animals. There are 50 fun projects in this book - to make for gifts or for yourself"

Fancy boxes!! And colourful lorries!! *faints*

I came across Handmade by Hapa on Etsy. She (or he, I'm not sure) calls her creations "Handfolded Metalgami Jewelry and Sculpture" and they're made of 99.9% pure silver! o_O The ones you see below are the Cootie Catcher/Fortune Teller Dangle Earrings, Double Ninja Throwing Star Drop Earrings, and Origami Crane Dangle Earrings respectively.


TarkaArt's etsy store offers origami jewellery. Basically, she folds tiny origami 'beads' then applies layers of satin finish varnish to make the beads stronger and water resistant. (My origami balls always get moist and flimsy around the blowhole :p haha) After coating them with varnish, she uses the beads to make interesting necklaces and bracelets. I love how the green necklace blends the origami beads with the gemstones so effortlessly. As for the string of red beads, I just happen to like the Japanese floral paper design. It reminds me of the stacks of authentic origami paper that my mom's Japanese colleagues used to give me when I was younger.



Here's some food-for-thought for your inner mathgeek -- Mathematics of Paper Folding.

And some eyecandy for the chanster -- Origamic Architecture Models, Spanish Buildings and Architect Antoni Gaudi Buildings.

The beautiful models you see below are from the Antoni Gaudi website.