In which I am married

After months of posts about Lego cakes and wedding planning, and then month of not posting because wedding planning and Lego building I am happy to announce that I got married last week! We are back from 2 weeks away, so I have plenty of posts and photos to share for a while yet!
It's funny when coming to write this post it feels a little like when I sat down to write my speech the evening before the wedding at about midnight, after chopping limes for the Pimms, not quite sure what to say, and how to capture it all in a blog post. However, I am not going to produce a speech this time!

Although I love to talk, and I have a lot of wonderful memories. I thought I'd just share some of the photos and add a few notes and how they speak for themselves.We don't have all the official photos yet (so no Lego cakes images to share either!) but I am sure I will post more when we get them. I do love looking at these as it was an utterly beautiful and wonderful day.

Our amazing band, with Jervaulx Abbey in the background

Little aisle of origami cranes

Milkshake toasts!

As for the fashion notes, my dress was custom made by Lady JoJos 1950s boutique in Edinburgh, my headband and all origami bouquets were made by me!

All these photos were taken by the utterly wonderful Malcolm and Naomi of Mustard Yellow Photography, who were more than just photographers, they were key to the success of the day and I couldn't reccommend them enough! 

In which it is about time there was some origami

Despite this blog being entitled 'Origami Girl's Heroics' you don't get to see much folding in action. Historically this blog was something quite different, a project that I didn't have the dedication for, and in which ultimately I discovered a love of fashion that I never expected to find. However, don't be fooled into thinking I no longer care for the Japanese crafts. It's true, I don't do as much origami as I used to, but I still find it a very relaxing occupation for my fingers.

Our wedding is the perfect chance to put my ability to fold origami cranes with my eyes closed into action. :)
I am making bouquets of origami tulips. Tulips are my favourite flower, but I knew from the start that I wanted to make my own bouquet in some crafty way because Pinterest is over-flowing with options like button bouquet, fabric flowers, brooches and kudasama flowers. I was so inspired! Strangely the latter seemed to be the only origami flower for which there were boundless tutorials. I considered doing a whole bouquet of cranes, but then I came up with this idea of having the single crane flying over the top of the flowers. 

I am delightfully proud of it. In fact I think it is one of the best things I've ever created - and I did art at GCSE and A Level and ran a jewellery business. I have crap-tons of art work. These bouquets though, they make me squee with delight. 

So I thought I'd have a go at a quick tutorial on how to make them, because there isn't one on the internet yet. I've never done a 'how to' on this blog before so do let me know if this is interesting or not. 

Step 1. Materials

-Glue

-Stem tape (I got it in wilkinsons, a general store type place)

-Origami paper

-Pipe cleaners

-Scissors

 Step 2. Making Tulips

I made a lot of tulips, each on from a single square of paper. If you are used to origami this should be relatively simple to follow. If not, here is a tutorial on how to make just the flowers. It is much simpler probably than my instructions. I've never actually attempted to do one of these so sorry if it doesnt make sense.

Begin with a waterbomb base

Fold the  points of the triangle on the left and right upwards to meet the centre crease. Turning the triangle into a square. Do the same thing on both sides.

Then do a 'book fold', folding each flap over from the left side to the right side like a book Keeping it the same way up always it should now look like a diamond, or a square on its side. You do the book fold twice.

Then you pick up the opposite points of the diamond, the left and the right and bring the together in the middle. Tucking one into the other. You repeat this on both sides. It should look like this.

Then fold each section in half and open again. Put your fingers and thumb between the petal sections and pull out just a little to reveal the hole at the bottom of the flower.

Blow into the whole in the previous picture to inflate the flower. You can then peel back the petals and little or as much as you like.

 Step 3. Stems

Wind two pipe cleaners together for strength and push them into the hole at the bottom of the flower. Glue it in place. Then LEAVE OVERNIGHT. I am so impatient. I always ruin things by rushing to do the next stage. But honestly, let the glue dry.

Then wind the stem tape round the whole of the pipe cleaner. Go up and down twice. Stem tape is naturally sticky so keep it taught so it releases the stickiness and press firmly when you reach the end. It shouldn't need any glue.

 Stem 4. Repeat

Then make lots of flowers like this! I like to make them different sizes and with different amount of petals pulled back. So that they are somehow 'natural' whilst being obviously fake.

 Stem 4. Bouquet it!

Get all those flowers, wrap them together and add a big bow with ribbon!

 I also made a single origami crane and glued it onto some gold wire with a bead at top and base of the bird to hold it in place. I then wrapped the wire round one of the flowers and covered it in more stem tape. When I put that flower into the bouquet, there was my bird, flying over the top!

Beautiful!

