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Origami Butterflies Have So Many Uses!

Butterflies are pollinators, and so origami butterflies have become a symbol, not only of change, but of communication, sharing, and the spread of knowledge. Fold butterflies with children to help them make their own personalized decorations for jackets, book bags, and backpacks. They are easily interchangeable when fastened with magnetic clips or Velcro dots. Use them for your own personal enjoyment, as earrings, pins, barrettes, and other origami jewelry.

We love to frame origami butterflies in shadowboxes for the wall. Use them to celebrate an important day—perhaps a wedding or anniversary. The First Wedding Anniversary is also known as The Paper Anniversary! When displayed in pairs, these butterflies often symbolize a special, joyful relationship.

When framed in small groups, we have used them to represent families, perhaps to welcome a child. They also make wonderful house-warming gifts. We often include mounted sequences (or step-folds) to symbolize metamorphosis, showing the steps from an open square to the finished butterfly. For the natural history lovers, Riker-box (compartmentalized display case) mounted, “vegetarian” butterfly collections of your favorite “fantasy species” could be just the right gift. Our more dramatic artistic presentations sometimes feature swarms of similar colors or styles, often on a handmade paper background representing grass, blossoms, or leaves.

Wearable origami butterfly art is sure to garner compliments.

Express your creativity with origami butterfly jewelry.

Paper butterflies make cheerful greeting cards, either as cover decorations (especially fitting for Mother’s Day, graduations, St. Valentine’s Day, get well, or friendship cards).

You can also fasten the butterfly inside the center of the card, and it will act as a pop-up element, flexing its wings when the card is opened.

There are dozens of appropriate social and office uses for origami butterflies as well. Use them to spice up banquet place cards, name tags, or ID badges. Instead of purchasing package bows or gift tags, fold a friendly origami butterfly.

When you receive a nicely wrapped gift, save some of the paper. Butterflies folded from squares cut from that wrap can become a thoughtful “thank you” that harkens back to the original present.

A beautiful butterfly provides the perfect finishing touch to gift wrapping.

We all waste too much. Some discarded materials are quite beautiful, and suitable for reuse as origami butterflies. Convert pretty trash to treasure by folding up scraps of fine papers that are too small for other uses.

If you enjoy scrapbooking, fold butterflies for special remembrances from mementos of a joyful event. Save a special wrapper, brochure, or ticket stub from a memorable outing and incorporate it into your organized journal of an active life. Many folders also use scrapbooks for future folding reference, by mounting their favorite origami butterfly step-folds in the proper sequence. (Try using one or two-inch squares.) If the origami object becomes fully three dimensional in the final stages, simply substitute snapshots for the folded paper when documenting those closing steps.

Family gatherings and celebrations are perfect occasions to use color-coordinated origami butterfly decorations!

Accessorize your gifts of floral bouquets and house plants with a butterfly to add that special personal touch.

Origami butterflies make unique interior decorations and can be simply pinned to curtains or draperies. When guests are coming, use them instead of chocolates as a calorie-sparing pillow adornments in the guest room. Set the table with origami butterflies affixed to candlesticks (away from flames, of course), napkin rings, or to personalize each guest’s wineglass.

An origami butterfly on a card lends a personal element that store bought cards just can’t provide.

Origami butterflies love to travel, especially through the mail. As “puzzle” notes, write your note on the square first, and then fold it and send it in an envelope with its wings closed!

Last year, during the holidays, we enjoyed a cheerful tree, stringing origami butterflies with bright ribbon and a bead to become festive, hanging ornaments.

The United States and many nations have interesting paper currency, so fold some cash into butterflies to use as tips or gifts (see page 23 for more).

The butterfly in this card symbolically spreads its wings when opened.

An Alexander Aztec Swallowtail visits a bouquet for mom.

If your community has a citizens’ center, or seniors’ center, introduce origami butterfly folding as a creative pastime. Activity coordinators for after-school programs and summer camps love to discover new crafting activities, and it is a good fit to incorporate recycling activities with origami crafts to cut down on expenses for materials.

Some people love to fold paper for relaxation, and they enjoy its meditative, zen-like aspects. Folding origami butterflies may also have a place in physical therapy for patients who need to keep their hands active, but become bored when folding the same design. Creating different origami butterflies challenges the mind and keeps it active. A local therapist found that origami provided a unique way for her patients to let go of sad or painful issues by folding related documents. Similarly, it can be a creative way to keep happy notes or love letters!

Some people do not realize that designing elegant origami requires time, talent, and money. Modern origami designs are the intellectual property of the artist, and commercial uses require agreements with the artist for consent to terms of use, royalties, and other conditions. Our company, Origamido, Inc., licenses our own origami designs for commercial uses (just as Yoshizawa did with his art many years ago. He never sold any of his 50,000 origami, thanks to licensing photos of his work to advertisers.)Whether designed for the conventional, printed page, or for web-based advertising, origami garners attention. Business logos for letterhead, envelopes, calling cards, props for TV commercials, and even tangible advertising can be specifically designed and licensed by Origamido, Inc.

Richly patterned and exceptionally durable, paper currency is an attractive choice for folding origami butterflies.

Clients have used some of our butterfly designs to grace their retail store windows, signs, posters, or billboards. You do not need our permission to use these designs for your own non-commercial use, but please respect our rights and be sure to request permission for any commercial use. Contact info@origamido.com to make the necessary arrangements.

A special, limited edition commission for Lalique, on the release of their glass pattern, Vibrations.

This Origamido butterfly measured eleven feet from tip to tip, and was the first piece of art commissioned by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts for their new atrium. We suspended it near the entrance to their year-long exhibit of origami art, “Origami Now!”(June, 2007 to June, 2008). The sculpture was folded by the authors from 100% cotton watercolor paper by the authors, and each wing was supported by aluminum rods. It required disassembly for transport!