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Dedicated to the accurate portrayal of botanicals through paper.

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You will need the book(s)

"Origami Bonsai," "Advanced Origami Bonsai," and/or 

"Origami Bonsai Accessories"

 to completely understand many of these tips and tricks.
Avoiding Paper Curl
While painting allows us to create just about any color we can imagine, the paper often curls as it dries.  This is quite frustrating.  You can avoid much of this by painting one coat of paint on the opposite side while the primary side is still damp.  You only need to paint one coat to avoid most paper curling.
Makigami Embellishments

You can add small Makigami strips to the center of your flowers to represent stamen (the long shafts that protrude from the center of real flowers).  I made these with a lot of taper and a slight curve.  They were molded on a two inch diameter cylinder.  

How to make Makigami Mushrooms

 

Start by making a Makigami stem out of a piece of newspaper as depicted above.  The stem will be very thick at one end, become thin quickly, and stay thin for most of its length. 

 

While the stem is still moist, coil it onto itself starting with the thickest end.  Knead the resultant disc a bit and then tuck the narrow tip at the outside of the disc underneath when setting it down to dry.  Once its dry, glue a thick stem to the bottom and then paint it.

 

To learn how to make Makigami you'll need "Advanced Origami Bonsai" available here on the home page.
Origami Bonsai for any Vase
You can make an origami bonsai that will fit in any size vase by adding a makigami "taproot" to the bottom of the sculpture.  Then you can glue fiddleheads or other sculptures to the taproot to create an arrangement.

Fill a vase with edamame (soybeans) and insert the bonsai.

Making Berries
You can use an origami water bomb to represent oranges, lemons or any other fruit.  To make berries, paint and then fold tiny squares of paper.

Don't know the water bomb folding pattern?  Click Here
Sell on Etsy!
You can sell your origami bonsai sculptures on Etsy.  When visitors click the "Buy a Sculpture" option at left they are taken to an Etsy search that looks for origami bonsai sculptures.  Just make sure you put "origami" and "bonsai" in your key words when you list an item on Etsy.

It costs only 20 cents to list an item on Etsy for four months.  The typical origami bonsai receives over 100 views over this period, so if you want to sell one of your creations, Etsy is kind of a "no-brainer."  When you add an item to Etsy, make sure you include the words "origami" and "bonsai" in the keywords section.  This will allow Etsy to list your sculptures when perspective customers click "Buy a Sculpture" at left and when they click advertisements in Origami Bonsai Electronic Magazine..  If your item is made entirly from Makigami, include the keywords "makigami" and "accessory" to obtain the same benefits from magazine ads.

Click Here to Sell on Etsy
Thorns!
I recently made an Origami Bonsai chess set.  The kings and queens of the sets were very similar, and I wanted something to differentiate them.  I added thorns to the queens by using discarded trimmings of branchlets to their stems. 

The picture above is of both queens in the chess set.  The thorns are painted yellow on each of the queens.
Makigami Paper Bonsai Planters
You can create marvelous dishes in which to "plant" your Origami Bonsai creations.  Roll some thick makigami stems and mold them around a large diameter tube.  Also roll some unmolded, straight makigami stems.  Use the straight stems as legs, and the curved ones for the surface of the planter.

Use hot melt glue to assemble the curved makigami stems onto the "legs."  Then apply a coat of wood glue and paint.  You can also experiment with stems that are tapered on both ends for a different look (not shown).

Large Variations in Leaf Size
I was doing an Origami Bonsai demonstration some months ago and asked the audience why I vary the leaf size.  One respondant suggested that it makes my work look more natural.  While both my books discuss varying leaf size from the perspective of depth enhancement, this participant made a really good suggestion that i fnally a time to try the other day.

The plant pictured above is a hybrid combination of an ice plant, a cactus, and a christmas cactus.  A typical ice plant has vastly varrying leaf sizes, so I made made squares that greatly differed in size.  The resultant sculpture is quite interesting.  The large variations in leaf size add a lifelike component to the work.

Large variations in leaf size can be combined with depth enhancement too.  To combine these features, assemble your sculpture with the smaller leaves tending to be rear-most and larger leaves tending to be front-most.