I hope this was interesting/ useful to you! I also want to say, I am possibly saving money on buying flowers doing it this way, but not oodles and oodles. I am really fussy about my paper and in Britain it is ridiculously hard to find good quality and NOT RED origami paper. All the packs tend to be in different reds and golds. They do have other colours in Japan. We are having purple, turquoise and green as our wedding colours so I ended up ordering the paper direct from Japan. I've spent about £40 on paper and have made 2 bouquets and a half. So if you are planning a wedding buying bouquets straight from a market might still be cheaper. Or you could just use plain colours and ordinary paper. Or have them as red flowers! But my origami tulips make me very happy.

 

In which I come clean about blogging

I have had an awkward guilt-ridden relationship with my blog at times and I have decided to come clean.

I started this blog to do Something Original On The Internet.

A grand aim in our open information age.

I was going to write an entire blog from the perspective of Origami Girl.

Origami Girl is my alter ego. The girl I would be if I had super powers. She makes things out of origami and they come to life. I wrote some short stories about her and know her inside and out. My boyfriend and I made up little tales where we were both superheroes and we would go on fantastical dates together, like he would make a boat out of ice and I would give it paper sails and it wouldn’t be a problem that I can’t swim. My alter-ego probably can swim pretty well actually, but the water makes her washi-paper wet. Not that I am hung up on my poor swimming ability; it’s completely incidental and never an issue. So… firstly I wanted the blog to be a ‘creative writing exercise’. A test of my skill if you will.

However, I also wanted it to promote my jewellery business. I was going to make origami-themed jewellery and other great things and people would love the character and associate it with my Eccentric Accessories. The thing is it didn’t work like that. I wanted to write a blog that I would want to read and in general I find craft blogs boring and self-absorbed[1]. Harsh, but self-promotion isn’t interesting. Second of all, the origami jewellery? Not actually my forte it turns out. Some people do it much better. I make things out of buttons and toys, with Operation charms and dominos –but not so much the origami.

Don’t get me wrong –I tried self-promotion. I really wanted to make money from selling monopoly house earrings and I STILL DO[2]. I just want the blog to be more than that now.

The creative writing was its own issue. If I want to take the self-deprecating angle I can say it was because I am not a good enough writer or not determined. Pretending to be someone else all the time is hard. So I watered down that idea a little bit and let the fashion encroach, whilst keeping sly references to saving the world, origami and a secret identity (ie. the not-showing-my-face thing). Over time Origami Girl has just slipped away from the internet and back into my subconscious.

I like blogging for itself. I love clothes and fashion in ways I never expected. I like to write. I also like me. I would like to be free to talk about toys and tulips and the TARDIS without worrying about how my alter-ego would phrase them. 

I still love origami. I still make origami, but I can’t be Origami Girl any more[3].

The blog is actually going to keep going the way it has been for the last six months, but if I want to put up a little creative writing it might not be in the character of origami girl. If I want to put up fashion photography I want to be free to show my face. I hope those of you who read it at the start enjoyed reading my little tales, and I hope you enjoy what the blog has become and will be. Thanks.

High quality origami jewellery made from folded silver. It blows my mind. Found on etsy.com

The kind of jewellery I actually make. Monopoly dog pendant. Available from me/Eccentric Accessories.

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[1] Like all things there are some wonderful exceptions. I would recommend Scientific Culture for one.

[2] Although the business is currently on hiatus as a result of moving house.

[3] But the blog domain name and banner are staying for now. Afterall, I am into origami –I just haven’t yet figured out how to save the world with it.  

In which I plan the next year

I have been a terrible blogger for the past weeks I know. However there was a genuine real as life excuse. My laptop died. It was soul crushing, like watching a puppy die. My laptop has been there for me through zombie attacks and obsessive youtubing. However there was a plus side! I have a new laptop and the old one got taken to pieces in order to make jewellery. Yeah I am going to make a new load of jewellery from keyboard keys. Once I had the idea my little brother offered me a spare keyboard of his so I could take all the keys off that.

From this: To this:

Christmas was fun although there is always that awkwardness of hoping those in the know don’t let slip you’re a superhero at the dining room conversation. I’m sure everyone has troubles like that.

Oh yeah and it’s the new year isn’t it? So in the blogging world that means I have to either talk about what I achieved in the past year or what I’m going to do this year.

Well, plans for the next year are:

-New products for my business

-Get my jewellery in a shop

-Destroy the world’s evil laboratories

-Improve my origami skills

-Go to Japan

-Learn nun chucks

-Get featured on other blogs

-Find a non-origami formed unicorn

-Be a happy shiny successful bunny of awesomeness

I also have a couple of other new things:

These were actually made by my mum (photographed by me) and have inspired me to play around with my sewing machine a little bit more, maybe make other cute as pie decorations.

