Origami Interlude: Crystallized Masu Boxes

A few days ago I briefly broke from the beading routine to try out my brand new Crystal Katana with a handful of Swarovski flatback crystals. Of all the different surfaces that I could bling out with crystals, I decided to first try it out on a trio of Masu origami boxes.

Working with Flatback Crystals

This was my first time working with the small, no-hole, sequin-shaped flatback crystals. But I was happy to find that the crystal katana is really easy to use. First you apply a dot of glue onto each point where you want to add a crystal (I used the precision glue bottle). Then you pick up the top of the crystal with the wax end of the katana, gently set it into the glue, and the crystal will transfer from the katana to the spot of glue. When you're done adding them, you can use the other end of the katana to set the crystals in place.

Crystallized Masu Boxes

I experimented with a few methods of adding crystals to the washi covers of my masu boxes. Since the yuzen washi used in these boxes already comes in so many gorgeous, detailed patterns, only a few crystals are needed to add just a little bit of extra bling. On this box, I added the crystals to the centers of the flowers:

The print on this box has an interesting floral-and-fan combination, so I added a few crystals to accentuate the fan-like shapes:

Finally, on this box I added the crystals into the negative spaces between the flowers. I think I like this one the best.

Many Possibilities

For this first attempt, I only crystallized three boxes, but there are as many possible crystal-and-origami combinations as there are prints of washi! I'll definitely be investigating this idea more in the future.

Thanks to Kellie the Crystal Ninja for inventing such a neat tool!

Check out some of my previous interludes into paper origami here.

Origami Interlude: Rafaelita

To catch up with my monthly series of Origami Interludes, this month I folded two pieces using a module designed by Lukasheva Ekaterina of Kusudama.me.

The Rafaelita Module

Both pieces were created using the Rafaelita Module, which is folded from a square piece of paper. I went total bling and used a textured gold foil paper for these modules, cut into 3" squares. Foil paper is a double-edged sword to work with; it makes very crisp, clear creases that are easy to see and manipulate. However, once a crease is made in foil paper, it's there for good, so it's much less forgiving of errant creases compared to more fibrous papers such as washi.

Here's what one individual Rafaelita Module looks like after it's folded:

The 12-Unit Kusudama

For the first completed kusudama, I wanted to test out the Rafaelita unit before folding all thirty pieces called for in the original pattern, so I folded and connected twelve Rafaelita modules together using the symmetry of a cube. I found the individual modules pretty straightforward to fold, but the joints were much tricker to do correctly than I had previously thought; the pockets have to be almost completely unfolded before the tabs can be inserted, and then additional creases are made in the tabs as they are enclosed by the pockets. However, no adhesives are needed to keep the finished Rafaelita constructions together. Here's what the 12-unit construction looks like:

It's slightly smaller than a baseball:

The 30-Unit Kusudama

Once I was comfortable with the 12-unit construction, I folded thirty Rafaelita Modules for the 30-unit construction. This kusudama uses the symmetry of the dodecahedron, and I really like how its shows a floral motif on each side. I also like how none of the white backside of the foil paper is visible in the completed construction.

The 30-unit construction is a bit larger than the baseball:

I think both pieces will make gorgeous Christmas ornaments!

Same Unit, Different Symmetries

I can't count the number of times that I've used this same process to explore a new origami module. First, I'll fold the individual module. Then, I'll try the 12-unit construction. Finally, once I'm comfortable with that, I'll move on to the 30-unit construction, and sometimes I'll try other combinations of units. As Ekaterina shows in the gallery of her website, this series can be extended to 60, 90, and even 120-unit pieces!

Have you noticed the same strategy in my beadwork?

A free diagram and how-to video for the Rafaelita Module is available at Kusudama.me. Check out some of my previous interludes into paper origami here.

Origami Interlude: Larger Masu Boxes

I just realized that I missed an Origami Interlude for the month of April... Oops! Well I'm remedying that today with some origami boxes.

Masu Boxes

A while ago I blogged about the origami boxes that I hand-fold for the jewelry that I sell in my Etsy shop. The boxes are a variation on the Masu box, a traditional origami design that you can learn to fold yourself here. I fold mine from 6" squares of paper; washi for the top and card stock for the bottom, with both parts lined with card stock for extra stability. The finished box is about 2 inches wide by one inch tall:

This box is great for earrings, pendants, and beaded beads, but it's a little small for necklaces and even for some bracelets. I could use larger sheets of paper, but the resulting box would retain the same proportions of the original box (it would be wider, but it would also be deeper than 1"). I wanted a more traditional necklace-sized jewelry box that would be only one inch deep, but about 3-4 inches wide.

