origami architecture

I'M BLOGGING AGAIN ALREADY!

And It's only been 6 days!

Wow.

*holds out hand to quiet loud applause*
;D

I have found a new interest.
(big surprise)
Brace yourselves for another long name:

~Origami Architecture~

Ok, not that long.

I was searching for origami, when I ran across an inspiring photo.

Amazing.

Sadly, there is no free pattern.

After I recovered from this sad fact, I set about searching for more creations, but with free patterns.

My search, (rather unsuccessful) eventually morphed into a pop up cards search. Not sure how I got of onto a rabbit trail like that.

But I did.

I wasn't looking for simple pop up cards. Something more like this or this.

Yes, I definitely was nuts to think I could even try to make something like that.

Also,

these patterns were created by a Ingrid Siliakus.

A leading artist in this type of work.

Apparently she doesn't want to give them away free. ;P

So, I had to find something else.

Easier,
but not too easy.

Hm.

Most artists wanted to sell their patterns in books.

Sigh.

I finally found a great website: Baud and Bui.

Free, downloadable patterns.

Not too hard.
Not too easy.
:D
My first attempt:
A pagoda

I thought it looked pretty neat...

Sadly, it isn't pop up.

It just....stands there collecting dust.

It sure looks neat, though.:D

After that, I found another site with some free patterns.

It's in Spanish (I think...), so I can't read it, but I could still figure out the diagrams!

It's called:
Libros
The patterns are a bit harder.
:)
The best patterns I found were at the bottom of the most recent post.

Here is a city/town mirror image.

Turned out better than the pagoda.

*nods*

The last place I found was this blog.

It has a few neat patterns, and lot's of other neat craft ideas!

Anyway...

I have now journaled my quest for Origami Architecture patterns.

If anyone finds any other good sites with free patterns,

I would LOVE to know about them!!!

Maybe I'll just have to buy a book from those artists who won't give free patterns away...
;D

Another post about Valentines to come shortly!
(I hope...)

origami magic rose-cube

This cube is really neat, and once you unfold it, it is hard to put down. Here is the link to the pdf instructions:
http://www.mediafire.com/?3t0tnwzjytu
It was fairly simple, though a few steps took me awhile to understand. After a little work I got it to actually fold out into a rose! Here are some pictures:


The cube...

To unfold it into a rose you grab the opposite sides of one red square and gently squeeze it together. Repeat with the other red sides.


Then do the same thing with the green squares...


...and voila! A beautiful rose!
(The white in the petals is because I used two toned origami paper)

Opened rose

To close the rose, gently smooth all six squares back to their normal position.

origami 4 kindergarten

The other day my mom taught kindergarten for a day (the real teacher was busy). She invited me to show the kids some origami things I have made and to teach them a simple project. So Monday afternoon I came up to school. I showed them an origami caterpillar, a pecking crow, my origami firework (see older posts) and a few other things. Then I taught them how to fold a paper dog face. They really enjoyed it!

Showing them the firework...

The little drinking bird...

Leading them through the steps of folding...

...and their finished puppies!

I think they really loved cutting and folding, but even more so, the final result!

origami firework

Recently I have been getting into origami. I especially enjoy the module origami. I have found several sites that have free diagrams. One of them,

http://www.spitenet.com/origami/yami.shtml

had a really neat origami module that was fairly simple, called a "Firework". I tried it and (for once!) came out with something that actually worked!
Here it is:

To make it change shapes you grab two opposite corners and gently turn the firework inside out.

The firework changing shapes...

...and back to where it started.