Oriro Kusudama

This is the first kusudama I designed. I named it Oriro after our origami forum: OrigamiRomania.
The tutorial is here .
I hope you will all like it! :)

Tomoko Fuse

Cloud of stars

The model is designed by David Michell and you can find the diagram in book "Paper Crystals".

More of Morning Glory

This is a model I will never stop folding..

School festival

I'm studying Primary Pedagogy at University, and since in our career we will have to organize a lot of scholar festivals, our teachers decided we should start practicing by now.
So, on Christmas, we made a huge party at University, in which we sang, we recited poems and we had a lot of fun.


And of course, origami was there too. :)
First, we organized an exposition:








And we also folded a lot of water lilies that we gave as a gift:

Nothing else matters...

I don't post many things that are not related to paper on my blog, but this one deserves to be seen. :)
It's a "Nothing else matters" cover sang by a Romanian man at cimbalom. It sounds truly amazing.

Snowflakes

Designed by Dennis Walker, diagram here.





These are made out of cigars tinfoil:

Gaudeamus Book Market

On 29th of November I was invited at Adevarul Holding stall, during the Gaudeamus Book Market to expose my models.
There was music, joy, presents and a lot of people:







I had the chance to talk to people about origami and to teach a few kids how to fold:







These are the models I exposed ( with the specification that the white and purple model belongs to Cridiana :D )





And I also have to mention my friend Alexandra, who folded the water lilies and also showed a little girl how to fold them:




And last but not least, my friend Adelina came with me and helped me out with everything.
These she is, in one of the few photos I managed to take of her:

Layers

A member of the Romanian Origami Forum showed us this multi-layered Venus modules and I couldn't stop myself from trying it.
After I made it, I wondered what could I do with it or where should I put it. Then the idea of folding a box for it came to me.
When the box was ready, I thought I should decorate it.
And after all these, here's the result. :)

Boxes

JTI - 10 year anniversary

On 24th of July, we went to another event organized by JTI ( Japan Tabacco International ). It was their 10 year anniversary.
The event took place in Buftea, at the Stirbei Domain, a beautiful castle surrounded by a park and a huge lake.
We had to fold 215 eagles, that were given to people as presents.







Andrei also folded a big eagle, made out of paper measuring 70 X 70 cm. They choose eagle as a symbol of strength and intelligence:





We also gave a modular swan to Neil Coupland, General Manager of JTI Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia.




And some photos from the event:

Sobranie event

On 17th of June, another origami event took place in Bucharest. We were contacted by the PR company named Mercury 360, to work for JTI ( Japan Tabaco International ) and their product named Sobranie.
We had to fold 50 white roses and 50 black dragons:





The models were folded by me, Andrei and Horatiu, and Andrei went at the event. Here are some photos:

Origami on the sea

Last Sunday i went to have a walk on the cliff with my best friend. When I got there, I was surprised to see the marine military brass band of Japan singing along with the Romanian one.

Japan:



Romania:



Later on I found out that 3 japanese ships - JDS Kashima, JDS Shimayuki, and JDS Yuugiri - arrived in our harbour, as part of their long journey that started in Tokyo on 15 of april and will finish on 8th of september. There will be 16 stops in 14 countries, and Romania was one of them.
On the cliff, I met with Paco and Shrek, two of the Romanian Origami Forum members. We didn't plan any meeting, so we were all surprised to bump in each other. :)
Shrek had his pockets full of paper and since we had in front of us members of the nippon nation, we couldn't stop ourselves from folding. :D
We made 3 cranes and a 6 pieces kusudama that needed no glue:





We gave them as a gift to commandant Kuma Toriya:



The atmosphere on the Black Sea cliff was amazing, full of joy and filled with music and dance:

A japanese evening

On 11th of june 2009, at the japanese restaurant Yakimono, Bucharest, took place an event called "A japanese evening in contemporary context", in partnership with Moet & Chandon and organized by Marina Todoran from Urban Event.
Among other japanese customs, such as calligraphy or shamisen songs, our origami models were exposed.

Here are some photos:















Yumiko Matsumoto playing shamisen:







With mister Toshiki Sugino, General Manager Mitsubishi Corporation:



Japanese calligraphy:





Here is written origami :)

"Between the folds" in Romania

The 8th edition of Transilvania International Film Festival will house an impressive number of new events and surprises as part of the festival, between May 29 - June 7, in Cluj-Napoca.
One of them is the origami documentary called "Between the folds", a highly appreciated Green Fuse Film production, that has won many awards in the United States.
The film will be shown on the 30th and 31st of May, and the 2nd of June. To see the complete program, click here.

