Sunday, December 19, 2010

Weekend Origami--Kirigami Stars (and Other Stuff)

Paper cutting is as fun to do as regular origami, although kids need to be a *little* older to be able to cut through the layers of paper (more like 6 than 3 or 4).  Lower elementary grade kids should definitely be able to cut out the One-Cut Star shown in the video below.  The fold shown is the 10-fold (there is also a 4-fold, 6-fold, 8-fold, and 12-fold).  First you fold, then you cut--just one straight line, and you get a lovely star!  Very mysterious...;-))



Did you do it?  Notice that the angle of the cut changes the shape of the star--a less acute angle makes a "fatter" star, a deeper angle makes a star with skinnier arms like this:


See how the angle on the yellow paper is steeper than the one I cut for the silver star?  It comes out looking like the photo below:

And what about that blue paper with two lines on it?  Guesses?  Right--an outline star plus a smaller bonus star...


....kawaii, desho!










And you needn't be restricted to straight lines.  A curve with a nick at the top gets you this:

Springtime Cherry Blossom

For the more adventurous, how about drawing a little person on top of the straight line for the star? (I've used a black marker to draw my lines so they show up in the photos--you needn't.  Lightly drawn lines in pencil are fine, or freehand if you are so bold:-))


We are the World...

...We are the Children...









And feel free to draw your own shape across the middle of the 10-fold!  I tried drawing holly:



Merry Christmas to All
I'll try to get some other Christmas Origami up this week--probably the Candle, the Tree, and the Stocking:-)).  Gambatte, ne!

Mata asobou, ne!

5 comments:

  1. Oh, wow, Amy, these are awesome!

    I'm bookmarking all your origami posts and one day Sage and I are going to do them all.

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  2. Also, Cici's Poncho is fabulous!

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  3. Thanks! :-)) How did your finals go? Hope you get plenty of downtime over Christmas--you deserve it:-)). The origami posts are all filed up there in the labels under 'origami', too--if you click on it they'll all come up. And if you don't have a lot of regular origami paper, newspaper or thin catalogue (like the Sears or Penny's catalogue) works just fine, too. Or practice with the newspaper or catalogue paper and use the origami paper after you've done one a few times. Maybe you'll have a few nice lazy afternoons over break--I'm sure you guys aren't lacking for snow! Gambatte, ne!

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  4. Thanks I made a Sakura and wrapped cherry blossom teabags in it for Mothers day.

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  5. Disa-- yokoso! You're welcome--I hope everybody tries to make something:-)) What a totally cute idea for mother's day! I bet she'll love it:-)

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