Origami Tulip

My favorite flower from Anca Oprea's book Beautiful Origami Flowers: 23 Blooms to Fold is the tulip.
To begin, I first make a waterbomb base. Oprea says, "Fold the right bottom tip of the triangle to the center line using a valley fold" (77).

By reading this book, I learned what a valley fold is which is necessary to be able to follow these instructions. Other instructions also use the term valley fold and now I will be able to understand what they mean.
Continuing, I fold the left tip and the two other tips on the other side of the figure to create a diamond shape on both sides. I fold the right flap of the diamond to the left on both sides. I fold the sides on the figure toward the center. I do the same on the other side. Oprea says that the two folds should overlap in the center (77).

This is important advice because if the flaps don't overlap the flower won't turn out right. The flaps create the petals of the tulip so if you don't overlap the flaps then the petals will stick out awkwardly instead of looking like petals. Thanks to Oprea's instructions, I can avoid having awkward petals.
Next, I repeat the same folds as before on the other side. I tuck the overlapping corners into each other on both sides.

At the bottom of the figure, there is a whole. I blow air into it to inflate the flower. The flower is covered in a layer of paper and I peel each layer away to create my flower.

A finished tulip

Oprea says that you can either blow air into the figure to inflate it, like I did, or you can use a thin stick to open it up. What way do you think would work better?

Origami Anemone

Today the flower I decided to make from Anca Oprea's book Beautiful Origami Flowers: 23 Blooms to Fold is the anemone.
I start off with the paper colored side down. Next, Oprea says, "Fold it in high diagonally, turn it 90 degrees and fold it in half diagonally again" (57). I've never thought of turning the paper and make the same diagonal fold. This is a good technique that I will use when I make this flower as well as other ones.
To continue, I fold the corners into the center and repeat this step two more times.

I turn the figure over. I fold all the corners into the center and unfold them.
I the figure back to the front and fold each triangular flaup, but not all the way, to leave a bit of a border. I do this on all flaps.

I turn the figure over and fold each corner into the center again. Oprea says to use your thumb to shape each corner to look like a petal (59).

This advice is useful because I have learned a new technique of using my thumb to change the look of my figure. This makes my flower look more realistic.
Next, I turn the figure over and gently open the bottom flaps. I open them towards the top of the flower.

Now I have my finished anemone!
In the center of my flower, the corners aren't completely flat. Should I try gluing the center down so it is flat?
Oprea, Anca. Beautiful Origami Flowers: 23 Blooms to Fold. New York: Lark, an 
     imprint of Sterling, 2014. Print. 

Origami Lily of the Valley

The third origami flower I've chosen to work on, from Anca Oprea's book Beautiful Origami Flowers: 23 Blooms to Fold, is the lily of the valley.
To start off Oprea says to fold the paper like if you were making a square base, but don't make the base (43).

This advice helps me because I now know to just make the correct folds for the base, but I shouldn't jump ahead and make a square base. Continuing to follow the directions I fold in all the corners and then make a square base. I fold in the side corners in on both sides and glue them. Oprea says to "Allow the glue to dry" (43).

This is important for me because sometimes I'm not patient enough to let the glue fully dry so I reminder is helpful for me.
Next, I curl back the tips of each petal and open up the flower.

Any other ideas of what other colors I could use to make this flower?
Oprea, Anca. Beautiful Origami Flowers: 23 Blooms to Fold. New York: Lark, an 
     imprint of Sterling, 2014. Print. 

Origami Passion Flower

The flower that I've chosen to work on today is what Anca Oprea calls a passion flower.

I start with one sheet of origami paper with the colored side down and I make a valley fold through the middle to make a triangle. Next, Oprea says to "Fold the figure in two, but do not create it completely. Just pinch the paper to mark the middle of the triangle. Fold the left side of the triangle down as shown in the photo"(69). With her advice I now know that I should only make a type of mark so that I know where the middle of the triangle is instead of an entire crease.

Continuing, I fold the other side down. I lift the left flap and squash the flap down with a squash fold.

I do the squash fold on the other flap. Then I fold the tips of the triangles in and fold the triangles in half with a valley fold. 

For the next step, Oprea says to spread glue on the left flap of the figure (70).  This advice helps me because I know have a technique of spreading the glue instead of just dabbing the glue on which can the petal coming apart. 

I press in the two sides together and I've completed one petal.

There are five petals needed to create an entire flower so I repeat all the steps four more times to create four more petals. To complete the flower,  I glue all of the petals together to make one full blossom flower.

A full blossom flower!

To glue my petals together I used Elmer's Glue. Does anyone have any other suggestions on what kind of glue I should use?

Oprea, Anca. Beautiful Origami Flowers: 23 Blooms to Fold. New York: Lark, an 
     imprint of Sterling, 2014. Print. 

Origami Hydrangea

I have been interested in origami since I was a kid. As I've gotten older origami has become not just a fun activity, but a way for me to relax and create lovely paper objects. Creating flowers has been one of my favorite things to make because I can give them as gifts to my friends and family and they can turn out beautiful.
Beautiful Origami Flowers: 23 Blooms to Fold by Anca Oprea is the perfect book to help me enhance my flower folding abilities. In this book there are instructions to fold flowers that I have never seen instructions for before! A flower that is new to me is the hydrangea which I tried today.
To begin, you start with a basic square base with the colored side of the paper on the inside. Oprea says to "Fold the top point down about 1/3 inch. Make sure the crease is really sharp"(64). This is an important piece of advice for me because even though it is important to have sharp creases when you make anything in origami, I always make the creases too light.

Thanks to the tips from the I was able to get a clearly visible diamond shape when I reopened the paper. Continuing, I pushed in the sides to isolate the diamond-shape in the figure. The instructions say to sink fold the diamond center and completely fold down the sides to obtain the figure shown in the book.
Here is when I reached a problem. For some reason my paper didn't look the picture in the book. I looked in the book and found a page that explained how to do a sink fold. Oprea says to push the paper so it turns into four triangles that meet at the tips(15).  I tried doing this instead of what I was doing before and then my paper looked like the book's picture.

How I had my fold before

What it should actually look like

The advice has taught me what a sink fold means and now I can start using this information to help me make other flowers.
I continued following the instructions until I eventually finished my flower.

The final product

On its own, I don't know if it really looks that much like a hydrangea. It is only a small hydrangea floret. In my opinion, the floret is kind of pretty by itself. Oprea suggests putting nine of these florets together to create one big hydrangea flower.
Is one flower by itself pretty enough or is having many flowers better?
Oprea, Anca. Beautiful Origami Flowers: 23 Blooms to Fold. New York: Lark, an 
     imprint of Sterling, 2014. Print.