Lets Make Origami

One of the things that I'd like to do with this blog is feature the work of the many different artists that I enjoy.  I'd like to put in as much variety as I can; I have quite a few books and have folded from several artists off the Internet as well.  Now, having said that, I realized something as I was going through my collection of origami pictures that I have:  over half of the pictures that I have are of Tomoko Fuse's models :)  While I'm okay with that because, as I said in my last post, she is my favorite artist/author and I've folded more of her work than anything else, it doesn't exactly allow for much variety for different styles.  So, as a result I'm posting more of Tomoko's work; which I think is fine because she is amazing. 

These models come from her book Floral Origami Globes.  My wife loves this book and has told me many times that she wants me to fold at least one of everything from it.  I have yet to fulfill that, but I have had the opportunity to fold several.  Something I love about Tomoko's style (and about unit origami in general) is that you can take the same basic units and by changing the folding slightly each time you get a wide variety of patterns.  This is particularly true in this book.  There are a few different assembly methods of the globes and each unit is changed just a little bit to accomplish an entire book of different looks.

A collection of some of the globes I've folded.  Once assembled the globes are just a little smaller than a standard softball.

A green and blue globe titled Alternate Fixes with a Type III base unit (the blue units).  There are three different base units each folded a little differently and thus each is assembled a little differently; giving one of the variables for achieving the many globes.  The other major variable is the "face" units (the green pieces here) that are added to the "base" units.

A purple and blue globe titled Butterflies with a Type III base unit (the purple units).  There is a five-pointed star that is formed on each side that I like.

Another Butterfly globe.  I often use standard copier paper that is available at any store that has office supplies (mainly because it is cheap and you get quite a bit with every pack), but here I used some paper that my wife bought for scrap booking.  I love to use scrapbook paper, but the vast majority of the time it is too thick for what I enjoy folding.

A purple and turquoise Chrysanthemum globe with Type II base unit (the purple ones).

A blue and yellow Narrow Sashes globe with Type II base units (the blue ones).  I enjoy the pinwheel pattern that is created with the sashes (the yellow units).

A blue and pink Petals globe with Type II base units (the base units are only visible at the points; the white/light blue); the blue and pink is accomplished by using origami paper that is colored on both sides.

A turquoise and orange Rhombic Patches globe with Type III base units (the turquoise ones).  I love the five-pointed star pattern that is formed with this model.

A yellow/white checkered and blue Section B globe with Type I base units (the yellow/white checkered units).  For some reason this globe makes me think of picnics and picnic baskets.  Again scrapbook paper was used for the base units.

A pink and green/white checkered Large Tucked Bows globe with Type III base units (the pink units).  This one makes me think of watermelons.  This time scrapbook paper was used for the face units.

A green and purple Curves globe with Type III base units (the green units).  This model reminds me of roses.  This is also one of my wife's favorite model for both the color combination and the pattern that's formed.

A black and red Curls 1 globe with Type III base units (the black units).  This one also reminds me of roses in a way.  It's also one of my wife's favorite models.

 All of these globes are assembled with 30 modules, and each module is formed from two units/pieces of paper.  Thus, each of these globes are 60 pieces of paper.  The globes are assembled in much the same way that a traditional sonobe cube or ball, and as a result there are actually many different shapes that could be assembled.  Some other options would be a cube with 6 modules (meaning 12 pieces of paper would be required), a smaller globe with 12 modules (meaning 24 pieces of paper would be required), and any other shape you can think of.  In all, the book has more than 30 different globes, offering a wide variety of models to fold.

If you're interested in checking out Tomoko Fuse's book Floral Origami Globes click on the link.