Flowers that seem to Glow Infinity Petals with Duffys Diamonds Origami Bonsai, Orphans and Flowers of Belize

Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine Volume 3 Issue 2

Table of Contents
Flowers that seem to Glow Infinity Petals with Duffys Diamonds Origami Bonsai, Orphans and Flowers of Belize 5 12 17

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Click on any highlighted item or text in this document and you will be taken to a link on the web.

Origami Bonsai is a registered trademark of Benjamin John Coleman

You are free to adapt and share Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine Volume 3 Issue 2 as long as you attribute the material you use to Benjamin John Coleman. Glow-Fold is a patented technique and must be licensed separately. Contact Ben@Benagami.com for details.

Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine Volume 3 Issue 2

Origami Bonsai Resources on the Web

Click on the thumbnail to be taken to the corresponding web site.

www.OrigamiBonsai.org
Origamibonsai.org has tips, books you can buy, free folding videos, photos of Origami Bonsai created all by people living all over the world, and lots more.

www.Scribd.com/Benagami
You'll find Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine here along with less expensive electronic versions of Advanced Origami Bonsai and Origami Bonsai Accessories.

FaceBook
When you become a "fan" of Origami Bonsai on FaceBook you will be notified when new issues of this magazine are released. You'll also find craft show schedules where Origami Bonsai artists will be present, along with other announcements.

www.YouTube.com/OrigamiBonsaiForum
A lot of Origami Bonsai folding videos.

www.Etsy.com
Search "origami bonsai" and "makigami accessories" to see lists of items for sale in these categories from artists and craftspeople around the globe.

Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine Volume 3 Issue 2

Benjamin John Colemans Paper Craft Books

Click the book cover to order or preview.

The first book in the Origami Bonsai (2010, Tuttle Publishing) series is available at bookstores worldwide. This book teaches how to fold the basic flower form from which many varieties of flower can be folded. Comes with folding videos on DVD. 112 pages.

Advanced Origami Bonsai teaches how to make branches from newspaper using the Makigami technique. Also teaches how to create intricate branch networks for Origami Bonsai sculptures. 182 pages on DVD or through Scribd.com

Origami Bonsai Accessories teaches how to make durable Makigami jewelry, accessories, bangles, planters and other items. Make virtually anything you can conceive of from paper. 152 pages on DVD or through Scribd.com.

Origami 101 includes more than 40 fun and interesting models from every genre of origami. This book is written for the absolute beginner with strategies to go from beginner to expert in one book! Origami 101 is the first origami book with glow-fold diagrams and videos making learning origami easy!

Artist-inventor Benjamin John Coleman guides you with stepby-step instructions in how to make over 30 durable, wearable jewelry projects. Learn how to recycle ordinary newspaper into intricate, complex natural shapes. Instructions for making earrings, bangles, pendants and much more! 132 pages with 14 videos in full HD

Books ordered through OrigamiBonsai.org ship the same day theyre ordered!

Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine Volume 3 Issue 2

How to make Flowers that Glow

Do you notice anything odd about the flower pictured at right? Look closely at one of the narrow, light yellow petals. Notice that towards the center of the flower, the narrow, light yellow petal changes color. It looks a little bit blue. As if some of the blue color from the blue flower reflects onto the light yellow flower. Its not a reflection. Its actually a layer of paint that was added to the light yellow flower.

Here is a really fun illusion that can be added to just about any flower. This glowing effect can be added to flower assemblies, like the one shown at lef,t to make the smaller flower look like its glowing, or reflecting onto the other flower in the assembly.

Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine Volume 3 Issue 2

I used five of these flowers on the plant pictured above. Notice that the illusion works no matter what the viewing angle. I think the illusion adds a complimentary complexity to an already beautiful sculpture.

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The same illusion can be used to make stamens look like theyre glowing. This flowers stamens are painted in a darker cream color. The center of the smaller flower is also painted in that color. Not only does the color enhance the shape of the smaller, inner flower, but it also makes it look like the stamens are glowing.

In this example the effect is subtle. The following example is more exaggerated.

Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine Volume 3 Issue 2

How to Make Stamens that Seem to Glow

In order to complete this project youll need a copy of Origami Bonsai (Tuttle 2010), and either Advanced Origami Bonsai or Origami Bonsai Accessories (Benjamin John Coleman 2009, 2010).

1. Paint highlighting onto a square you plan to fold into a flower (see page 36 in Origami Bonsai). In this example Im painting the area orange. Notice that my highlight approaches, but does not touch, the edge of the paper.

2. Mix a color (see instructions in Advanced Origami Bonsai page 68 or Origami Bonsai Accessories page 65) similar to the highlight you painted in step 1.

Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine Volume 3 Issue 2

3. Paint your stamen with the mixture from step 2. (Stamen are small pieces of makigami. Instructions for making makigami can be found in Advanced Origami Bonsai or Origami Bonsai Accessories.)

