I bought Naomiki Sato’s first book on origami roses to satisfy an obsession with mastering his pentagonal rose (a quest that is still in progress). Recently, he has published a second book (this one in English) and I knew I had to buy it:

Perhaps starting my journey in the new book with a 15cm square of red washi was possibly not the most sensible thing to do (waay smaller than suggested), however I ploughed on and much to my delight fashioned a fairly decent rendering of the simple square rose – the first rose I have folded from a square that actually looks like a rose.

I understand why the pentagon seems to be the design sweet-spot for a rose, an uneven number of petals just feels right, and the fluffing out of the layers is best if a little asymmetric, it just looks more real. That said, I am chuffed to not have buggered the first attempt, and there is a lot more where that came from. I think I will try to memorise the square variation – really handy when all you have is a square, and constructing a pentagon seems a lot like work (or you have no scissors or blade to do so).

Great restraint is needed here, gently gently is the aim, soft and full is the resultant bloom, fiddly fiddly is the folding.