Our first origami exposition

On 9th of May, our first origami exposition opened. It takes place in Bucharest, at a beautiful tea house called "Sala de Lectura", inside the ACT Theater.
The exposition will be opened until 10th of june.

Mărţişor

Mărţişor is the traditional celebration of the beginning of the spring in Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria on 1 March. The day's name is the diminutive of March (in Romanian Martie), and thus means something like "little" or "dear March".
Nowadays, men offer women a talisman object also called Mărţişor, consisting of a jewel or a small decoration like a flower, an animal or a heart, tied to a red and white string.
However, giving a little nickel tied to a red and white string is an old custom and was originally designated for both men and women.
It was believed that the one who wears the red and white string will be powerful and healthy for the year to come.
The decoration is a symbol of the coming spring. A woman wears it pinned to her blouse on this day and up to two weeks after. Occasionally, women also give such gifts to men.
In some parts of Romania such as Moldova or Bucovina the symbol of spring was a gold or silver medal which was worn around the neck. After wearing the coin for twelve days, they bought sweet cheese with the medal, because it was believed that their faces would remain beautiful and white the entire year.

Love is in the air..

For me, love really is in the air. :)

Let it snow, let it snow...

I started folding this model because it looked alot like a snowball to me. The movie i learned it from is here.

And this is a bigger unit, in which my earrings fit just fine. :) I got the idea from this movie.

Butterfly

This is the Alexander Swallowtail by Michael Lafosse. Here is a movie that shows you how to make it.

Roses

These are all Kawasaki Rose Model. If you wanna learn how to make it, press here.

And two small ones.... :)

An origami project - Aclasta ballerina

At the begining of this month, I took part in an origami project, which was initiated by the Novartis company. They released on the pharmaceutical market a new product for the treatment of osteoporosis , named Aclasta.
We were contacted by Mihai Lupu, head of strategy for Unconventional Advertising Concept , who asked us to fold a few hundreds of ballet dancers. :)

We couldn't find a diagram for a ballerine, so Elsix, from Romanian Origami Forum, invented one who soon became the mascot of Aclasta product.

For making this project work and for managing to fold all the models, we received help from a few other members of the forum and friends, whom we thank a lot. :)

The project took place in Brasov, and the models were given to the visitors of the Novartis stand, along with other models that Elsix and I folded "live".

Furthermore, we were more than happy and excited to teach those who wanted to learn how to fold a model themselves.

Here are some photos:

That's us playing teachers :)

And here is Mihai Lupu and Elsix:

Curler

A beautiful and very simple model, made out of 12 units.
You can learn how to make it here.

Share with others

On the Origami Romania forum we lunched a campaigne in order to promote origami - Share with others! ( click here for more information )
The idea of this campaigne, started by four forum members ( Adina, Cridiana, Elsix and Horatiu ) is to give origami to people in an indirect way: by leaving the models in the bus, or banks, or postal offices, or in any public place that comes in our minds.
On the models we will write our forum address, or simply just write "origami", so the person who will find the paper will be able to find out more about it just by doing a Google search.
We decided to do this because we believe that origami is an art that deserves all the attention and should be better known in our country.
And just like the name of our campaigne says, beautiful things are meant to be shared with others.

Origami Peace Tree Romania 2008

This is a project that started in Russia in 2000 and each eddition is held by another country. This year the OPT host will be Romania.

Everyone is invited to participate in this beautiful event to enrich the Origami Garden with another tree. You can send up to 3 origami figures that will become part of the exposition.

For more information, press here.

These are the 3 models that i choosed to send:

1. A Morning Glory Kusudama variation:





2. A Venus Kusudama ( made out of recycled paper ) :




3. A Pluto Kusudama:

Origami brings us together

I've been in Bucharest these days and I've met some of the Origami Romania forum members.
I knew that people having a common hobby are likely to get along well, but I never imagined we could become such good friends. :)
What was suppose to be "the first meeting", soon became the second and the third one and I'm sure there are more to come.

So...here we are ( from right to left: Copilutz, Horatiu, Elsix, Adina )



Folding paper was, of course, part of our meeting:



And my favorite, a crane made out of a beer label, by Elsix. :)



And this is an extraordinary humming bird, a gift that I received from Horatiu. :D

Hedgehogs

These are two Venus kusudamas, with a small modification: tops are up!
They look like hedgehogs to me. :)