One of my friends has  asked me if I could make some origami roses for her daughters birthday party, I guess because she thinks that with all my drawing and crafting it would be peace of cake for me to do that.

She is actually quite wrong. I am not at all handy with these delicate paper things, my fingers are way too big and clumsy.
But for a friend like her I simply had to try.

I found some books at the library, and the design for folding the paper rose looked rather difficult, so I thought I’d better start using cheap white paper for learning.

But after all it wasn’t that difficult, although the paper was too thick. Even the origami pager I finally used for the rose you can see above was too thick, because this folding is so complex.
I used paper 80 gsm (grams per square meter), almost the same as printer paper, but for the next roses for the birthday I will buy some thinner paper, 60 gsm or even lighter, if I can find it big enough.
I tried, and I learned, and actually I could make one acceptable rose it the first try, so I think it’s safe to say that it is not that difficult after all.
And – if I can do it, I’m sure most people can do it!

You start with a quadratic origami paper, size 25 x 25 cm (approx. 10 x 10 inches)  if you are used to origami folding, 30 x 30 cm (approx. 12 x 12 inches) if you are a beginner like me.

1. Fold the paper in the two diagonals. Then fold the four corners into the middle.

  

2. For the second time fold the corners into the middle.

  

3. And surprise – now for the third time fold the corners into the middle.

Now the folding is becoming more difficult, especially if the paper is not thin enough.
This picture may look the same as above, but actually the corners have been folded, as you maybe can see if you notice the fold lines.

4. Each apex folds back. Difficult to explain, you will have to look at the picture. The apex should reach the edge of the folded paper, although it on the picture looks as if the apex goes further.

5. Now fold the paper in the two lines I have marked on the picture below. Don’t make the marking, it is just to show where to fold.

Keep the paper in one of the shapes.

             

6. I hope you haven’t given up yet. I know it looks difficult, but actually it’s not that bad.

That said, now we come to the more complex part of making this artificial rose.

You have to kind of “open up” first the right part of the folded paper, then press with your finger to make it flat and go to the front of the paper.
As you can see on the photo, I end up with a folded paper that is slightly dented, but I still managed to make the rose – so go for it!

 

 

7. This is maybe where you should take a break and take a cup of tea or coffee 🙂

If you like, you can spend a couple of minutes to look at the pages on my website with roses, rose pictures and rose clip art.

8.  Now you kind of “open up” again, this time where the arrow goes, and then fold up the layer on top of that.

   

8.a. But – if you find it as difficult to do this as I did, you can “cheat” a bit. Let go of the paper, the do the folding, and put it back as it was before in your hand.
Now you can start to see that it actually will become a rose.

9. Fold the next leaves, as you can see on the picture below to the left, and the rose head is finished.

   

10. All there is left now is to fasten the four parts of the rose you are holding, and maybe add some leaves.
I used pink tape to fasten the rose, and have bought a lot of textile leaves as I am going to make a lot of these artificial roses, but you could combine the origami rose with the origami leaves you can find here on this blog.

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