Spring favorite # 4: Buttercup Flowerballs

These I actually made for Easter, but I just didn't have the time to share them here.

They are, of course, very Easterly, but if you like buttercups, I guess they may cheer you up any time of the year. Plus they are very easy to make, really, and quite fun. All you have to do print the sheet (one sheet makes a flowerball, and I made these on slightly heavy, ordinary printer paper), cut out the twelve petals, and sort of hinge them into a ball. See explanation on the PDF about printing on both sides of the paper (which makes a really nice effect on these).

I found a very instructive video on YouTube, on how to assemble them. Super easy!

They are a remake of the pink Hanami ones I made a few years ago, and I have scaled them down a bit, so they are slightly smaller, and changed the outline a bit. They pay tribute to one of my favorite garden weeds; the pretty, yellow buttercup. And in just the same way, you may stick a bit of string to the inside, before closing the last petal, if you want to make them into hanging decorations. 

Download the Buttercup Flowerballs PDF and get started!

 

2021: I have a new location for my downloads: please go here for the front print -
and here for the back side print (it's a print-on-both-sides design).

Spring favorite # 3: Vivian Maier, street photographer

I went to Dunkers Kulturhus in Helsingborg and saw the exhibition of the photographs of the mysterious Chicago and New York nanny, Vivian Maier (1926 - 2009), who turned out to be a world class street photographer, but only received the recognition she so enormously deserved, after her death - and by sheer chance. 

The story of this private and unusual woman, who earned her ways as a nanny for wealthy Chicago and New York families for more than forty years, but simultaneously managed to take hundreds of thousands of sublime photographs of street life in the 50ties and 60ies - is quite amazing. 

Check out the documentary 'Finding Vivian Maier', it is a really intriguing story! (It's on Netflix at the moment).

Here is a very small taste of her wonderful work (starting with one of her many odd self portraits). So full of human empathy, so gentle - and yet sharp and unflinching. And her mastery of graphic composition, is almost like a thing secondary to that fantastic eye. I will never stop being curious about just what it is (besides a certain technical knowledge) that makes a great photographer. She sure was one. 

See much more on her official website - and be prepared to browse for a long time!

Spring favorite # 2: The Flower Queen

Marianne Eriksen Scott-Hansen is a Danish fashion artist / designer / stylist / general creative explosion - known by anyone who has followed experimental fashion here in DK for the past two decades. She works in all kinds of media, but her almost superhuman ways with the scissors are somehow central to much of what she does. When you read interviews with her, she often explains how she works intuitively, with very few templates, work drawings or such. She simply lets the scissors do the talking, and incredible things happen. 

At the moment she works almost entirely in paper, and her wild, textural visual style has really taken off in her current project: doing enormous flower installations in cheap tissue or crêpe paper. She emphasizes how she insists on working in the standard materials her local paper shop stocks (although the amounts of paper that she uses are not quite standard - she must be a wonderful customer for that paper shop!!), and how she does everything herself and by hand. 

I am simply breathlessly impressed and full of awe and wonder! It is stunning and abundant. The workload almost incomprehensible - and, it's all from plain paper and a pair (or several pairs) of ordinary scissors. Paper truly is a magic material (as I keep insisting on).

Please enjoy these few pictures of Marianne Eriksen Scott-Hansens Easter decor in the Royal Copenhagen flagship store - and, I think, from a backdrop for the ELLE style awards (just two of her many, many supersize flower extravaganzas).

All photos are from her instagram, where you should follow her and fall in love with her work as well.

Spring favorite # 1: Modulor in Berlin

Hope you're all enjoying spring, which is turning into summer her in Cph!

I've been very busy, but have collected a few thoughts and loose ends, so even though I have a bit of a blog break at the time, let me welcome you to my little series of Spring Favorites!

We took a small Spring break in Berlin some weeks ago, and I love love love Berlin. I could write a lot about that place, and we had some sunny and lovely days on our visit, so I have lots of blogging material, so to speak, loads of photos and such. But I actually only want to share this one tip with you!