So generally feeling all crafty inspired this year!

In which I am excited about Christmas

Above image from Baltimore Crafters Blog.

So here we are then. Christmas Eve eve. As some people like to call it. As it is nearly midnight it is practically Christmas Eve now, which means it is Christmas day tomorrow! I’m somehow kidding myself that that’s how it works.

I have left my home town and returned to my parent’s place for Christmas as has John.
We are actually in different continents at the moment. Now we may have superpowers but actually neither of us have powers that lend themselves to travelling over vast spaces very quickly. We can travel long distance for free definitely. However even my giant origami birds take several hours to cross oceans. So it means for now we must be apart. Also he is rather sad that I am in cold weather that he loves for keeping his ice powers subtle and of course he is in nice warm still weather that keeps my washi paper from getting wet!

Also there is always that awkwardness of the fact that my parents don’t know that I’m a superhero. It’s an odd thing to have to keep from them and it is always there in the back of my mind the knowledge that they don’t know about it.

In the mean time though it is Christmas! Which means all the traditional things are being formed. Mulled wine and rum butter made, tree decorated and macaroni cheese being prepared. We have macaroni cheese with our Christmas dinner yes. Do not question the madness.
I have also been playing plants vs. zombies rather obsessively. I need to find out if someone can make this happen for real. We all know zombies are real. Now we just need to give plant personalities and tactics but not make triffids...

Have a good Christmas everyone!

In which I list the things that make me happy

This week I am going to offer you a list of things that have made me very happy in the last week. I've actually had a rather bad week so I decided to ignore all that and think about the good parts.

-Making new jewellery:

I have had some wonderful deliveries in the past week of new jewellery making tools including some fantastically shiny wire. Sadly the 50 barrette slides I ordered were the right length but not the right width. However I think I can work with that. I can work with it enough that I made a whole bunch of button barrettes and brooches.

The above are for the craft fair I will be in in just over a week!

-Joining a team and being featured in treasuries:

I have joined a team for EtsyYouth and have also made a treasury to celebreate this featuring EtsyYouth.

Winter Travelling Treasury

I have also had my wonderful gold vintage button necklace featured in a couple of treasuries lately. This one is especially beautiful

Sweet Gifts Any Girl Would Love

-My shiny shoes:

I feel a sense of perfect happiness whenever I wear this combination of gold brogues, socks with bows and smooth grey tights. (However I am actually wearing double socks in this image as my tights are in the wash, but you'll have to ignore that)

-Dancing to Latin Music.

-Solving puzzles:

I have had another letter from this mysterterious enemy saying he knows me secret identity and will reveal all.

Previously these letters had not been delivered to my house (which is naturally kept secret) but left at locations I frequent, like the forest. However this one was through my letterbox. However there is only one fight I have had in which I briefly lost my mask in the tussle. I immediately hid and made a new one, but I know which villain that was with and I know that he enjoys the waiting game far more than the fight.

-Making real bunches of flowers out of origami ones, even if they only last for an hour:

The below bunch were made by LiliesbyLisa over at Etsy.

Have a good week!

in which I get excited about bookmarks and curious about lightning

So I am very excited on the jewellery front as my mini bookmarks have arrived! Oh yeah!I know I know that many people before me have used moo.com minicards to make bookmarks. I'm not claiming originality in my idea. However I am claiming excitement in having them.

Look how pretty they are!

I have left them in a few placed in town and everyone I have shown them too are fairly enamoured with them. Basically they are like business cards but smaller and have a different photo of my jewellery on each back and my details on the other side.

More nice things! I decided to Google 'moo bookmarks' and see what other people had done with them. I found one lovely image and from there a brand new fantastic blog. It is a craft blog. Now it may sound odd (as someone writing a half craft blog) but I don't generally like them. Or I haven't found good ones. The ones I have come across often seem a little boring and overly marketing focused. The blog called Scientific Culture, looks amazing for a start with a really colourful background. They have also done articles on crochet covers for rocks and make cuddly Chlamydia plushies. I am sold. That was a nice happenstance with Google!

As regards the tale of the scientist which I promised I would tell you, there have been some strange goings on. There is nothing more specific I can give you on who it is. However lately there has been a lot of lightning. I know it is winter but I mean a LOT of lightening. Generally in my direction. Also this lighting is pretty thin. Proper lighting from the sky is fairly thick but these are little bolts. I have been fending them off so far fairly easily by making shields to block them which is one of the easiest folds to master. I have a feeling I am being tested here rather than any serious attempt being made. I think it is the same person behind this because once again there is no face to the attacks, rather sending something/someone on behalf of them. We will see what happens next.