Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with origami

First wedding anniversary paper/origami gift ideas?

saileyn — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:41:42 -0800

My husband and I will be celebrating our first (paper) wedding anniversary this Friday. We're really short on funds, so I'm thinking of folding him something with origami and writing our vows or a poem on the unfolded paper... Any suggestions on what to fold? I'm toying with the idea of using a rose pattern but was wondering if anyone knew of any symbolism for first anniversaries/marriage/love and had origami patterns to match.

It's been a while since I've done anything with origami, a few years ago I started making paper roses, but I have no idea what the pattern was (I did find it online and had it as a PDF, but it's long since gone). I don't think it was the Kawasaki pattern, but was something extremely similar and possibly a touch easier. For those who've folded roses before, do you have a favorite pattern or one that you would recommend? I have plenty of time (until, Friday) and patience...

Or if anyone has any other inexpensive/last minute paper gift ideas, aside from writing him a nice poem/letter/story (I've done those things many times before, and also for our wedding, so I'm looking for something new) I'd love to hear them.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your suggestions :)

I know I've left this a bit late, I'd originally planned to get our vows letter-pressed and framed, but we've had a lot on our plates these last few weeks, and our anniversary was the last thing on our minds..

What to do with these paper cranes?

Becko — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:10:03 -0800

What to do with all these paper cranes? For my wedding last July I made 1,000 origami paper cranes. A lot of them people took home with them, but a lot of them are sitting in a huge bag in my apartment.

I made some of them into Christmas ornaments, but that only took up like 15 of them.

I'd love to come up with a creative way to display them. Any cool ideas? Our wedding colors were red and light blue, but the cranes are all different patterns containing blues and reds. So there's a lot of variety to work from.

Funky origami advice?

tnygard — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:21:11 -0800

Hi all, I have recently become obsessed with origami, and I love the funkier side of the craft. Bright colors, geometric patterns, modular pieces. I have the basic folds down, but now I want to make and learn about really cool stuff. Do any of you have suggestions about the most interesting origami papers, websites, discussion groups, patterns, etc.? Or any other origami advice?

Vinyl Origami

mippy — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 03:13:53 -0800

How can I make an iPod case out of a vinyl record? I rather love these, but they seem to have sold out years ago. I've never tried warping a 45 myself before....

Can a friend sell origami she's made based on someone else's pattern?

yeoz — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:02:46 -0800

Asking for a friend who has made some origami jewelry: is it legal to sell the jewelry she has made which were based on designs from an origami book (of which designs are presumably copyrighted by the author?). Could she face any sort of copyright infringement claim from selling such jewelry? Additionally, I was just curious myself about the patterns on the origami paper itself. Is that kind of thing generally copyrighted-or-whatever by anyone? Would that also pose a problem of any sort?

Origami -- A4 to US letter fold??

dbooster — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:02:02 -0800

How can I turn A4 paper into American letter size? Is there a simple fold I can use to do this? I know an origami fold to turn letter into A4, but I would like the opposite.

Utilitarian folds for the masses!

ostranenie — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:53:31 -0800

I'm looking for examples of practical, everyday origami. I'm looking for low-fold-count, preferably easy origami forms that help people organize or move items more efficiently.

I use a few different box forms with dividers when I need a temporary place to put a lot of small items (putting together furniture, taking apart small electronics). I've used a cup form for seeds and sand (and liquid, although that wasn't really necessary). I've seen a page corner for marking places in a book. I see you can send letters without envelopes using so-called letterfolds.

Any other examples out there? Either specific examples in books (good) or links (much better)? Any variations on the above (simple containers, bookmarks, etc.,) are appreciated to the nth degree.

Origami paper in jewel tone colors?

lemonade — Wed, 14 May 2008 09:25:22 -0800

Where can I buy origami paper in colors which are more 'jewel tones' than the usual 'primary' colors? I received this book as a gift a couple of years ago, and it comes with a package of origami paper in really beautiful colors. There was a deep teal, and a ruby red, and a deep blue... I'd like to find more paper like this, instead of the very bright primary colors which are usually sold. Thanks!

Help me find this geeky kids' book!

rivenwanderer — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:13:54 -0800

I read a book sometime in elementary school (early/mid 90's) that I've been trying to find. It had to do with geometry and math and platonic solids and origami (I believe there were several nods to Flatland). The plot had something about evil army men toys and a boy having a fever dream. I think the cover had a picture of the boy riding a manta ray. I know this sounds like something I dreamed up, but I know it was real! Anyone recognize it? I've googled for various keywords to no avail.

If you build a 3-d paper card, they will come...

yohko — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:40:03 -0800

Where can I order custom printed popup cards? Or a punch to make my own easily? I'd like to send out Christmas cards this year that incorporate a popup feature, or some other sort of 3-d feature. I've seen plenty of these for sale at card shops, but I'd like to get about 300 of them custom printed or find a faster way to make my own.

