Little cubic ornaments on a sunday

Our neighbors brought these very lovely red branches the other day. I don't know what kind they are, but they inspired me to do some slightly un-christmassy little ornaments for a nice decoration of sorts. They are odd and a bit oblique little cubes, and I have sprinkled them with confetti like patterns. Enjoy, if you like!

This time it's not origami, but an easy project to cut, fold and glue, from sheets with my finished designs. As always, when making 3D ornaments, be very precise when you cut - and trace all the folding lines before folding, that will make it much, much easier!

Download the PDF's right here!

 

2021: I have a new location for my downloads, please go here:
Design 1  /  Design 2  /  Design 3 

I made these in thick card stock, but heavy paper (100 g. or so) will be fine. I made the slightly smaller pink ones by printing on pink paper, and scaling the print 80%.

Here they are on the red branches*, making a minimalist kind of Christmas statement.
(*I think they are from a cornus sanguinea, if you know what that is!)

First Advent Sunday - so let's do some more origami!

These are my new favorites to make, just my kind of origami: they are easy, they don't require a lot of thinking - and after a while the hands just seem to make them, while the mind wanders. Nice. I also like that they have that locking element; you make them from three sheets that you fold in the most basic way, but intermingled they just form a perfectly strong box like shape. 

Go try for yourself. I made you a wordless tutorial here, because this is reeeeally simple. Only be aware that the last element of the three is fiddly to get in place, but that's just the fun of it. Wiggle, wiggle. You'll get it with a bit of practise. Use really thin paper, and not too coarse. It needs to be a bit smooth, the paper for this design. I made these pagoda like hanging ornaments, but they also look fine just one by one, as in the last image. Use any paper you like, but if you like my designs, I've made two PDFs with them:

2021 update: I have a now location for my downloads, please find them here:
Three sizes origami squares:  Pop A  /  Pop B  /  Pop C 
Three sizes origami squares:  Japanese A  /  Japanese B  /  Japanese C

Structure Minerals - a daily dose of color

The mood has been grey around here lately, but this morning we were blessed with an unusually sunny and beautifully clear morning. It was hard not to feel a bit spring delirious. As it happened, I was walking my friend's dog, so I really got the full benefit of the few hours of brilliant sunlight, otherwise I might have just hurried home. Now I am at my desk working, and the sky is back to overcast dull blah.

I am desperate for color and light now, and to treat myself to some dreamy escapism, I have begun to follow some more exotic feeds on Instagram, rather than the endless cups of expensive coffee, house plants and children's rooms with quirky vintage wallpaper. I am looking for weird and wonderful now.

These guys I have been following for some time, and practically every day I am rewarded with beautiful shots of a rainbow extravaganza of minerals and precious stones.

They are Matt and Ashley from Minneapolis, and they have an Etsy shop called Structure Minerals.

And here they are on Instagram. Such a feast for the eyes!

More geology: The crystal caves in Naica, Mexico

I saw a tiny image somewhere the other day, that I first took to be a screen shot from some adventure/sci-fi movie, but something in it attracted me enough to follow the link. It lead me to discovering about this utterly unbelievable, but very real place. They are caves filled with giant gypsum and selenite crystals in the Naica Mine, one of Mexicos largest commercial silver, lead and zinc mines. They were discovered by accident in 2000, and can't be visited by ordinary tourists, but only by research teams, wearing ice cooled suits, since the temperatures are up around 120 degrees F (almost 50 degrees C). 

I just could not believe my own eyes. Can you? 

And as perhaps you know, I have a thing about minerals!

The two photos above are by Oscar Necoechea. 

Read more about this extraordinary and very weird place here, on National Geographic.

Photos:
Top, mineral detail: from Wikipedia article about the Naica Mine.
Next three: Carsten Peter, for National Geographic.

More gems

Apropos the paper minerals from the other day, I felt like showing you something from my personal, sort of utopian, wishlist. A few years ago I worked with a lady that had the most spectacular silk scarf. One day I persuaded her to take it off, and spread it out on a table, so that I could really study it in all its glory - and I fell even more in love. It is a 1959 Hermès scarf, 'Mineraux', designed by one of the most famous Hermès artists; Hugo Grygkar. I think it is just fantastic, a wearable work of art (as are many of the Hermès scarves). It is sometimes re-issued, and is of course madly expensive. Vintage, even more so. But one can dream, right? 

The design is really beautifully drawn and printed on the silk, click here to study a larger image.

If you are on a more limited budget, like most of us are, you could try & Other Stories - they have gone gem-crazy as well, and have this very pretty silk dress and headband right now (the print even comes as an umbrella!)

Time to start your mineral collection

I am a hoarder of images of all kinds, and the other day I came across a folder filled with the most glorious pictures of all kinds of minerals; agate, malachite, granite and many more. I had completely forgotten about these, but they kept occupying my mind, so yesterday, when I opened another folder with all my beloved paper templates for making all kinds of cubes, boxes, pyramids and so on, it just struck me. I must make myself some paper minerals! And, yes, of course: you get to make them too! 

Get the PDF here. You'll need sharp scissors, a bit of glue, and about an hour to make them. 

 

2021: I have a new location for my downloads, please go here:
Design 1  /  Design 2  /  Design 3