World Origami Days Celebrated!

World Origami Days was founded by an American Committee to spread awareness about Origami. The World Origami Days is celebrated every year beginning from 24th October to 11th November. Also, Japan celebrates 11th November as Origami Day.

I am not a member of any committee but I love Origami, and since the day I started practicing Origami I have no regrets.

We celebrated the World Origami Days at Art Hours, by folding a new origami model every week. (Here, 'we' implies my daughter and me).

Origami is a challenge to me and folding a new model gives me immense satisfaction and peace. Generally, I don't follow video tutorials but prefer to search for diagrams instead. The entire process, beginning from understanding the fold diagram to folding the entire model, is like solving a puzzle -and this is where the entire fun and challenge lies. Watching a video to fold an origami model is no fun for me - it's like you are reading a mystery story and your killjoy friend tells you the ending of the story, or you go to watch a suspense movie and somebody tells you the end - same is the case with doing origami. If you know the ending it is no fun...However, sometimes I do watch videos when the folds are too complicated, but not all origami models have video tutorials so that makes me happy as I can continue taking up new challenges!

'World Origami Days' was just a pretext for us to try some new origami models. Thanks to the wonderful creations made by the origami artists around the world and thanks to them for uploading the origami diagrams and tutorials on the internet. It has helped origami lovers like us and many others around the world, to fold and explore new origami models.

In this blog, I am not only posting the origami models we attempted but also the links to the tutorials which we followed, wherever possible. We attempted a new model each day beginning from 24th October to 10th Nov. Unfortunately on the last few days of the World Origami Days when I had planned to conduct a workshop, I fell sick and I had to cancel the workshop. I, hereby apologize to all those students who were keen to attend the origami workshop but I had to cancel the same due to my personal health issues. Hope to see them participating in our future workshops.

Day 01: Mandala Serenata

Design Credit: Vagner Alves/Carla Godoy

We folded a variation of the original model as we learned to fold it from a video tutorial and here's the link to the same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_C01a1GQ5c

Model details: 

Category: Modular Origami
Level: Intermediate, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 3.5 stars (with 1 being easy and 5 being most difficult in terms of complications in folds involved)

Uses rectangular units

We folded it using a gift wrapping paper

Mandala Serenata folded by Art Hours

Day 02: Variation of Mandala Serenata

Design Credit: Carla Godoy

We folded a variation of the original model as we learned to fold it from a video tutorial and here's the link to the same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_C01a1GQ5c

Model details: 

Category: Modular Origami
Level: Intermediate, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 3.5 stars

Uses rectangular units

We folded it using colored printer paper.

Variation of Mandala Serenata folded by Art Hours

Day 03: Mandala Tamba Taja

Design Credit: Falk Brito

We folded the model following an origami diagram. You will surely get it on the internet.

Model details: 

Category: Modular Origami
Level: Intermediate, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 3.5 stars

Uses rectangular units

We folded it using origami paper.

Origami Mandala Tamba Taja folded by Art Hours

Day 04: Origami Tico Star

Design Credit: Maria Sinayskaya

We folded the model following a video tutorial and here's the link to the same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyZKB4eaD1A 

Category: Modular Origami
Level: Intermediate, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 3.5 stars

Uses square units, requires no glue.

We folded it using origami paper.

Origami Tico Star folded by Art Hours

Day 05: Origami Clutch Purse

Design Credit: Chrissy

We folded the model following a video tutorial on paperkawaii.com

Category: Single Sheet folding
Level: Intermediate, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 3 stars.

Uses square sheet of size 6"

We folded it with an origami paper.

Origami Clutch Purse folded by Art Hours

Day 06: Origami Navigator Star

Design Credit: Maria Sinayskaya

We folded the model following an origami diagram, you can surely find it on the internet.

Category: Modular origami
Level: Easy, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 2 stars

Uses 4 square units, requires no glue.

We folded it using colored printer paper sized 8.7 cm square each.
This one is fun to fold and even kids can try folding this one. My kid had fun folding this one.

Origami Navigator Star folded by Art Hours

Day 07: Origami Mandala Macuxi

Design Credit: Falk Brito

We folded the model following an origami diagram, you can surely find it on the internet.

Category: Modular origami
Level: Intermediate, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 3.5 stars

Uses 8 rectangular units.

We folded it using gift wrapping paper sized 10cm x 3cm.