Larger Masu Boxes

To remedy this problem, I came up with another variation that results in a wider box with different proportions than the original Masu box. The trick to this variation is to both use a larger sheet of paper, but to also modify step 3 to fold the sides in only partway. With an 8" sheet of paper, and by folding the sides in only 1", I had a box that's still one inch deep, but about 3.75 inches wide:

Small vs. Large Boxes

Here's a photo of both the small and large Masu boxes in the same pretty purple Japanese crane washi print:

I like how the larger box not only solves the how-to-package-a-necklace question, but it also shows off more of the gorgeous prints that you can find in washi. I'm particularly fond of Japanese crane and cherry blossom prints.

Though, now that I think about it, this would also work well with Italian papers too... Hmm.....

Check out some of my previous interludes into paper origami here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

What's your favorite kind or style of paper? Do you know of one that would look particularly nice in a Masu box? Drop me a line in the comments section!

Origami Interlude: Tiny Paper Cranes

If you've ordered any beading kits from my website in the past couple of months, you might have noticed something special included in your shipment.

These tiny little paper cranes came about from a minor conundrum I faced a little while back...

What to do with leftover washi? 

As I previously mentioned, I hand-fold custom masu boxes for each piece of jewelry that I sell in my Etsy shop, and I cut the paper for these boxes from large (about 24" by 36") sheets of washi. I usually have a little bit of scrap paper leftover after cutting the washi into 6-inch squares for the boxes. It isn't much paper; usually strips measuring one to two inches by 6 inches, but since washi is so beautiful (and expensive), I can't bring myself to just throw the scraps out. Here's a sampling of them, after I cut them into 1 1/2-inch squares:

But the question was; what to do with these tiny pieces of paper?

The answer: tiny paper cranes!

I do origami the way that many other beaders knit: it's not my primary art form, but I enjoy it in my non-beading time and at this point the process of folding a paper crane is nearly subconscious. I've been known to fold paper cranes out of everything from dinner napkins to those tiny tags on the ends of teabags. So, when I sat that stack of scrap washi paper next to my computer, before I knew it I had a pile of tiny paper cranes. Here are a couple of them with a quarter (left) and a 100-yen coin (right).

Here they are posing with a small Plum Egg beaded bead:

Lounging around with a Fiberoptic Dodecahedron Pendant:

And swimming in a new, as-yet-unnamed design with rizos and rivolis (a "rizoli" design?):

Finally, just to give you an idea of how many I've folded, here's just a sampling of the pile of paper cranes:

Since they're threatening to take over the space next to my computer, I decided to send them out into the world with each kit order from my website. Look for your own tiny paper crane in your next Bead Origami kit order!

If you'd like to fold your own paper crane, this site is a great place to learn how. They're pretty easy to fold, but if it's your first time folding a paper crane, I recommend starting with a larger sheet of paper such as a 6-inch or 8-inch square. Check out some of my previous interludes into paper origami here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Do you have a secondary craft? If so, what is it? Drop me a line in the comments below!

Origami Interlude: Immortelle

For this month's Origami Interlude, I folded a piece designed by Lukasheva Ekaterina of Kusudama.me. She has a gorgeous gallery of kusudama origami, and several free diagrams to boot! This piece is called Immortelle, and is a variation of her Dragonfly unit:

This piece features 30 Immortelle units joined together without any glue or adhesives. I used six units each of five different colors of origami paper, and joined them together using the uniform color distribution that I describe in my Candy Dodecahedron beaded bead pattern. I used two sheets of paper for each unit so that the completed piece would be more colorful; about half of the backside of each piece of paper shows in the final unit.

I really like how flowery this piece looks!

A free diagram and how-to video for this piece is available at Kusudama.me. Check out some of my previous interludes into paper origami here, here, here, here, and here.

Origami Interlude: Flower Cube

Sometimes I need to take a brief detour from beads to remind myself that I can still do origami.

This piece is the Flower Cube with Finish A, from "Origami Inspirations" by Meenakshi Mukerji. I really like Meenakshi's approach to modular origami; she's not afraid to use non-square sheets of paper like pentagons to achieve some truly gorgeous dodecahedral designs (that I really need to try someday), and I like her symmetrical approach to the distribution of color over the whole piece (it's actually the same approach that I use in my Candy Dodecahedron beaded bead pattern). Her website is an absolute goldmine of modular origami eye candy...

This particular piece uses six flower modules. It uses lots of pre-creases and a couple of harrowing spread squashes that were a little tricky to fold, but overall it folds up quite nicely. Here's one by itself:

Here are three joined together, from the inside view of the finished cube:

The individual modules are joined together without any glue, thread, or other adhesives.

