How to Fold Origami Roses or Flowers
Flowers are one of the earth's many gifts. With their assorted shapes, sizes and colors, they can delight senses and improve moods. Though few handmade crafts can rival the natural beauty of an actual bloom, paper flowers possess much of the delicacy and charm of their real counterparts, along with the advantage of lasting considerably longer. Throughout parts of East Asia, including Japan and China, the art of creating flowers and other objects with paper is an ancient practice known as origami. You can fold origami flowers that look like roses using any type of paper you desire.
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Instructions
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Draw a perfect square on a piece of a paper using a pencil. Use a ruler to measure and draw the lines of the square, making sure all four sides are equal in length. Cut out the square with scissors. Omit this step if your paper is already a perfect square. Note that the size of the square can range between 3 inches and 6 or more square inches.
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Position the square on a hard, flat work surface. Place the square so that its points are facing up and down, left and right; it should look like a diamond rather than a square.
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Fold the top point of the diamond down so it meets the bottom point. Sharpen the crease with the side of your ruler. Unfold the paper and turn it over.
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Position the paper so that the edges now face up and down, left and right; it should look like a square rather than a diamond.
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Fold the left edge of the square over so it meets the right edge. Sharpen the crease with the side of your ruler. Unfold the paper.
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Fold the top edge of the square down so it meets the bottom edge. Sharpen the crease with the ruler. Leave the paper folded. You should have a rectangular model.
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Grasp the rectangular model at its left and right sides. Push inward. Watch the model collapse slightly along the pre-existing creases. You will have a diamond-shaped model with one folded flap pointing toward the back of the model and one folded flap pointing toward the front of the model.
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Fold the front flap back so it meets the left point of the diamond. Fold the back flap back so it meets the right point of the diamond. Sharpen the creases with the side of the ruler. Make sure the model lies as flat as possible. Position the model so that its open end is pointed toward you.
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Fold the upper right edge of the top layer of the model over until it meets the center crease. Leave it folded. Fold the upper left edge of the top layer of the model over until it meets the center crease. Leave it folded.
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Turn the model 180 degrees so that its open end is pointing away from you.
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Trim the open end of the model with scissors so that it is rounded rather than pointed. The resulting model should look similar to an ice cream cone.
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Bend the model in half from top to bottom. Sharpen the crease with the side of a ruler. Unfold it.
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Grasp the pointed end of the model in one hand. Gently open the rounded end to form the bloom of a rose.
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Tips & Warnings
Practice making this origami rose with plain white copy paper before creating it in a paper of finer quality.
Try using traditional Japanese or Chinese rice paper to make this origami rose. It comes in a large spectrum of colors, and you can find it at many craft supply and stationery stores.
To add a stem to your origami rose, glue a green pipe cleaner to the flower's pointed end. Or, for a more delicate stem, wrap a piece of 20-gauge floral wire in green floral tape; glue the taped wire to the pointed end of the rose.
References
- Photo Credit origami image by PaulPaladin from Fotolia.com
