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Origami Flower Materials

Your vision (and purpose) for origami floral creations will influence which materials you select. Your success depends upon your “designer’s eye” for seeing interesting colors, patterns, and combination effects. The following table provides several tips about selecting materials for folding the origami flower designs in this kit.

Most flowers can be folded successfully from a wide range of materials, so feel free to experiment. However, if the piece you’re creating is intended to last, be sure to select fine-art-quality materials, papers, and pigments that won’t fade. Usually, the thickness of the paper determines how well it will work at a certain size (or scale). Generally, thinner papers work best for more complex designs. Thicker stock may require that you use larger squares.

Candy wrappers can serve as a fun recycled material for constructing floral origami. Try all sorts of materials!

Foil and foil backed papers fold well, and come in many colors, textures, patterns, and finishes. Also try colorful magazine paper, candy wrappers, and gift wraps. Do not overlook trying the highly patterned insides of security envelopes. Various types of packaging, especially with bright graphics, or shiny, metal-coated layers, can be attractive and may work well for floral subjects, but plasticized films may be hard to crease. If so, use that quality

to its advantage, forming loose, free-form, wild petals.

Foil backed papers provide an attractive dimension with their metallic glint and an added level of malleability.

Pretty fabric also makes great origami flowers, particularly if large blooms are needed as table decorations or public art displays. Use adhesive to apply paper to the fabric before cutting it square. Bond larger pieces with a fusible web and hand iron.

The high cotton content of US dollar bills qualifies them as a fabric of sorts. Check out our Money Origami kits and LaFosse & Alexander’s Dollar Origami (Tuttle Publishing) for a host of great money folding projects.

Floral tape—a waxed, self-adhesive, crepe-paper strip—can enable you to assemble your origami components onto floral wire, or other stem or branching forms. (Floral tape is generally wound from the top down for a more natural look.)

Floral tape makes quick work of attaching flower and leaf components to a floral wire stem.

Floral wires come in many thicknesses (gauges), coatings (fabric or plastic), and colors (green, white, and brown are the most common). Use the heaviest gauge for the main stem, while attaching the leaves to thinner wire.

Craft supply stores sell many types of fabric-covered, or paper-covered stem wire, but it is not difficult to make your own using thinner coat hanger wire and some green floral tape.

Some of your projects may require the use of paste or glue. Ordinary white paste or glue, readily available at your local arts and crafts store, should work just fine.

Keep floral tape, floral wires, and glue at the ready to transform your blossoms into floral origami sculptures.