I've been to Berlin quite a few times before, and it's a city full of change, energy and exiting things, and every time you come, there is a whole new neighborhood or scene to check out. And the shopping, oooh! In my view the very best shopping spot in Europe - as far as I'm concerned, anyway. I have it pretty well mapped out, and have lots of must-visit-shops.

Which is why it is a bit odd - with my almost lifelong passion for paper and art supply shops - that I have never visited this utterly and completely fantastic shop before. But this time I finally went!

If you, as I do, love that kind of shops - look no further. This is seriously the best there is, and I would travel to Berlin for this shop alone. 

Niftily situated right next to Moritzplatz U-Bahn Station, and near the Design College - and opposite a small park, where they have nice street food vendors in the Summer - it is an absolutely must from now on, for my future visits. As driving there is fairly easy and quick from Copenhagen, I contemplate going there on a shopping expedition with an empty trunk! Oh, man, did they have some nice stuff I would like to own.

Because, not only do they have EVERYTHING you can possibly imagine in the way of papers, modelling materials, glues, paints, colors, pencils, markers, stickers, tools, metal bits and bobs, decorating materials and aaaaaaaaall that. No, no - they also have probably the most interesting selection of affordable storage and office/workplace furnishings and accessories I saw in a long time. 

So, I am having a real retail love thing going on here.

See for yourself.
Here is their web shop, with a fraction of the range you see in the actual shop...!!

We drove in a car stuffed to the brim with four adults and two kids and all the luggage relevant to such a setup, so my friend and I had to stick to fun (small) paper products. I filled a bag, and here is a little bit of it...

(- and the wooden thingy? Well, that is a carrying handle, of course. A small, but significant, freebie from their packaging table, after the checkout. They obviously have this huge table, with free wrapping paper, bubble wrap, different kinds of tape, string, scissors, cutting knives etc. so that you can wrap your purchase properly. And anyone who have carried a heavy, big or oddly shaped parcel, knows just how big a difference such a handle can make! God is in the detail and Modulor is one cool shop.)

Happy Easter - and see you in a while!

Easter and spring is here, and it is simply wonderful.

In a little while I'll be taking off to Berlin with my family for some restful days, and I just can't wait!

I have an awful lot on my hands at the moment, and will be putting the sort-of-weekly blog posts on hold for the summer. I might do the occasional recap, but otherwise I'll be back sometime in Autumn - because I do have lots and lots of ideas for paper designs, for wonderful things I feel like writing about and stuff to get curious about.

Have a fabulous Spring and Summer, and if you stopped by this blog for DIY's and inspiration, be sure to use the special page that links to all my posts with origami projects, free printables and so on - you will find it right here - or get inspired by my Pinterest boards.
 

Transparent Origami

My collection of paper is rather massive, and sometimes I force myself to go through the drawers, but I always end up not throwing anything away. I mean, I collect bits of gift wrap, interesting tickets and napkins, candy wrappers and pages from old foreign newspapers with interesting fonts. Road maps, beer coasters and that silky paper nice shops wrap up the clothes in, before it goes in the bag. Jeez. Those are some full drawers.

The other day I came across some of that lovely heavy and crisp egg shell white tracing paper - 'kalke' - we used at Architecture School, for doing the final drawings before they went to the printers. It's a bit parchment like, and semi transparent. It gave me the idea to make some origami that has that transparency as a sort of extra effect. The tracing paper turned out to be the most brilliant origami paper! The folds get super sharp, and it is strong, but still smooth, not coarse. Plus it slides through the printer like no problem!

I thought these so called gyroscopes were great in this kind of paper, because all the modules are made by double layers. So I made a design with a lot of random stripey patterns, and they look nice on top of each other. 

To make a 'spinning gyroscope' (click here for tutorial) you need twelve rather small origami squares to form six double star like shapes, that slides into each other in a really cool way! This is an easy and very satisfying modular origami project. I'm on my way to more complicated modular things, I think, but I'm not quite there yet!

