THE FRAGRANT FLOWER

This post continues the No-glue version of a flower used in traditional Japanese kusudama.


This series began in response to the Fragrant Blossom kusudamas created by the inimitable and talanted Puupuu. Here is a link to the folding instructions for this blue and white version of her Fragrant Blossom flower ball.

http://atelierpuupuu.blogspot.com/2008/06/anniversary.html







The No-Glue Fragrant Blossom has been modified and given connectors which look like leaves and sepals. I have renamed it the Fragrant Flower.

Crease Patterns are provided below.

The center hole is now filled with a light emitting diode (LED) which, being cool, does not burn the paper.




The diamond shaped piece (seen on the outside of the flower) connects to a petal in another flower (extra flower connector). It is wrapped around the petal (see the third photo). Actually, the petal sits inside it.

Continuous connection of these will result in a dodecahedron flower ball (ten flowered kusudama).

The electrical leads are slotted through each flower center. They are then bunched together and slotted through the hole in the center of the top flower. Use a plastic conduit to make it look neater.

If you prefer, you can push the lead-containing conduit through the gaps between the flowers so that the central column of every flower can contain a LED.

The leads become the power source for the lights as well as the "string" to hang up the model. Twist them neatly together after they come out of the conduit. You may like to add a LED inside the flower ball so that the light will shine through the gaps. If you use translucent paper (vellum, glassine or common waxed cooking paper) the light will shine through the petals themselves. The problem with these media is that they are more fragile, more brittle and may crease more easily than standard paper.

An alternative idea is to treat (soak or brush on) normal copy paper with oil or wipe on poly. This will make the model more translucent. I have not tried this idea out yet, so beware that you might ruin your model. Try it out on a flower first. Be aware that once the stuff dries you will lose some flexibility. This may make it difficult to connect this flower to other flowers. Wipe on poly makes the paper a little more brittle. This could be a problem. Oils may need to be renewed.



The pink petal connectors (intra flower connectors) are slotted through the gap between the violet petals and folded around the internal "stamen" (through but over the top of the green extra connector flaps inside the petal) and tucked in the nearest side. Repeat on the other side of the petal with another pink intra connector.

Close the flower petal by tucking the protruding "stamens" into the stamen pocket on the other side. The first one tucks into the medial pocket facing it (the one it is touching), the second tucks into the lateral pocket of the stamen facing it (on the other side of the one it is touching).

Yes, I know this is confusing when written rather than diagrammed. I intend to diagram this some time (which will probably result in my baldness from all the hair tearing out) but it won't be quick. So this, dear readers, is the interim instruction sheet.

I used to teach Australian Year 12 English at both Vocational and Tertiary Orientation levels (US Junior College AA and BA levels). One of the tasks I used to give them was to provide written instructions for a drawing task in such a way that other members of the class could draw the model just from the instructions. The results on the blackboard were usually hilarious, especially if the person was trying to follow instructions for drawing a set of steps. So I will forgive every one of you who fails to follow my instructions for this flower. I am sure that any of my past students who are reading this will be most amused to see their ex-teacher tying herself in verbal knots trying to explain how to construct a complex 3D model. Hi boys!


When I have completed the full dodecahedron model I will post photos here.

I am also working on a ten petal model where there is less space between the petals. The problem with the connection is that there is no straight forward way to connect ten-sided units together. The solution, I think, will be to treat two petals as a unit and connect them to their partners as if they were a single side. I hope this will work. I guess we will find out shortly.

Here are the crease patterns.

CLEMENTE GIUSTO'S RECTANGULAR BOX 2

Here are step by step photo instructions for Giusto's Rectangular Box. Hopefully they are self-explanatory.

CLEMENTE GIUSTO'S RECTANGULAR BOX

Clemente Giusto is a talented origami designer who has only recently been discovered hiding in an Italian town. Now his work is being shown and taught around the world. In the US, Yami Yamauchi has been promoting Giusto's sophisticated Rectangular Box.

Not only has Yami re-diagramed this work but he has made a die for scoring multiple sheets. With the crease pattern already on the paper even novice folders can learn to fold this model quickly and easily. You can see Yami demonstrating his method in Los Angeles.here.http://havepaperwilltravel.blogspot.com/2009/01/wcog-january-meeting.html


Thanks to John Andrisan, also from Los Angeles, I obtained a copy of the diagrams of this model which were drawn up by Paola Scaburri. This week I found time to try them out. The result was as charming as I expected.

I had one complaint. The internal triangular flaps did not support each other. Whichever of the flaps has been folded over first will fall into the box rather than sit on the underside of the roof.

I came up with a relatively simple solution to this problem. I added a crease half way down the triangular flap of one side and then inverted half the triangle to make a pocket. The point of the triangular flap from the other side can now sit inside this inversion and support its weight, which in turn, is supported by it.

For reasons which i hope will be apparent later, I also turned over the top left hand corner of the paper.




Some of the details on the Scaburri diagrams seem to be incorrect or less than optimum. It seems that the lateral valley folds that become the internal roof triangles should be mountain folds. There appears to be no good reason why they should be folded in the other direction first.

I have drawn up a crease pattern diagram incorporating these features and have added some photos for clarification. With the help of the video of Yami's folding method this should be sufficient for most folders to figure it all out.


The following photos are taken from several differently color models. I hope no-one is confused by this.






The creases which are shown in the top left hand corner of the CP pattern (see previous image) are not shown on this pre-creased sheet. I folded the corner over later in the procedure.











The walls are pulled up, the diagonals are reinforced and the corners are pinched together.


The tip of the large triangular flap is inserted into the triangular pocket on the other side. This becomes the lower roof of the box.


Next, the lateral sides are folded towards the center across the top of the box. They should want to do this naturally.

At this point you should have a rectangular box shape on the bottom and a couple of "wings" on the top with points which arise from pleats on the under sides.





The aqua blue model has the side flaps pulled back so that you can see how the layer with the pocket triangle looks. The side walls will naturally cover this.





The blue jeans model shows what the box looks like when the top layers are allowed to fall into place. The circle draws attention to the top left point which can be folded in half at this juncture.




















Fold up the flaps.





(Only one of the models shown has the top left corner point folded in half. When I put the others together I folded the flap over later in the procedure. You can choose to leave the creasing until it is necessary or you can pre-crease earlier. Note that the original model did NOT turn this point under.)





Fold the flaps over and tuck them under as shown. Fold in the order shown. In the demonstration photos the box has been turned part way around so that you can see the procedure more clearly.










Like the model with the hair pin holder, the next flap is left untucked in the original model. In my variation I turn over the corner (remember what I kept hinting at?) and tuck it under its contiguous strip. If you haven't creased this point before now, this is the time to do it.


















































































Now for the last flap.







You've finished. Enjoy your box.