DIY: Origami Balls

Origami balls can be created from a single piece of square paper.

Origami is an ancient art that involves folding paper to form various shapes. One of the most popular shapes is an inflatable ball. The origami ball has been around for hundreds of years. No one really knows when or where it originated, but it has become a form that most novice paper-folders quickly become familiar with.

Things You'll Need

• Origami paper, 6 inches square.

Instructions

1. Place the origami paper on a flat surface in front of you, colored side up. Turn the paper so that it forms a square, instead of a diamond. Hold it in front of you. Fold the top edge of the square down to the bottom edge. Crease and unfold. Fold the right edge over to the left edge. Crease and unfold. Flip the paper over.

2. Rotate the paper so that it forms a diamond in front of you. Fold the left corner to the right corner. Crease and unfold. Fold the top corner down to the bottom corner. Crease, but do not unfold.

3. Firmly grasp the right corner of the folded edge in your right hand and the left corner in your left hand. Push the corners together and allow the paper to fold along the creases made in Step 1 and Step 2. The paper will form a cross. Flatten the cross into a triangle with two flaps on either side of the center crease.

4. Rotate the triangle so that the peak faces away from you. Using only the front flaps, fold the outside corners of the triangle up to the peak of the triangle. Flip the form over and repeat.

5. Working with only the front flaps, fold the outside corners to the middle of the form. Flip the form over and repeat. You will now have four little pockets, two on the front of the form and two on the back.

6. Slide the loose points at the top of the form into the pockets as far as you can on both the front and back of the form. Crease this fold well to help your ball maintain its shape.

7. Visualize two imaginary lines running horizontally across your paper form. These lines should be directly above and below the triangular pieces you folded in Step 5. Fold the form back and form along these lines a few times, creating two creases. Your form will not have changed shape, but the creases will help your ball take its shape in the next step.

8. Hold the form very gently between your hands. There will be a tiny hole at one end of the form. Blow into this hole gently and watch the ball inflate.

Tips & Warnings

• You can make larger or smaller balls by using larger or smaller pieces of paper. However, paper smaller than 2 inches square is difficult to work with. If you find the flaps slip out of the pockets, apply a small amount of glue to hold them in place.

References

• "Origami Magic"; Florence Temko; 1993