I made this easy for you - just print the ones that I have made for you, in four pretty colors, cut them, and give it a go! These are fun to make, I promise!

See end of the blog post for info on tracing paper.

Get the 12-mini-origami-sheets PDF!

2021: I have a new location for my downloads, please go here:
Pink  /  Grey  /  Blue  /  Yellow  

What is tracing paper?

The paper I used was this kind, and you should be able to get something like it in any paper web shop or well stocked stationary or art supplies shop. Just gently tug the individual sheets off, and feed them into your printer tray. 

If you print a lot of dense patterns and color on tracing paper, you should leave it to dry for a while, before you start working with it.

Lunch on top of the world (sort of)

I have covered the fantastic place I go skiing with my family every year in blog posts before, here and here, but there is this special spot we've become very enthusiastic about, and it's definitely worth it's very own post. So here's where we had lunch a couple of weeks ago.

Restaurant Tusen is situated on a quite steep mountain slope, and you can only get to it on skis or by snow scooter. But there it is, quite impossible to imagine how they built it - and you can have a very tasty lunch indeed (for instance a gourmet reindeer hot dog with creamy mushrooms, yum. See last image!), or a hot chocolate and a kanelbulle. And stretch those tired legs. 

Clad in birch logs, and inspired by a sami tent - or a kåta - it looks like no other skiing facility I've ever seen! It was designed by Murman Architects from Stockholm, and built in 2009. If you happen to swing by Ramundberget in Härjedalen, do visit this place!

Taking a plunge

The fact that you can make a slight adjustment to an incomplete calendar by simply adding a day every fourth year, sounds like a solution so nuts, but at the same time pragmatic, that just imagining how anybody came up with it in the first place, makes my head spin. 

I had a school friend who was born on a leap day, so the whole wackyness of this phenomenon, has occupied my mind for the longest time! I like the English term 'Leap Day' though. In Danish it's called 'skuddag'  which sounds more like a day where you should go shoot someone. 

Get dizzy or take a leap! (and please don't shoot anyone)

A hidden heart origami letter

The other day I taught you how to fold traditional Japanese menko and tato envelopes. And if you didn't quite get around to it the other day, here's the chance. And I even designed this very romantic version, where you unfold and discover a hidden heart. 

The rest is up to you!

Download the special Valentines / Galentines / Palentines heart-letter origami paper here, in both passionate red and and a very girly and delicate pink. Print on both sides of the paper for this design, and start folding with the heart pattern facing you. 

 

2021: I have a new location for my downloads, please go here:
Red front  /  Red back  /  Pink front  /  Pink back

Learn how to fold the menko - video on YouTube here (and it's very easy, I promise.)

February 13th is Purple Hijab Day

Purple Hijab Day is an international day of raising awareness against domestic violence. It is founded in the Muslim community, in memory of Aasiya Zubair, who was murdered by her husband. You show your support for the cause by wearing a purple hijab, scarf, tie, hat - or whatever is at hand!

While it is by no means meant to be only a Muslim event, a very important focus of Purple Hijab, is to go against the prevailing stereotypical idea, that the Koran somehow allows violence against women, and that all Muslim men are misogynists or anti-feminist. In Denmark where I live, the demonisation of Muslims gets worse by the day in our media, and I find that extremely worrying. This is why I love it when things like this, helps us a few steps back on the right track. Or at least a better track.

I hope that lots of people will put on something purple today as a gesture towards more understanding between our different faiths, much more respect between the sexes - and in hoping that the generations to come won't have to celebrate it at all - or perhaps will do so, only to remember Aasiya's story and because it looks great. As in the image above, where a woman in Ethiopia have not only donned her purple hijab, but also painted her doorway purple. The image (the photographer is not credited, too bad - it's a fantastic picture) is from this article.

There are also countless pages about Purple Hijab on Facebook, go check it out if you are curious about local events or activities.