FOR THE TABLE

Triangles Vase

A bouquet of fresh flowers may last only up to a few weeks, but this attractive origami vase filled with dried blooms will brighten your home for years! We love the gold tones and the structure of the dried leaves. You can make the vase in one colour or make the two parts in different shades for a quirky look. We chose a paper that is coloured on the front and white on the reverse to give more dimension.

YOU WILL NEED

• 24 pieces of 210-270gsm paper, 120 x 65mm

• Straight-sided glass vase with an inner diameter of 80mm

Scoring

Make a copy of the Triangles Vase template (see Templates) and fix it temporarily onto one of the 24 pieces of paper with masking tape. Trace the outline of the template and carefully cut out with a craft blade and a metal ruler.

Score vertical lines at 20mm, 60mm and 100mm from the left-hand edge of the piece (see Segment Diagram).

Score a diagonal line to join the tops of the second and third vertical lines to create a tab (see Segment Diagram). Apply 6mm double-sided tape above this line on the front of the paper (labelled B on the Segment Diagram).

Repeat with the remaining pieces of paper to create a total of 24 folded segments.

Folding

Valley fold the scored blue lines and mountain fold the scored orange line as shown on Segment Diagram.

Fold the two outer edges in towards each other, apply glue to the area where they overlap (labelled A1 and A2 on Segment Diagram) and secure.

Repeat for the remaining segments to create 24 identical triangular pieces (see Diagram 1), 12 to make the top part of the vase and 12 to make the bottom part.

Assembly

Remove the backing from the double-sided tape on one of the triangular pieces and attach the tab to the reverse of another triangular piece (labelled B and C on Segment Diagram).

Continue until you have created a closed circle made up of 12 triangular pieces (see Diagram 2). Then repeat the process to create another closed circle with the remaining 12 folded pieces.

These two circles are the two separate parts for the top and bottom of the vase, and one becomes the top of the vase when it is turned upside down.

Kaleidoscope Coaster

A small, square picture frame is the perfect container for this origami decoration, which doubles up as an eye-catching coaster. Place an attractive glass on its transparent surface to see the folds reflected and deflected, just like a real kaleidoscope. The frame's transparent layer will protect the origami from spillages. We chose blue paper for our coaster, but you could make a set in various colours.

YOU WILL NEED

• 1 piece of 150-190gsm paper, 160 x 152mm

• Picture frame with inner dimensions of 100 x 100mm

Scaling the pattern

Our instructions are for an origami model to fit inside a picture frame with inner dimensions of 100 x 100mm, but you can scale up the template to fit a larger frame using the following formulae.

Scaling factor = width of your picture frame / 100mm

For example, for a picture frame with inner dimensions of 200 x 200mm, the scaling factor is 200mm / 100mm, which is 2, so the template needs to be scaled to twice its size.

Distance between the parallel lines = scaling factor x 7mm

For example, for a picture frame with inner dimensions of 200 x 200mm, the distance between the parallel lines will be 2 x 7mm = 14mm.

Scoring

Make a copy of the template (see Templates) and fix it temporarily onto your paper with masking tape. Trace the outline of the template and carefully cut out with a craft blade and a metal ruler.

Score lines from point O to point B, C, D and E.

Score lines from point A to B, B to C, C to D and D to E.

Score the horizontal lines for surface OCD, measuring 7mm between the parallel lines see Overview Diagram). (Note: the distance between the parallel lines will depend on the size of your picture frame; see Scaling the Pattern.)

Rotate the paper clockwise by 72 degrees, so point D becomes point C, and score the horizontal lines for surface ODE as before. Continue to score the remaining horizontal lines, rotating the paper clockwise by 72 degrees each time.

At this stage your model has a pentagon shape, but once folded and assembled it will end up as a square shape. Apply 6mm double-sided tape to the assembly tab (see Overview Diagram).

Folding

Pre-fold the scored lines OB, OC, OD and OE in both directions, starting with a valley fold and finishing with a mountain fold.

Pre-fold the scored lines AB, BC, CD and DE in both directions as labelled s1 on Diagram 1 to run all the way around your model, including the assembly tab. Continue to pre-fold each of the parallel scored lines (s2, s3, s4, s5, s6 and s7) in turn, in both directions (see Diagrams 2-4).

Valley fold the scored line s1; note that the lines that run from point O to line s1 will become mountain folds (see Diagram 1).

Mountain fold the scored line s2; note that the lines that run from point O to line s2 will become valley folds (see Diagram 2).

Valley fold the scored line s3; note that the lines that run from point O to line s3 will become mountain folds (see Diagram 3).

Continue to fold the remaining scored parallel lines to this pattern as follows: s4 mountain fold; s5 valley fold; s6 mountain fold; s7 valley fold (see Diagram 4).

Assembly

Remove the backing from the double-sided tape and attach the ends of the model together to create a square shape, ensuring that the taped edge is on the reverse of the model, so that points A and E join to become point A/E (see Diagram 5).

Mountain fold lines BC, CD, DA/E and A/EB over an angle of 90 degrees (i.e., over the edge of the table), so that you can make the folds of your paper model sharper by squeezing at the points marked in Diagram 6. Then release to revert to the square shape seen in Diagram 5, and place the paper model in your picture frame, where it is displayed as a diamond shape.

Pencil Pot

This little pot is the perfect desktop accessory, giving you a place to keep all your favourite pens and pencils close to hand. It's a great example of modular origami, where two identically folded units are attached together with glue to form one structure. We've made both parts from...