Mandala Macuxi folded by Art Hours

Day 08: Origami Humming Bird

Design Credit: Not sure

We folded the model following a video tutorial by Mohamed Galal and here's the link to the same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si-Mhbu3UCI&t=1s

Category: Single sheet folding
Level: Difficult, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 5 stars.
Though the model is difficult to fold, the video tutorial is very clear and elaborates every step with accompanying diagrams of the folds.

We folded it using McDonald's carry bag paper. 

Origami Humming Bird folded by Art Hours

Day 09: Origami Elephant

Design Credit: Fumiaki Kawahata

We folded the model following a video tutorial by Leyla Torres and here's the link to the same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InIpbaPdA54

Category: Single sheet folding
Level: Intermediate, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 4 stars

We folded it using 6" square origami paper.

Origami Elephant folded by Art Hours

Day 10: Origami Lotus

Traditional design. You can find lots of diagrams and tutorials on the internet hence am not posting a link.

Category: Single sheet folding
Level: Easy, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 2 stars. 

We folded it using tissue papers.

Origami Lotus folded by Art Hours

Day 11: Origami Miniature Mandalas

Design credit goes to many artists. You can find the links to many such stars and patterns in Origami-club.com.

Category: Modular Origami
Level: Easy, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 2 stars
All the models below have 8 square units.

Used paper scraps as units which were as small as 1.5cm squares

We folded it using colored printer paper.

Miniature Mandalas folded by Art Hours

Day 11: Origami Long Bookmarks
Category: Single Sheet folding

Heart Bookmark

Design credit: Jo Nakashima and here's the link to the video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gml2j4bvT88
Level: Intermediate, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 3.5 stars
Well, those who know Jo Nakashima's Origami Models would agree that his designs are not easy as they look!

Crane bookmark

Design credit: Bob Stack, Video tutorial by Yakomoga and here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdYTw1u8xk8

Level: Intermediate, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 3 stars

Both the models can be folded from a rectangular sheet.

We folded the bookmarks using origami paper.

Origami Long Bookmarks folded by Art Hours

Day 12: Origami Long Bookmarks
Category: Single Sheet folding

Pencil Bookmark

Uses a rectangular sheet of paper.

We watched a video tutorial for this bookmark and here's a link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z73dByO_PVI
Level: Easy, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 1 star.

Crane bookmark

Uses a square sheet of paper.

We followed a picture tutorial on http://www.all-about-origami.com/
Level: Easy, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 2.5 stars.

Cat bookmark

Amongst all of the long bookmarks, we folded, this one had complicated folds and I have lost the link to the tutorial. Sorry for this one!

Level: Intermediate, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 3.5 stars.

We folded all the bookmarks using origami paper.

Origami Long Bookmarks folded by Art Hours

Day 14: Origami Spiral
Design Credit: Tomoko Fuse
Category: Modular Origami
Level: Easy, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 3 stars.
Uses 4 square units, requires no glue.
We watched a video tutorial for this one by paperfolds. While I made the units, my kid enjoyed assembling this model.

Origami Spiral folded by Art Hours

Day 15: Origami Magic Circle
Design Credit: Not sure
Category: Modular Origami
Uses 8 square units, requires no glue.
We watched a video tutorial, for this one and here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb0ICsjkl14
Level: Easy, On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it 2.5 stars.
We used colored printer paper for this model.
This one was folded entirely by my child watching the video tutorial and she had great fun folding this one, for, in the end, she could even play with it!

Origami Magic Circle folded by Art Hours

For the 15 days of World Origami Days, we had awesome fun folding every model. Each day we tried folding a new origami model, we learned and enjoyed on the way. I wish more people could have been a part of this origami exploration!

Anyways, hope the links to the origami tutorials helps those who are keen to learn origami and love attempting new models. 

Thanks for stopping by...have a good day.

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Origami Candle Holder

Last year, around the same time, while I was digging the internet to find some interesting Diwali craftwork for children, I discovered different origami models serving as candle holders. Here, are a few origami models that I tried. Each origami candle holder turned out beautiful and just perfect for holding candles for any occasion.

Origami Candle Holders: Model 01 and 02

Origami Candle Holders: Model 03

Out of all the above models, Model 02 is quite easy to make. And, this is what we are going to learn to make in this post.

This Diwali, learn to make a candle holder. An easy model to try and even an origami beginner who isn't aware of complicated folds can try making this one.

