'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!

This is a post round up news and releases in the Origami world – well things that caught my eye, anyway, and which I found interesting.

Calendar 2012 – La Justa de las Gárgolas: This is one great Origami themed calendar which is available in Nicolas Terry’s shop, and what’s more, is that it’s a free e-book which is available for download! This calendar is made with the colaboration of the various artists who participated in the recently held competition by Eric Madrigal in honor of Monsieur Eric Joisel. The images in the calendar is from this online competition / Joust and is in color. The designs are truly awesome with works from various Origami artists showcased for each month of the year. This is a great calendar to have for all you Origami Enthusiasts.

Oribana Calendars : These are designed by Katrin and Yuri Shumakov and are easy to make and very simple in concept. They double up as pencil & pen holders for your desk in addition to being a desk calendar.

Convention: 29th CDO 2011: Garibi Ilan has done a good write up on the CDO convention held this year. Special at this convention was a Origami themed fashion show with all ‘garments’ made out of paper! There was a well stocked Origami shop at the convention, too with all the latest origami books and papers. Another great display at the convention was Paul Hassenforder’s ceiling to floor tessellations – truly amazing!

Addendum Revista “4 Esquinas N°7″ : Christmas Special: This is a Christmas Special e-book of the popular 4 Esquinas magazine. It contains diagrams and color images of the finished model of David Martinez’s Double Star or Estrella Doble. This is a fabulous design for the Christmas Season and uses a hexagon shaped paper to create the star.

Also included in this magazine is a mention of the new Competition / Joust hosted by Eric Madrigal. This time – for the year 2012 – it will be held in honor of Tomoko Fuse – for her immense contribution to the Origami World. You can visit Eric Madrigal’s Special blog post about this competition for more details. There are multiple categories in the competition and the rules, details and timelines are all included in this blog post.

Meenakshi Mukerji’s Exquisite Modular Origami: Meenakshi Mukerji has come out with yet another book, based on modular designs. So if you are into modulars and a fan of her work, this is definitely a book you should get your hands on. Her designs have a distinct aesthetic look to it and the best part is that her folding sequence is quite easy to follow and simple.

Hoàng Tiến Quyết’s Santa Claus: This brilliant origami designer has drawn up the diagrams to his ingenious model – Santa Claus. He has shared photo diagrams of the folding sequence on the Vietnam Origami Group forum.

Oriland Magic Star: This is a new book by Katrin and Yuri Shumakov and is a book on action models. To be more precise, it is more of action star models. It makes use of both strips of paper as well as square sheets of paper to fold these pretty stars. The authors say its intermediate level designs and can be folded by experienced folders.

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!