Orchid Shadowbox

I love models by Robert Lang, I find I fold them when I need order, therapy, calm. This is a collection of his Orchids, described in his book “Origami Design Secrets”. Something about the mathematical elegance of this flower lends itself to careful modelling and pretty staging. I had a bunch of opalescent 6″ squares in delicate pastel colours so originally folded separate flowers and tried to attach them in a sort of free-form montage.camille

They look better on a stem, so re-thought the mounting, used florist’s wire and tape to build a plausible “spray” and (shhh) used some craft glue to affix the flowers to the ends of each stickey-outey bit.

Working to the diagonal here, with an odd number of blooms works quite nicely I think, coupled with the corrugated (I folded a fan) hand-made gold-flecked tissue the total scene is quite pleasing. Continue reading

Sunflowers Revisited

People who know me understand my obsession with folding. It is so easy to turn up my procrastination engine to 11 by asking me about the “possibility” of a commission or fold for a purpose:presented

MJ approached me AGES ago (I have been sitting on this post for 2+ months) and asked if I could fold something to brighten up a wall in Nikki’s workroom. Having just folded some sunflowers I figured they would look nice in a shadowbox frame. Continue reading

526: Sunflowers

When asked by a friend (hey Trevor!) “can I make Sunflowers”, my answer initially was “dunno”, but let’s find out:526Sunflowers

I found a Youtube video by Ph2 with a flower base that was near identical to a number of other flower petal turnings I have done before. Squash then squash then squash and you get 16 petals per flower – nice. Using a simpler form the sepal works. Having the basis for the fold I set about selecting paper and scale to make these things near actual size.

I had some Lokta paper, in yellow and chocolate, so laminated a smaller chocolate square to the centre of a 26cm square, waited until dry then began the paper coaxing. Continue reading

524: Happy Valentines Day

I find it fascinating that there are so many models and folding techniques I have yet to try. The “Magic Rose Cube” is a case in point – I am amazed I have never folded it:v4

Such a beautiful little modular, 3 pieces the flower, 3 slightly different pieces the leaves, slots together into a cube easily, unfurls beautifully. Continue reading