Try it out with your kids this Diwali week and involve your children in the festivities and fun. 

This origami candle holder is a single sheet model and the steps to fold it are very simple. Also, it takes less than 5 minutes to make it. So, go ahead and make loads of them this Diwali season. You can fold them back and reuse it in the next season...so that's budget friendly and economic reuse of paper too. 

Materials required: Square Origami paper or square colored papers. The size of the paper to be used depends on the size of the lights you are going to use. For this tutorial, a white square paper of size 6"x 6" was used.

Here's the procedure showing every step.

Step 01:

Start by making creases along both the diagonals as shown in the picture below.

Step 01: Make creases along both the diagonals.

Step 02: Fold down all the four corners to meet at the center. Now, this is what is called an Origami Blintz base.

Step 02: Fold down all the four corners to meet at the centre

Step 03: Turn over the model.

Step 03: Turn over the model

Step 04: Now, fold the four corners again to meet at the center. So, now we have applied a double blintz to the model.

Step 04: Fold down the corners to meet at the center

Step 05: Now, fold the tip of the flap, upwards to touch the outer edge of the square shape as shown in the picture below. Repeat for all the remaining sides.

Step 05: Fold the tips to touch the outer edges of the square

Step 06: Next, turn over the model and fold all the edges to meet at the center one by one. Crease well. Then open the folds and you will observe the creases as you see in the picture below. Do not skip this step.

Step 06: Apply the creases

Step 07: In this step, open the flaps and let it touch the corners as shown below. Crease well again.

Step 07: Open the flaps to touch the corners

Step 08: Now, insert your fingers below the triangular flaps at the corners and press the model downwards following the crease you made in step 06, to get a depth in the model. You will see a square base is formed at the bottom. And it is done. The candle holder is ready for use.

You can use this for holding LED lights or Diyas. 

Tips by Art Hours:

• Use colored sheets to make them colorful and decorate with sequins or glitter as desired. 
• This model will turn out well with a little thick paper and last longer too. So, a chart paper or card paper would be ideal for this model.

Origami Candle Holder

Now, mind you, this candle holder is safe for use with LED lights or diyas...after all its just made from paper and not safe to use it with wax candles.

I loved this origami model in particular because they can be safely compressed back and reused while they last, for more than one season. You just need to take them out during any festivity which requires a candle holder and reuse them; be it Diwali or Christmas or any other festival of lights, parties or occasions that call for a candle holder. So try making this origami model...decorate with a different theme this year and let your Diwali celebration be an eco-friendly one.

Here's a quick preview of the steps to making this origami candle holder on our youtube channel.

Have a Happy and Safe Diwali.

Thank you for stopping by...Do like and share this post, leave in your comments and queries. We are looking forward to constructive comments.

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Tutorial: Learn to make an Origami Paper Ganesha

With Ganesha Chaturthi, India gears up for the 10-day long festival decorating their homes, preparing sweets, buying new clothes etc. Many people bring a Ganesha idol at home and celebrate it with great devotion and joy. Lord Ganesha is known to remove all obstacles that come across our way, hence he is known as the Vignaharta, and is worshipped before starting any new work. I remember Ganesh Chaturthi being celebrated with great pomp and show in our small township. There was a big multipurpose hall dedicated for festivals and gatherings. All the residents of the town dressed in festive attires visited the town hall to catch a glimpse of the large Ganesha idol and acquire His divine blessings and certainly not to miss the prasad distribution. We used to be filled up with a spirit of joy, happiness and devotion, all at the same time, and we waited eagerly every year for this very joyous celebration. As grown ups, these are the small joys we miss!

Catching up with the spirit and mood of Ganesh Chaturthi, here's a tutorial on how to make an Origami Paper Ganesha without messing your hands, free from glue, paint or clay and no tools. All you need is a square sheet of paper and your dexterous hands to fold a paper neatly.

Origami Paper Ganesha

Materials used for this tutorial: 

Here I have used a red color A4 sheet, from which I cut out a square sheet of size 210mm x 210mm.

Cutting an A4 sheet to get a square sheet

Tutorial:

The procedure requires your patience to fold the paper neatly, for neat folds only will get you the final output. Don't give up in the middle. I suggest you try it out first using a rough sheet, for instance, try this model using a square newspaper sheet and then proceed with a good quality paper once you have perfected the folds.