4. Paint your flower with two coats of paint following the instructions on page 36 of Origami Bonsai. I used a creamy yellow color.

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Your finished flower should look similar to this. Notice how the orange color seems to glow in the center of the flower.

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Click here to see a list of Origami Bonsai sculptures available on Etsy.

Origami Bonsai artists and craftspeople, make sure to include the keywords "origami" and "bonsai" when posting your work to Etsy so it will be included when readers click this advertisement.

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Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine Volume 3 Issue 2

Infinity Petals with Duffys Diamonds

As a child, Tanya Duffy (pictured opposite page) of New South Wales, Australia was introduced to origami but never got into it, she said. She became a teacher, and now at age 46 she teaches a high school course in computer studies. In October of 2010 Duffy rediscovered origami when she supervised an origami-related activity at school. Duffy said I found myself interested in some of the samples around the room, in particular a Kusudama. A Kusudama is a geometric shape which resembles a ball and is made from multiple folded sheets of origami paper. She set out to make her own Kusudama and began a journey into the world of folded paper; a journey that would lead her to a discovery that would remove many of the limitations imposed on folders by the traditional square.

Initially Duffy bought some origami paper from a colleague who taught the Japanese language at the high school. Research on the web, specifically into folding flowers, soon followed. She wasnt entirely satisfied with the paper she had, so she traveled by train to Sydney to a large Japanese stationery and book store. That is where she first encountered the book, Origami Bonsai (Tuttle 2010). I remember being really excited at the idea of making bonsai from paper, she said. She bought the book.

A six petal flower folded from a Star of David shaped piece of paper (left).

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Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine Volume 3 Issue 2

Duffy soon folded her first flower. I love bonsai plants but have been unsuccessful with them in the past, she said. I have a few potted plants around the home, but due to allergies, many are artificial flower arrangements. She also thought Origami Bonsai would make good gifts for family and friends.

About three months later she discovered OrigamiBonsai.org, and this magazine. Eventually she came across the June 2010 issue of Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine which featured a design for a five petal flower. I had purchased other books on origami flowers and many were based on 5, 6, 7 or even 8 sided polygons and I recognized the symmetry. She obtained the five petal designs from that issue but felt uncomfortable scoring fold lines into the paper. So she experimented. It occurred to me that if I made a star with six points I could fold each of those points in, just as you do with the basic flower form. She soon discovered that she could create flowers with any number of petals by following a basic rule.

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Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine Volume 3 Issue 2

The Duffy Diamond Rule is:

The basic flower form can be folded with from three to infinity petals by distributing the petals as equally sized diamond shapes about a center point, with each diamond shape made up of two congruent triangles.

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Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine Volume 3 Issue 2

Upon making the discovery, Duffy pushed the limits of the basic flower form. She folded flowers with as few as one and as many as eight petals. On the following page youll find templates for her five petal flower in four sizes. Print the template and then cut out one of the polygons. Applying four petal folding diagrams to a five petal flower is merely a matter of thinking about the folding pattern for an individual petal. Fold it following the instructions on page 51 of Origami Bonsai, but when folding, consider only the movements of one petal at a time. This is harder to explain than it is to do.

Due to copyright limitations, instructions for folding cannot be made available in this publication. An intimate understanding of the basic flower form folding pattern is a prerequisite. You will need to use a program like Adobe Illustrator to create templates for flowers with more than five petals.

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Origami Bonsai, Orphans and Flowers of Belize

by Benjamin John Coleman

A recent trip to Belize and Guatemala by my parents, John and Annette Coleman gave them an opportunity to photograph some flowers. Part of the trip included a visit to an orphanage in Guatemala called Casa Guatemala. The trip planners asked that each guest bring something to donate to the orphanage. Books were among the suggested donations, so my parents brought three signed copies of Origami Bonsai for the kids.

A crewmember borrowed a book to learn the basic flower form while en route to the orphanage.

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Children at Casa Guatemala gather for a meal.

A gigantic flower produced by a banana tree.

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Red Bourgainvilliea

Unidentified

Purple Bourgainvillea

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Unidentified

Unidentified

Bromelliad

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World, meet flower. Flower, meet world.

Plastic

Introducing the worlds first mass-produced, pre-folded Origami flower. The Origami Bonsai Instant Flower ships flat, but with two simple movements, opens to reveal a beautiful flower.

Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine Volume 3 Issue 2

My father made an interesting observation when he noticed this tree (distant center in the picture above). The pattern on the surface of the trunk is similar to those of origami bonsai Ive been making recently.

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Makigami Accessories are durable, wearable and biodegradable. To see a list of Makigami accessories available on Etsy, Click here.

Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine Volume 3 Issue 2

Origami Bonsai artists and craftspeople, make sure to include the keywords "makigami" and "accessories" when posting your work to Etsy so it will be included when readers click this advertisement.
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