The Origami Forum

Hello everyone!

There's this woman that I really like and I started practicing origami to give her a gift. We work at the same place for three more weeks and I probably won't be seeing her much afterwards, so it's kind of a farewell present I guess. I want to give her something beautiful. I was thinking of a flower in a box she can open. I've done a kawasaki rose and it looks ok, but since I still have time I am willing to try something tougher and better looking. Maybe buy some good looking paper too.

Do you have any good ideas of what I should make? Tell me! Not just limited to flowers.
Also, have you given origami as gifts? Bad experiences? Good experiences?

Might not be appropriate but Last Waltz is quite nice. you can find video instructions over at http://www.happyfolding.com

Make your own tissue foil and it can look quite amazing. Hallmark sells a combo pack of tissue paper that is silver and white with a silver floral print that looks great.

A flower in a box would be fine, I think.

Something tougher isn't necessarily better, because the final model is all that anyone sees and the amount of work that you put into it may not be evident.
I know that roses can look boring to some degree, but if you choose the right paper and really take your time with one, especially with the finishing touches to make it look much more natural, then it can look much better than usual.

With the box, too, you could fold a masu instead of the traditional box.

Or if there's something that she's interested in, you could fold a model that's relevant. Or perhaps connected to where you work, if possible.

Why not make the flower the box itself? This way it could be used to store stuff while not hiding the flower away. You could always make her a modular model since those are always impressive. Valerie Vann's rose cube comes to mind.

I find that somewhat stylised animals which are easily recognisable and well posed make good gifts, e.g. Roman Diaz' Vixen or Cat, Nicolas Terry's Chien or Quentin Trollip's Basset Hound (diagram is available on his webstie).