Notice that the paper moves up on each side of a valley fold, and down on each side of a mountain fold.
Fold Quality
The quality of your folds is important. Most people think that a flap should be folded so that its edge lands as closely as possible to the reference line without going beyond it. In fact, most flaps created early in a model’s folding pattern will become components of other flaps and points yet to be completed. Experienced folders have learned that it is important to leave a small gap, preferably about as wide as the thickness of two sheets of paper, between any edge and its reference line.
Always leave small gap between the edge of the surface being folded and the fold or edge it is being folded to.
If a fold needs to be reversed, always sharpen it. You can use a popsicle stick to sharpen folds on origami paper, but for painted paper you should use a wallpaper seam roller (shown in background).
Symbols Used in This Book
The fold symbol
The fold and then unfold symbol
The crush-fold symbol
The pinch-fold symbol
The collapse symbol
The flip symbol
The fold on both sides symbol
The book-fold symbol
Tools and Supplies You Will Need
1 Newspaper
2 Latex gloves
3 Paper, either US 8 ½” x 11”, or A4
4 Hot melt glue gun
5 Shallow pan, approximately 11 x 17 inches, or 28 x 43 centimeters
6 Assorted acrylic paints
7 Wood glue
8 A large quantity of white acrylic paint
9 Small, shallow cups for mixing paint
10 A wallpaper seam roller or a popsicle stick
11 Tools, including pliers, wire cutters, scissors and tweezers
12 Assorted brushes
(not shown) Artist’s medium bodied matte acrylic emulsion
The Web and Other Resources
There is a vast amount of origami-related information available in books and on the Web. I often add an origami hummingbird from one of my favorite books, Advanced Origami by Michael LaFosse (Tuttle, 2005). There are thousands of folding videos on YouTube.com and folding diagrams on websites like Scribd.com. Most importantly, there are two websites devoted to making botanical sculptures from paper, www.Benagami.com and www.OrigamiBonsai.org.
There are also numerous opportunities to sell your work online. Etsy, Artfire, and DaWanda are websites which offer inexpensive e-commerce for handmade goods. You’ll need to figure out shipping costs, but other than that, these sites make selling your work really easy.
www.Benagami.com features my latest work and information about my studio.
www.OrigamiBonsai.org is a creative forum for people interested in making plants using origami and makigami techniques.
An origami hummingbird feeds at an origami flower.
How to Pack a Sculpture for Shipping
Whether you’re selling your work or giving it away, you need to know how to ship your sculptures successfully. While origami ikebana arrangements look delicate, they’re actually quite resilient when shipped because they have very little mass. This means the boxes they’re shipped in can take a fair amount of abuse without damaging the sculpture inside. When packing your sculpture, be very careful when executing steps 1 and 6, described below. For full disclosure, I have to admit that I broke my sculpture’s stamens in step 1. I would normally not put a sculpture inside a box as shown in step 1 without securing the flaps on one side first. Securing the flaps on one side ensures that the box won’t collapse unexpectedly.
You should also consider double-boxing every sculpture you ship. In other words, pack the box as described below inside another, larger box. You should never put any additional loose items inside the inner box which contains the sculpture. Even something as small and light as an origami hummingbird can damage a sculpture during shipping when packed inside the inner box.
1 Find a box big enough to fit your sculpture with lots of room to spare. Cut a piece of cardboard that’s a little bit smaller than one side of your box. Set your sculpture aside and open the flaps on both sides of the box.
2 Poke two holes through the piece of cardboard and the side of your box, at the front right corner and at the back left corner.
3 Mark the piece of cardboard and the box so you’ll have a reference to align the holes you made in step 2.
4 Poke two more holes on the piece of cardboard, very close to the base of your arrangement. If you’re shipping a very large sculpture you may want to poke four holes.
5 Use a twist tie to secure the sculpture to the piece of cardboard.
6 Secure the flaps on one side of the box by overlapping them. Align the piece of cardboard to the box using the mark you