Where can I order custom Christmas cards (or non-Christmas cards, even) that use popups? Or, where can I order a punch to make cards like this?

Paper folding technique, please

Wroksie — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:45:14 -0800

Is there any way to divide a square piece of paper into absolutely perfect thirds without a ruler? I feel like I remember learning a method for this in an origami class years ago, but my memory could be completely inaccurate. I've been fooling with this same paper square for ages, and I can't get thirds. Help please, or put me out of my misery and tell me that I need the ruler.

Where can I get huge origami paper?

Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 09:40:39 -0800

Where can I get some MASSIVE sheets of origami paper? Like, 48 inches or more? Are sheets that size even sold? I'm a great fan of origami to kill time and help myself relax/focus on something manual. I'm also a fan of cool, eclectic chess sets! And I've been looking at the chess board design in John Montroll's "Origami Inside-Out" and putting two and two together... only problem is, any paper I use will end up producing a tiny board.

So, where can I find a HUGE fuckin' sheet of standard (square) origami paper? According to one website, the length of one side of the finished board will be one fourth the length of a side of the original sheet. So, a 48 inch sheet would give me a foot wide board, or 1.33 inches per square. 48 inches would be great, bigger than that would be even better! (But if you don't know of anything that big, go ahead and suggest the biggest you know of anyway.) And hopefully in a sensible color too... :)

The Zen of Cash

bjrubble — Mon, 07 May 2007 23:03:05 -0800

Instructions for making an origami crane from a dollar bill? About 5 years ago I had the idea to leave some money for a friend by folding an origami crane out of a $20. I spent about 2 minutes on Google and found instructions, and everything worked out beautifully. A few weeks ago I had the same thought, but have been utterly unable to find instructions on how to do this fold. The only reference I've been able to find is a book (published 2 years after I found the instructions online), but I'm not keen on buying a book just for one model. I'm hoping someone out there can help me out.

Biggest origami envelope you know of, folded from an 8.5x11" sheet of paper?

ostranenie — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 04:52:21 -0800

Does there exist an Origami form that is an envelope suitable for a letter-sized piece of paper? I know a few functional origami forms, the most useful being some boxes, a few CD envelopes and a smaller (square) envelope. But what I'm really after is an envelope that accomodates an 8.5x11" sheet of paper, folded accordion-style. Failling this, it has to be an envelope as large as possible. It must also be made from an 8.5x11 sheet of paper. I've tried coming up with one on my own, but I'm just not advanced enough.

Is this even possible? Has anyone ever seen it?

CD Sleeve Origami

TiredStarling — Tue, 09 May 2006 15:31:04 -0800

A few years ago I found online a method of folding a CD case out of a sheet of letter paper. I can't find it again. There was no cutting involved. It was not a pdf file. It was not the one which requires you to divide the top of the paper into 5 equal segments, it was more of an asymetrical thing.

Help me find instructions on how to fold this collapsing map.

Glum — Tue, 09 May 2006 14:33:07 -0800

Can anyone give me directions on how to fold this style of collapsing map. It's fairly easy to reverse engineer but I would like to have some comprehensive guidelines if possible. I once had a guidebook (to Rome) which contained a map of the city centre folded like this and stuck to the inside back cover and back page. It opened up and closed almost automatically and although I created a duplicated I have now lost it.

I'd like to experiment with using this type of fold in one of my personal projects (books for children). Any other interesting book folding/pop-up book links would be greatly appreciated.

Citibank Origami Music

daveed66 — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 17:11:09 -0800

Does anyone know who does the music for the Citi Bank commercial with the guy doing the origami in fast forward. Classical sounding piano music.

Identify this geometric novelty toy

Faze — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 11:09:55 -0800

What do you call those three-dimensional geometric novelties, consisting of eight cubes, joined to each other at one edge to form one large cube, whose pieces can be flipped around to display different images on the exterior of the large cube? What is the history of this delightful object? What are the geometric priniciples behind it?

ID this Japanese film with origami and snow

aberrant — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 09:38:01 -0800

ObscureMovieFilter: DagMaggot's question jarred a memory I have of a film I saw several years in a row in grade school (late '70s). It was a Japanese film in which a boy loses his mother to some disease (possibly cancer)? As I recall, the mother used to entertain her son by folding origami, and I remember a scene with lots of snow. I also don't remember much, if any, dialog.

It's not a lot to go on, but that's all I remember, and I haven't been able to find it since. Pointers appreciated.

what are those paper 'fortune tellers' called?

Capn — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 07:45:05 -0800

Those fortune telling paper things kids make, sort of origami-y... there's four upside down cups that you put your fingers in, the faces have numbers or colours on them, then after a complicated "pick a number, pick a colour" game, you unfold something and an answer is revealed.

What are those called?