Origami is great year-round, but learning how to make your own gift boxes is fabulous when you have little gifts to give and wish to present them in an elegant and unique fashion. Tuttle Publishing kindly send us a copy of Tomoko Fuse’s Origami Boxes: Beautiful Paper Gift Boxes from Japan’s Leading Origami Master.
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You know we love origami, and you know I like a good challenge, and this book applies to both! I thought it would be so fun to give gifts in homemade gift boxes to really make them stand out and be unique. Who wants to just throw some paper on a cardboard box when you can show you care by making the perfect box?
Of course, origami boxes can also be used for other things such as holding trinkets, paper clips, snacks, candies, loose change, business cards, and just about anything you can think of! The sky’s really the limit as long as you can get a piece of paper large enough!
When I first saw this beautiful book I was intrigued! The pictures are gorgeous and inspiring. We hadn’t used any origami instructions by Tomoko Fuse before, but I was able to understand the instructions included…each designer uses slightly different terms and pictures. In this case the instructions were mainly in diagram/photo form rather than with words.
There are 3 types of origami boxes:
- Simple Boxes From Square Sheets
- Modular Boxes from Multiple Square Sheets
- Modular Boxes From Rectangular Sheets
As you might expect, the easiest to assemble are the boxes made from single square sheets. The modular boxes use multiple sheets of paper to form each box. You fold each element and then slide/wrangle the separate elements together to create a box bottom and/or lid.
I couldn’t wait to get started, and I did well with the traditional masu box, the rectangular box, and the masu box with a window, which is very cool!
One tip I will share is that you will definitely need a lot of practice and patience to have the results that are shown in the book. I certainly am not yet up to that level! My tip is that if you use patterned paper, the fold lines aren’t nearly as visible and thus the boxes look better if you’re a beginner! And in my opinion, patterned paper is also more visually interesting, so that’s what works best for me.
I moved onto modular boxes from multiple square sheets and had some success…although I need to practice a lot more to make them really work and be consistent. It looks like I did everything right…but when I try to assemble the modular hanabishi square box and lid, I just can’t quite get it right (yet). In theory, this should be an easy box to make, but I’m missing something along the way. I’ll get there, but for now I am setting it aside; I know this has happened in the past and when I return another time it will seem as clear as day and I’ll wonder how I couldn’t do it the first time!
Origami Boxes has a couple of boxes that are good for beginners, and many that are for more experienced folders, which means it’s a book that can grow with you and challenge your skills. I could see youth groups learning to make the simple boxes during a craft evening and filling them with treasures for Mother’s Day, or a little something for their teacher for Christmas, too!
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