Halloween Part 4: Jack O'Lantern Origami

And we tried and tried, as you probably know if you've been following us for some time now, we aren't flawless and we're proud of it: better doing something imperfect than not even trying. Therefore our origami aren't perfect at all, but for us it's enough.
If you're better than we are at doing origami (which is difficult enough with tiny children, I won't tell you about our inner wars to convince the elder boy, who is a perfectionist, that it's OK to prepare almost-perfect origami, it's OK and it's only trying and trying that you reach high levels of precision, you can't have it the first time you try!), then that's better, but for us...it's enough like this!

We used a Muji Origami Paper, 15 cm. side, with only one side coloured. The resulting origami is large (you can see it in the third picture below, next to my hand, that gives you an idea of the size), it's not a particularly thin and beautiful paper, therefore if you wish a tiny origami to prepare a pair of earrings or something similar, you'd better use a smaller and thinner sheet. 

The sequence goes from the top to the bottom, from the left to the right.

Take an orange square sheet and fold it in half, obtaining a triangle.

Keeping the vertex of the triangle downwards, fold once again in half towards the left hand side, obtaining a smaller triangle.

Now take the base's left vertex and fold towards the right, until the left vertex touches the right one on the base.
You'll obtain a shape like the one in the bottom left photo above, the one with the funny spider.
Now put one finger inside the right triangle and "inflate" the triangle lifting it and then flatten it from above until you have a perfect square, like in the pictures 8 and 9 above, that is bottom center and right.

 

(Always starting from the top and from the left)

Turn the shape you obtained upside down. Repeat the same operation with the remaining triangle: lift and inflate putting a finger in it, then flatten until you obtain a square. Put it in the diamond position.

Starting from the bottom vertex and following two imaginary lines, fold towards the center fold the two side vertexes, like in image 4 (second from top on the right). Open again.

Starting from the top vertex and following two more imaginary lines that go until the folds you just made, make two more folds like in image 5, the third on the left starting from the top. Reopen.

Fold a small triangle from the top vertex backwards: it must stay on the back of the pumpkin. Then fold a smaller triangle starting from the bottom vertex, always hiding it behind the pumpkin. Finally, fold two tiny triangles backwards starting from the side vertexes. In this manner you'll obtain a pumpkin-shaped origami, more or less, according to how precise your folds are in the various passages (and depending on the quality of the paper, the thicker it is, the more difficult it will be)

Take a felt pen and draw the face of your Jack O'Lantern! Ready for Halloween!

Origami Jack O'Lantern

If you wish to make a pendant, or, e.g., a brooch, coat it in enamel (yes, nail enamel) transparent or glittered, as you prefer, so that it stays better in place. And maybe fix your folds on the back of the pumpkin with some glue.

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