Step 1:

Start with a diagonal valley crease on one side of the square sheet as shown in the picture below. Note: Those of you who are aware of origami folds, would understand what's the difference between folds and crease. A 'Crease' is when you see the mark made by folding the sheet, and 'fold' is when you have folded the sheet for the next step. No need of getting into technical details at this stage, just follow the pictorial steps and you will do fine.

Step 1: Make a diagonal crease 

Step 2:
Now make another diagonal crease for marking the centre of the sheet.

Step 2: Make another diagonal crease for marking the centre

Step 3:
Fold the bottom corner to mark the quarter on one side of the diagonal as shown in the left inset.
Now fold in the top corner to meet the quarter marked and crease well.

Step 3:
Left inset: Fold the bottom corner for marking a quarter
Right inset: Fold in the top corner to meet the quarter mark

Step 4:

Open up the paper and see the creases made. You would have one main diagonal and all your creases marked along the diagonal. The creases should appear as valley marks in the left inset below. 

Now turn over your paper and the creases will appear as mountain marks along the diagonal as in the right inset.

Step 4: 
Left inset: Valley folds on the paper
Right inset: Turn over the sheet to get mountain folds

Step 5:

Now fold in both the horizontal and vertical edges through the intersection point as shown in the pictures below.

Step 5:
Left inset: Note the intersection point made with the diagonal in the previous step
Right inset: Fold in the vertical edge through the intersection point

Step 5 (contd.):
Left inset: Fold in the top edge through the intersection point
Right inset: Open the paper to see the creases marked

Step 6:
Start collapsing the paper following the folds. You will get multilayer squares as shown below

Step 6:
Left inset: Start collapsing the paper
Right inset: Multilayer squares

Step 7: 

Now work with the top square. Fold in both the tips as shown below to get a bird base.

Step 7: Fold in both the tips as shown

Step 8:
Lift the top flap following the folds to get a bird base.

Step 8: Lift the top flaps to get a bird base 

Step 9:
Open the sides and fold the top tip as shown in the left inset below. Then close the sides as shown in the right inset.

Step 9:
Left inset: Open the sides to fold in the top of the tip
Right inset: Close the sides 

 This is how it will look after tucking the top in.

Step 9 (contd.) - After tucking in the top tip.

Step 10:
Now let's go to the bottom square. Fold in both bottom flanks into half and then tuck them inside.

Left inset: Fold in the right flank
Middle inset: Fold in the left flank
Right inset: Open and then tuck them inside one by one

This is how your model would look like after tucking in both the bottom flanks.

After tucking in both the bottom flanks

Step 11:
Now focus on the top bird base.
Fold in both the sides to touch the centre line just to get the creases and then lift it down.

Left inset: Fold in the left side to touch the centre line
Middle inset: Fold in the right side to touch the centre line
Right inset: Open both sides to get a crease

Lift the flap down slowly

Step 12: 

Now lift the sides and fold to touch the midline as shown below. This will be the ears of the Ganesha. Open the flaps to shape the ears.

Left inset: Fold the sides to touch the midline.
Right inset:  Open the flaps to shape the ears

Step 13: 

You can see the trunk emerging as you fold in the sides. Gently lift the trunk and curve it downwards. 

Step 14:
Now you can see the head of the Ganesha with the ears and the trunk. Next, fold in the sides to get the arms. Also, tuck in the bottom part below the trunk.

Left inset: Fold in the sides to get the arms
Right inset: Fold in the bottom part under the trunk

Step 15: 

After you tuck in the bottom part under the trunk and the arms as well, you can fold the bottom side corners backwards. I don't have a picture of that step, but you will note the difference once you fold in the bottom corner at the sides backwards. This what your Ganesha should like finally.

Step 15: Fold in the bottom corner backwards 

Step 16: 

Now you are done. You can mark the eyes, the trunk and the crown as desired with a marker.

The resulting Ganesha that we made is around 120mm x 100 mm in size.

Origami Paper Ganesha of size 120 mm x 100mm

If you enjoyed making paper boats with your kids during the monsoon, this Ganesh Chaturthi, try this Origami Paper Ganesha with your kids at home and see how your kid's face glows with joy as he/she watches the Ganesha emerging out of paper. 

Do post the pictures of the Ganesha you made. We would love seeing it.

Jai Shri Ganesha.

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