Patchwork Origami - The Secret Project

Alright, I've been making patterns (yes, patterns) for these things and I'm starting to bundle up my paper scraps and pick out some designs for these guys. What are they? Well...for now I'm calling them patchwork origami, because that's pretty much what they are. Oodles of little paper scraps stitched together to make one square sheet, and then folded into something. Right now I'm doing cranes. Because I love cranes. I love cranes. I imagine I'll do this with other things someday, but I'm in love with how these are turning out.




Ta da!

And there it is. I have no idea how on earth I got this idea, but it just clicked in my head one day when I was sorting scraps. I have a box full of them ... and some are too small to fold, so they go into the "future handmade paper" box to be recycled by hand. But some scraps are odd-shaped or still seem a little too large for me to not use. I did a few experiments (without patterns), and quickly learned that in order to make this work as intended, it was necessary to step back and use the crease pattern of an origami crane to make sure that the stitching isn't too bunched up in some areas. So, after I created a reference to use, I made a bundle of patterns for these guys using cardstock. This made them much easier to fold.




A little stitching detail.

A few problems I ran into on my test pieces:

1. Too much stitching, caused by trying to put way too many different sheets together. Depending on the desired size, I find that 4-7 pieces is ideal. The larger the final crane, the more sheets you can add.

2. Not paying attention to what I was punching ... and either punching a hole "off" the edge of the paper, or overlapping holes on adjacent pieces. I solved this by leaving a wider margin at certain types of angles. It adds to the desired look.

3. Tearing through the guide holes while stitching. I simply moved them a fraction of a centimeter back, so that I could make sure the stitches were tight enough not to come loose, but without worry of tearing the paper.

4. Stitching that wound up in horrible spots. As I said above, I made some patterns that would put more alternating paper in the visible areas, and less in the hidden areas of the model. This is to make them easier to put together as well as making them look much better than the totally random test-runs I made.

5. My stupid needle was too small for the thickness of the string (maybe it's considered yarn at that point? I dunno...). Simple fix, went out and bought a larger set of needles! (Because they were taking me 3 minutes to thread...lol.)





The belly stitching.

So, I was thinking of ways this would make a great gift and I came up with a few:

Someone you know could have, say, broke a leg, had a surgery, been sick, etc. recently. It would be a great get-well present as these guys have been recently stitched up as well! (I know, some people find gifts like that offensive, but if I broke an arm and three ribs I would laugh at the irony of getting something like this, lol.) A different type of "Get Well" gift.

You're looking for a gift for someone who truly is one-of-a-kind. (Of course, we all are OOAK.) They're spazzy, they're calm, they're funky, they're happy, they're sad. All different aspects of a personality can be represented by individual patterns and/or colors.

You know someone who has everything. I think all of us know at least one of those.

Well, let me know what you think! I keep the first one I made right next to me on my desk at all times. He turned out well, although not as "patched" as the newer ones. He looks more like he just scraped his elbow and broke his neck and tail, lol. Oh, and some closing shots:





From the right and left sides.