I have always loved Book Origami! They are the perfect gift for bookworms.
I have looked everywhere, trying to find instructions on how to reproduce one for myself. For a while, all I found where places that sell one for $50-100.
Finally! The wonders of Pinterest! I found instructions on how to recreate one of these gorgeous Book Origami. The first few ones I found, didn't appeal to me. I didn't want to have to sketch my design onto the book edge...my OCD on getting the prefect image transferred to the edge would prevent me from making the first mark since nothing will be perfect. However, if you are a sketcher, check out the instructions here:
Anyways, since it's my cup of tea, I kept searching...and finally, to start of 2017, I found instructions that appealed to me. This one allowed me to combine my love for my computer and my love for my books to create a gorgeous Book Origami. You can check out instructions here:
To summarize, in brief, it's very very easy to prepare, just requires time and tedious focus on details.
1. Create your black and white design, keep in simple
2. Select a book, note the number of pages in the selected book
3. In Excel, number your columns, using odd numbers, to represent each leaf of the book
4. Embed your image onto the Excel file and stretch the image to cover the span of each column representing each leaf in the page
5. Print your excel file
6. Line up each leaf to the line on the print out and start folding off the white space
The best things about this technique is that:
- You don't need to sketch onto the edge of the page
- Your design can be more intricate
- You won't lose your place in the folding, just line up your leaf to the corresponding line on your print out
To celebrate the new year and to bid my bestfriend a bon voyage back to her home on the other side of the country, I created my very first Book Origami for her and her family.
Happy New Year everyone!
(I also unpacked my embroidery/sewing machine to create a book cover, to cover up the cover of a discarded book that I decided to use for this present, since no book lover would be able to fold up one of their favourites, that will most likely be read again and again!)