It holds its shape quite well! I wouldn't start kicking it around like a soccer ball, but you can handle it pretty thoroughly without it falling apart. I like how you can see straight through it:

I used two sheets each of three different colors of a pretty typical weight of origami paper. I think that this model would work with a slightly heavier paper too, such as washi, but I wouldn't try folding it from anything heavier than that.

You think this design could translate into beads?

Origami Interlude: Washi Masu Boxes

I have a confession... I love washi paper.

OK, that isn't the confession. When I visited Japan in August 2010, I bought several full-size sheets of the most gorgeous handmade washi from the heavenly Morita Washi and Ito-ya stationary stores.

The confession is... Since visiting Japan a year and a half ago, I hadn't folded anything from these papers. I'd carefully unwrap and drool over them from time to time, as a jewelry maker would with a collection of one-of-a-kind lampwork beads; ogling them, brainstorming how to showcase them in the perfect piece of art, but, not actually using them in jewelry... Er, paper crafts.

The problem is, I'm visiting Japan again in less than two weeks, where I will surely purchase more Washi paper. So, it was time to fold something out of the papers that I already have.

I still have visions of cracking open one of Tokomo Fusé's books and folding these papers into one of her gorgeous geometric origami designs. But in the meantime, I was running low on the masu boxes that I use for jewelry purchased from my Etsy shop. So, I carefully cut the washi into squares alongside matching colors of card stock for a new stack of jewelry boxes.

Folding washi is like sewing with silk; it's easy on the fingers and is very forgiving of an errant crease.

The downside with washi is that it's not very stiff, so when I use it with masu boxes, I reinforce it with an extra layer of card stock in both the top and bottom halves of the box. The extra layer fits inside the blinz base (after Step 2 is completed), and is also a square piece of paper measuring √2/2 (about 0.7) times the length of the outer layer.

I love modular boxes too, but the simplicity of the masu box really brings out the print of the washi:

Plus, they're really easy to fold, and in great numbers:

What's your favorite kind of jewelry packaging material? Do you prefer jewelry pouches, or jewelry boxes?

Origami Interlude: Kusudama

A little while ago I picked up Tomoko Fusé's Kusudama Origami because this book is chuck-full of the type of modular origami designs that I so enjoy. This book also explores the more traditional types of kusudama origami, where individual units of folded paper are strung or glued together into a (usually) round structure. I find modular origami more satisfying when a structure can be completed without glue or string, but the designs in this book are so pretty that I had to give this style a try. I started with a single double-flower version of her primula design:

Which quickly started to multiply..

I used 15 by 15 cm TANT paper for these flowers. This paper comes in a rainbow pack and in packs of different hues, and the red pack contains 12 different shades of red and bright orange. I only needed about half of the pack for the whole structure.

The finished "Bouquet of Primula" contains 16 individual flowers. I was hoping that I could use only 12 to achieve dodecahedral symmetry, but alas, more flowers were needed to fill out the whole ball. It measures about 9 inches in diameter.

I'm anxious to adapt this style of flower ball to beads, where dodecahedral symmetry might be more feasible. In the meantime, I'm enjoying my paper version. 

Have you tried a new style of craft lately? How did it turn out?

Origami Interlude: "The Egg"

Continuing with the themes of springtime and the rebirth that comes with it, today I thought I'd share some origami that I've had kicking around for a while. The modular unit used for this piece is the triangular gyroscope module by Rona Gurkewitz and Bennett Arnstein, which is made out of paper cut into an equilateral triangle. Multiple units can be pieced together to make a number of polyhedra, particularly structures including 5- and 6-sided faces, including the dodecahedron, truncated octahedron, and truncated icosahedron, with each unit sitting on an edge of the polyhedron. However, one of the more unique examples shown in Gurkewitz and Arnstein's books is the truncated hexadecahedron, fittingly referred to as "The Egg."

"The Egg" is made from 16 hexagons, 8 pentagons, and 2 squares. You can think of it as a soccer ball that's lost about 1/5 of its faces, and wrapped itself up to compensate. While it certainly has symmetry, it's considered an irregular polyhedron because the shapes that make up this polyhedron are not regular, meaning that the edges of each face have slightly different lengths. 

The great thing about origami, and beads too, is that we can can still construct such almost-regular polyhedra from regularly-shaped modules. The Egg uses a total of 48 triangular gyroscope modules, and I for one can't tell that the finished structure is irregular.

Twenty modules, made from foil paper, make a shiny little dodecahedron.

What's your favorite kind of egg? Origami? Beaded? Fabergé? Chicken?