A sweet summer project for you today.
Perhaps project is too big of a word for this one. Maybe we should call it a pastime instead? Or a diversion? Something to occupy your hands and feed your creative spirit without dragging out the sewing machine or the paints or the .... well, you get the idea!
The nice thing about kirigami is the beauty in its simplicity. Fold, cut, reveal. Repeat.
This pattern is all about butterflies in the garden. A kaleidoscope of butterflies (did you know a group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope? Best name ever!) dance around a single bloom.
Start by folding your origami paper into the desired number of folds. I went with 5.
If you've been on our kirigami journey so far, this might be old hat, if not you can find the instructions for a 5-fold over on How About Orange or for a 6-fold right here.
Once your paper is folded, start cutting. You want to imagine cutting half of a butterfly - head, top wing, bottom wing. Then, at the bottom, cut half a petal with stamen.
Refer to the image above for visual clues.
When cutting kirigami, always be sure to maintain contact points - meaning that you must have points on each side which you do not cut. On the left side, I have left four contact points - top wing, bottom wing, petal, stamen. If you do not maintain contact points, when you unfold your kirigami it will fall apart.
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Unfold and gently press with a warm, dry iron to remove creases (if desired).
Try experimenting with different wing and petal shapes for variations on this pattern. You can see I played around with different flowers in the pieces above.
Any suggestions on what we should turn into kirigami next?
