#Origami box how to#

This step is easiest done visually…so refer to the video or image. Folding the triangle flap in towards the center of the box by folding + Scissors (optional and only needed to cut your paper into a square-see below for simple instructions)

+ Two sheets of square kraft paper (or any paper of your choosing) (The box above is made using starched fabric paper!) Materials: Make one and you can corral all the little notions knocking around your bedside drawer. Make two, (one slightly smaller than the other) and you can safely store those notions away…just don’t forget to add a label. Here’s one of my favorites-the masu box-perfect for its proportions, its simplicity, and its many, many uses. If it wasn’t for Sok Song’s simple magazine cover box, I would not have taken the deep dive I did into all sorts of functional origami creations. While I am nowhere near the first to fold paper into a box, I cannot help but share this little miracle of a craft.

With these boxes I organize drawers, package gifts, and spend too much time looking for all the little things that I boxed up and forgot to properly label. I’ve made boxes from scrap paper, from kid’s art, phone bills, magazines, wrapping paper, and lately from fabric turned paper turned box (more on that magic in a bit). Here was this craft so perfect in form, so simple in materials, so easy in technique, and yet so adaptable that I have since made hundreds of all-sized boxes. It was craft taught to me at my parents’ dining room table, from a dear friend I’ve known since childhood who learned it from her friend and origami artist, Sok Song. It was late summer when I folded my first Japanese origami box.

#Origami box how to#

And later this week: we’ll show you how to make paper out of…fabric! We’ve given photographic and written instructions below and for those of us who benefit from a step-by-step walk through, we’ll be sharing a video on my Instagram feed later in the day. Who could blame me? Heed Rose’s advice and label your boxes, but don’t let this stop you from boxing up everything you’ve got rolling around your drawers or dressers. I’ve also sent Uno cards and checkers pieces packing, and, yes, maybe even a fistful of cough drops found a new place for getting secreted away. In my house this week, I’ve been using the simple paper boxes to stash children’s ibuprofen bottles and thermometers that would otherwise be littering dresser tops. In the world of origami, the name applies to this classic square box that can be filled up and used for just about anything. During the celebration, held just before the first day of spring in the Lunar calendar, masu boxes are filled with roasted soybeans and the beans are thrown into corners of homes, temples, and shrines to drive away evil spirits. Masu boxes were originally small square wooden boxes used for measuring rice in Japan and when my friend Sachiko saw the boxes we made, she was immediately reminded of the Japanese celebration of Setsubun. These origami masu boxes come together without scissors, tape, or glue, and they’re addicting to make once you memorize the folds.

Cut several rectangles that are progressively smaller to make nesting origami boxes.All three of my kids are home sick this week, so a tutorial for something that makes anything at all feel neat and tidy and moderately contained is feeling just right.

Make the lid slightly bigger by not bringing the edges all the way to the center when folding the short and long edges.

Fold two origami boxes of identical size, and use one as a lid to cover the other.

Make the easy origami box with children, and have them decorate the paper before folding.

Recycle old calendars or magazine covers to make into boxes.

Double up thin paper like gift wrapping paper, or use thicker paper like office or construction paper to make bigger boxes.

Use thin paper such as ‘Kami’ for smaller boxes.

Tips and ideas to make this easy origami box Here are video instructions to make this origami box. The origami box takes only a few steps to fold and once you learn it, you will be able to make it with your eyes closed. The best thing about this nifty box, as with many other origami projects: no glue or scissors are needed! This box will be a good catch-it-all that comes in handy for many uses at home or work. A letter size rectangle (8.5 x 11 inches) or an A4 piece of paper are perfect for making it. The origami box presented here can be made with rectangles of different proportions. Even recycled paper is good to use for folding origami boxes. These models can be made with different shapes (square, rectangle, pentagon…) and with different kinds of paper. There are many different ways to make origami boxes and containers.