Yet Another Origami Box

This is another fabric box, a Tomoko Fuse design (she’s the best!), made from two cotton “fat quarters,” as those 18 x 21-inch pieces are called at the fabric store. I enjoyed choosing the fabrics because there were so many with small patterns, perfect for little origami projects. This box measures about three-and-a-half inches square and is very sturdy. A great container for earrings, soap, keepsakes, or small gifts.

Learn this design and several other boxes, along with various envelopes and other containers, at my Origami Container Workshop at Cedar Lakes Crafts Center in Ripley, WV. The class runs from April 22-27.

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Satin Brocade Origami Box

Here’s another fabric box we might try during the Origami Container Workshop at Cedar Lakes Crafts Center. This one is a Masu box, an ancient and traditional Japanese design that is truly elegant in its simplicity and utility. I love the way it looks in this luxurious fabric, although the thickness of the brocade presented a bit of a challenge.

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Origami Container Workshop in April

Two views of an origami box in fabric

At Christmastime, my friends Faith and Vicki gave me some wonderful squares of fabric from vintage feed sacks. (They came from Diane Gilliam’s Etsy Shop, by the way.) Today I bonded eight pieces to paper and folded my favorite origami box with them. The folding was a little bit more demanding than paper, and the fitting-together slightly more demanding as well, but the finished box is a treat—and remarkably sturdy! If my students seem up to it, I will add a project like this to my upcoming Origami Container Workshop at Cedar Lakes Crafts Center April 22-27.

Learn more about the class and register by visiting the Road Scholar website.

In the next few days, I’ll be adding more pictures of origami containers we’ll be constructing during the workshop. Cedar Lakes is beautiful, peaceful campus for craft workshops, and Road Scholar workshops tend to be good value for a reasonable price. Tell your friends who might be interested!

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Dead Starling on a Rainy Day

There seems to be a sort of visual theme in my life these days: overlapping patterns, subtle color combinations. I came across a dead bird on the road today. I took this closeup picture of its feathers, came home, and played one of my favorite games: identifying a bird (or plant) by searching the Internet. It didn’t take long to learn that this was a starling, and that its winter colors are completely different from its summer colors. The most helpful site, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, even provided a way to listen to the sounds this bird makes (kind of screechy and squawky, for the most part).

Too bad the poor starling had to be dead to provide me with this education.

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Come Close

This fairly inconspicuous plant is at the top of the carriage trail, and I have passed it hundreds of times without giving it more than a cursory look. The other day I bent to look at it…and felt as if I might fall in.

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