Flowers and Boxes

After the animals of Origami and Paper Folding 5, this chapter turns to two kinds of model that people actually keep: flowers, which last longer than the real thing, and boxes, which hold small objects. They look unrelated, but they rest on the same skills. Flowers use the preliminary base and shaping from earlier chapters. Boxes depend on precise, evenly divided squares, so they reward the careful creasing you practised before. The chapter ends with a first taste of wet-folding, a technique that gives paper soft, rounded curves.

Flowers: Folding Then Shaping

A paper flower has two stages. First you fold the form (petals, a stem, a cup), then you shape it by curling, pinching and opening it. The second stage is what makes a flower look alive, so do not rush it.

Model 1: The Tulip

The tulip is a good first flower because the bloom is a short run of folds and the stem and leaf are separate, simple pieces. Use a red or yellow square for the bloom and a green square for the stem.

1. Make the preliminary base from the bloom square, with the coloured side outside, as in Origami and Paper Folding 3.
2. Fold the two lower edges of the front layer to the centre line, then repeat on the back. This narrows the base to a kite-like shape with a point at the bottom.
3. Make the petals. Fold the top flaps of the front and back layers down a short way, so the pointed tips of the petals show.
4. Open the bloom. Hold the bottom point and gently pull the top layers apart, then blow into the small hole at the bottom (the paper balloon trick). The petals round out into a cup.
5. Make the stem. Take the green square, fold it in half diagonally, then fold both lower edges to the centre line. This makes a long thin point. Roll it into a thin stick with a short leaf left free.
6. Join them. Push the stem's tip into the small hole at the base of the bloom and add a dab of glue if you want it to stay put.

Model 2: The Lily

The lily uses the same base but spreads it into a star shape. It needs a larger square, as the petals curl outwards and look best with room to move. Use a square of 15 cm or more.

1. Make the preliminary base again, with the open end at the bottom this time.
2. Fold the lower edges to the centre line on the front and back layers, as for the tulip, to make a kite-like shape.
3. Fold the top flaps down. Fold the top flap on each of the four sides down so the points show, giving four petals.
4. Curl the petals. Wrap each petal tip around a pencil to roll it backwards in a gentle curl. The curl turns a stiff diamond into a trumpet.
5. Open and arrange. Open the bloom from the bottom, spread the four petals, and press the centre down slightly to give it a hollow throat.

The Masu Box

The masu is a traditional Japanese box, originally a wooden measure for rice and sake. The folded version is made from one square and is the most useful model in this chapter: it is sturdy, stackable, and can be made in any size. Because it is made by dividing a square into thirds, accuracy matters more here than on any model so far.

Folding the Box

1. Mark the centre. Fold the square in half both ways, crease sharply and unfold. The creases cross at the centre.
2. Fold the corners to the centre. You now have a smaller square, like an envelope.
3. Fold two opposite edges to the centre line. You now have a rectangle.
4. Unfold the last two folds so the paper is divided by creases into a grid of nine areas, with the four corners folded in.
5. Fold the other pair of opposite edges to the centre line, then unfold them. Every crease the box needs is now on the paper.
6. Raise the walls. Open two opposite corner flaps, lift the side wall upright along its crease, and push the corner flap down and inside so it locks the wall in place. Repeat for the opposite side.
7. Finish the box. Fold the remaining two walls up and tuck the flaps inside the box so they lie flat against the floor. Press all four corners square.

The Lid

The lid is made exactly like the box, but from a slightly larger square. If the box was folded from a 15 cm square, fold the lid from a 16 cm square, so the lid slides on without being loose. Folding the lid in a different colour makes a gift box with a clear top.

Planning a Box

The finished masu has a square floor whose side is about one third of the paper's side, because the square is divided in thirds (thin paper gives a slightly larger floor and thick paper a slightly smaller one, so treat the result as a guide). The script below plans a box and a matching lid for a few paper sizes:

Output when run:

Gift Boxes

Once the masu works, the same idea scales to other boxes. The table compares the common choices.

A First Taste of Wet-Folding

Everything so far has been dry-folding: crisp, sharp creases in dry paper. Wet-folding, developed by Akira Yoshizawa, uses slightly dampened paper to make soft, rounded forms with no sharp edges. It is how folders produce curved petals, plump animals and models that look sculpted rather than folded.

The Idea

• Damp paper bends smoothly. Water loosens the fibres, so the paper can be shaped into curves, and it then dries stiff in that shape.
• The paper matters. Thick, strong paper with a size or coating (watercolour paper and some handmade papers) survives dampening. Ordinary copy paper turns to pulp.
• Work in stages. Fold the model flat first, then dampen lightly with a sponge and shape it before it dries.

Challenges

Each challenge has a worked solution you can open after you have tried it.

Next, in Origami and Paper Folding 7, we move from single sheets to modular origami: units that lock together, the sonobe unit, and how to build a cube and a star.