How To Make An Origami Lily - (Tutorial)

The origami lily is an ancient origami model, and has various different meanings, including peace and forgiveness, If made well it shows the subtle elegance of origami and is a brilliant example of just what origami can achieve.

How To Make An Origami Lily - Video

To make your lily, the first thing you will need to do is to make a square base. You can find out how to do this by scrolling down on the tips and stories post. To make a square base, you will have to fold both horizontals and then flip over and fold one of the diagonals. Then push the two corners that the diagonal joins up together whilst also pinching the other two corners together. This should create a square shape, fold this and then crease to help keep its shape. With the closed side facing away from you, fold the bottom left edge of the diamond along the central line. Unfold this, then peel it open and flatten down to make another Isosceles triangle in the center. Pull one side over and repeat this there. Continue doing this until you have done it 4 times. Now go back to each one, and fold the bottom left and bottom right flaps along the central line again. Then on each of them, peel up the flap in the center to make a diamond shape.  Now, on every side where it is plain paper, fold the top left and top right flaps along the center. Now peel out all of the petals which are loose at the bottom. To make it look nicer, you can curl it by wrapping them round a pencil or some other similar object.

Now that you have made your lily, it can be used as a small token or as decorations for an event or gathering.

The World's Largest And Smallest Origami Cranes (Flapping Birds) - (Tips + Stories)

The World's Smallest Origami Flapping Bird (Crane)
The smallest origami crane ever made was made by Naito Akira, 82. he used special tools and a microscope to create a crane that was mounted on the end of a pin. The original sheet used was made of a thin film of plastic measuring 0.1mm by 0.1mm

The World's Largest Origami Flapping Bird (Crane)

The world's largest origami crane was made by Jim Mockford, it weighed in at 1,750 pounds or about 790 kilos. It was 215 feet high.

How To Make An Origami Ninja Star (Shuriken) - (Tutorial)

The Ninja Star is the famous four pointed throwing star. When made out of paper it performs in the same way, it will throw through the air. This however does seem to work better when you use larger pieces of paper.


Tip: Remember when the two parts are separated to fold in different directions else you will end up with two of the same piece.

How To Make An Origami Ninja Star (Shuriken) - Video

To make a ninja star you will have to start with a square piece of paper and then cut it in half. Fold both of these rectangles in half widthways. Then fold each one lengthways and then unfold. lay them out so that the original crease you made is in the middle of each. Now, fold the top edge of each piece along the crease you just made so that they each face outwards, Do the same with the bottom piece now but so they face inwards. You should now have two "s" or "2" shaped pieces. Flip them both over. On each of the squares, fold them diagonally to make a triangle. This triangle should not make the whole shape a straight line, if it does then fold it along the other diagonal. Now fold each of the triangles along the line where it meets the rest of the shape. This should create a parallelogram. Now unfold those triangles. Place one part on top of the other so that the flat edges are touching and the sides with a line going diagonally across them are on the outside.Now tuck each triangle under the line on the outside side. If you do this carefully, the points on the star should be nice and sharp. You have now completed your Ninja Star!

This can now be thrown, although mind out when throwing at people or animals as it can be harmful if a point goes into someone's or something's eye.

The History Of Origami - (Tips + Stories)

Origami is an ancient Japanese art form although it is suggested that the Chinese had originally invented it because of the fact that they had access to an ancient form of paper. It comes from the Japanese words 'ori' and 'kami'. 'ori' meaning 'to fold' and 'kami' meaning 'paper'


There are many different forms of origami, probably the best known is 'action origami' which is mainly what has been posted on this blog. this consists of a model that either has a purpose or can perform something in some way. For example, the flapping bird very clearly flaps its wings when its tail is pulled.


Another common form of origami is modular origami is modular origami, also known as 3d origami. This is when lots of smaller 'modules' are made out of separate pieces and fitted together to form the final object, I have created these before but they can often become tiresome as it can be really repetitive. As well as this, this would not be defined as 'pure origami' as 'pure origami' is when the model is solely constructed from one piece of paper. Another form of origami that is not 'pure' is kirigami which is origami where cuts are allowed. In traditional 'pure origami' no cutting of the paper is allowed.


Origami paper is widely sold, even though printer or copier paper paper is fine. Origami paper tends to give you a slightly richer experience as it is slightly thinner and creases better, allowing it to be used in a variety of ways more. All the same, for the basic models attempted on here, it is perfectly okay that printer paper is used so long as it is square when required.


Towards the beginning of the 20th century, much more elaborate models were created mainly down to the the fact that certain people would look at the mathematical ways in which the paper could be folded. This meant rather than trying to work out just by folding how to create a model, mathematicians could calculate and simulate how to make particular types of models. These tend to be much more advanced shapes which are often 3 dimensional.