Project by Alicia Herman from Providence, R.I. Alicia Herman has traveled all over the world to far and exotic places. She has an interesting way to remember her trips--she takes prints of her photographs and folds them into flowers, similar to origami. Materials: digital pictures
photo-quality ink jet paper (matte)
scissors
sewing needle
thread
pencil
twigs, branches
bookbinding needle (optional) Steps: 1. To creating the origami paper: Format digital images/photographs to a square, preferably approximately 6" x 6." 2. Print images on photo-quality ink jet matte paper (do not use glossy paper because it does not fold as well). Cut out square origami paper. 3. To create the flower bud: For step-by-step illustrations, click on the PDF file below the image at the top right of this page. Place paper with the picture side down and the white side up. Fold in half, making a tall rectangle and then unfold. Fold the left side, placing the outer edge alongside the crease in the middle made by the last fold. Do the same with the right side. The paper will now almost look like a long window shutter. 4. Fold the paper in half, the top of the rectangle touching the bottom. Unfold the last step. Fold the top side alongside the crease in the middle made by the last fold. Do the same with the bottom side. The paper will now be a square. 5. Pull out the inside of the square, making a triangular point protruding beyond the square. Do the same with the other side. The structure will now look like a house or an upside down house, depending on what side you started on. Repeat on the other side. 6. Place the outer corners of the triangular points to the center of the piece and fold down to create a small square. Repeat on all sides. The piece now looks like a square made up of four little squares. Focus on the top right square first. Fold the upper left corner of the small square along the crease, going diagonally from the lower left to the upper right of the small square. By doing this, a thin triangle is created with the long point originating from the lower left corner of the small square. 7. Take the other side of the square and make a similar fold/mirror image of the last fold. Repeat the above step on all four little squares. Staring with the upper right corner, unfold the triangle flaps slightly. Reach in to the corner in the center of the large square. Pull out the corner, pull past the upper right corner of the large square and beyond the square, and then fold down, creating a long thin diamond. Repeat on all sides. 8. To assemble the flower bud: Take the template above and flip over. On each side of the square shown is a midpoint designated by a crease. These points are to be brought together and sewn together with a needle and thread. 9. Once sewn, there are four folded pockets. Place your finger in each pocket and push out to make a rounded open pocket. Note: The long diamonds are the petals of the flower. 10. Start with one petal, take needle and thread and pierce the left midpoint of a petal and thread through until the knot at the end of the thread does not let you go any further. Pierce the right midpoint of the adjacent petal and pull the thread through. 11. Keeping the thread inside the folds of the petal, again pierce the left midpoint of this petal and join it with the adjacent right midpoint of the adjacent flower. Continue and carefully tighten until all petals are joined. 12. Wrap the top points of the petals around a pencil to curl the petals. 13. To mount the flower: Poke a small hole in the bottom of the flower with the needle, just big enough to fit the top of the stem. The sticks/twigs will be the stems. Mount the flower on the stem and use needle and thread to securely fasten to the stem. 14. To create a display book: Print pictures used for origami paper in wallet-size format. Arrange in the order preferred and use basic office clips to hold together (do not fasten together on the left side). 15. If there is more than a few pages, use a bookbinding needle to score holes along the left side. Make sure when scoring to put the book on a soft surface (like a pillow) that it will be all right to pierce when the scoring reaches the bottom of the stack. Make sure your hand is not under the book when scoring so you don’t accidentally get pierced. 16. Use needle and thread to bind the pages together, creating the mini display book. Website: homepage.mac.com/soelinpost/
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