Customer Reviews

Origami Flowers: Popular Blossoms and Creative Bouquets

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a long-time origami fan, though my skills are only intermediate. I had no problem with any of the diagrams in this book, but I would guess that it might be a bit intimidating to a beginner. The absolute beginner who is not familiar with origami diagrams might want to start with a "easy origami" book first which shows the standard fold symbols with step by step instructions. Still, the standard folding symbols are not hard to learn, and there are no complex folds in this book, so a beginner could probably figure it out from this book with some patience. It could use a bit more detail on assembling the flowers. There are lots of good closeup pictures of the finished flowers, and you can figure it out from those, but a walk through on the first flower of how it is done would have been nice.

The flowers are very detailed and nice looking when completed, and they are diagrammed clearly. I found no errors in the diagrams.

After finding the author's website where she displays dozens of pictures of amazing and beautiful floral arrangements from flowers in the book, I just had to buy it. I am very new to origami so I was pleasantly surprised to find I can create the majority of the flowers. With practice I think I can create all of them eventually. The tulips are quite easy and the carnations are easy and very lifelike. The Gerbera, Cosmos and a few others are a little more difficult as they require small folds with thick paper towards the end. The large majority of flowers require you to precut squares into pentagons, hexagons, or the 16 sided ones but detailed how to instructions are provided in the book. The roses, stock, cornflower and several other require more than 1 sheet of paper for the blossom. Most of the diagrams are pretty straight-forwarded. I've only been baffled by a few, but eventually worked it out. Templates are provided for the leaves. I would have liked to see more detailed instructions with gluing the calyx's on to the flowers, taping the wire and adding the leaves. A nice set of beautiful color photos are included in the beginning with close-ups which helps a lot with folding and assembling the flowers. All in all this book has definitely been worth my time and money.

If you are fairly skilled at paper folding, then you'll probably enjoy the problem solving this book presents. The full color pictures at the beginning of the book are beautiful and detailed (which often helps when trying to figure out what the end product should look like).

However, This book is not for beginners. Page 33 may have definitions of Origami Symbols, but the page by page instructions are incomplete.

For example, the Dahlia on page 77. There are a couple missing steps between 10 and 11. To find the shape you want, the best example I can direct you to is the page 33 directions, row 4 where it says "Push inside and flatten." That's basically what you are doing to acheive the shape in step number 11.

Also, the page 34 "Basic Hexagon" instructions haven't worked very well for me. I went on line to a German origami site and found better instructions... even though I don't speak German.

All in all I am enjoying the book, and am not disappointed that I purchased it. It just gets frustrating on occasion, and I'm glad that I know enough about paper folding to be able to figure these things out.

I did not have much experience with paper folding, so the designs in this book are quite a challenge. Most diagrams are easy to figure out but there are several which had steps missing from them, but in general they are easy to understand, though by no means easy to fold, since this book seems like its targeted at the more experienced people intersted in origami. Of the designs that I managed to make, they did come out exactly as they looked in the book, and the unique concept of using not square pieces of paper but pentagons, hexagons and octagons, is really an eye opener.

I've been several years of origami experience, and it is quite a pleasant surprise to come across this book. The beautiful photos of life-like flowers caught my eye, and I was truly stunned when I saw how real they look. I can make the flowers. Flowers like the rose, primrose, tulip, etc., are quite easy. I ended up with flowers looking exactly like the ones in the picture. Some of the instructions may be a little complicated, but with patience and some skill, soon I figured them out. For example, the gerbera daisy, sunflower, etc., required many folds and may look difficult, but really, they're not. I succeeded in making them on the first try. Of course, before I make flowers, I need to cut the paper into differente shapes, which is no problem because it says clearly in the instructions. Assembling the flowers is no problem either, you juost stick a wire through the petals, glue, and arrange the flower according to the pictures in the book. In conclusion, this book is very good. It is not for a true beginner (unless you want a challenge), so it's best if you've got some origami expericence. This book is worth the price, because you will be rewarded with many pretty flowers.

It is refreshing to look at the reviews and find that others have had the same frustrations with this book as I have. Yes, I agree the color photographs are absolutely beautiful and inspiring. They sure suck you in and are a powerful tool to entice you into buying the book. The artist is wonderfully creative with her use of the pentagon, hexigon and out-of-the-mainstreem starting shapes which makes this book so unique.

It is definitely NOT for the beginner. The first flower I tried was the pansy. I have been a paper sculptress for years. I love origami, tea bag folding and just about anything having to do with paper. I had to seek the help of my Mensa member father in order to get this one right! I was ready to hold a book burning party and roast marshmallows over this one!

If you do not use a thin enough paper you will have problems with some of the folding. Some areas get folded so many times that the piece becomes almost too thick to fold and I was using plain old printer paper.

If you love a challenge, go for it! I certainly do not regret buying this book and I still pick it up from time to time just to see if my mind is more open to the techniques it presents. Hats off to those who found the instructions "easy to follow." I certainly was not one of them. If you need a reason to slit your wrists I highly recommend this book (hehehehehe - just kidding). Good luck!

This book has a beautiful assembly of flowers and arrangements. However, this is not just paper folding. You will need an assortment of other supplies to complete the projects. Most of them are easy to find in your local craft store.

This is a great book...very easy to follow. I have made all the flowers in the book and my friends are simply amazed at all my new "decor". Selecting the right paper, I was able to fool
some people into thinking these were real or silk. This book is worth every penny and you wont believe how easy the folds are. The time consuming part is putting it all together (stem and leaves)...but definitely fun and astonishing.

The featured flowers are beautiful, but be forwarned: the process involves much more beyond folding. Scissors, glue... that's a given in almost all the patterns. For some, that's not pure origami, more paper craft. In addition, there are a few missing steps in some of the instructions. In fact, for 2 of the flowers, there seems to be chunks of instructions missing. Other than that, the usual project takes about 30-40 minutes for an intermediate paper crafter.

I've made one flower arrangement for a girl's birthday at work; and since then all the girls at the office want one too. So I've made about 16 different flower arrangement, and I have to make about 16 more. Please, if you want to purchase this book, you have to first learn how to say... No.

It is a wonderful book, along with "Blooming Origami" by Fumio Inoue. Yet please note, in both books you cut, glue, and paste. They are not books on how to make an origami flower from a single square of paper by folding only.

I read here someone mentioned it is a hard book to handle. So I bought it thinking to use it more of an inspiration. But when I got it, I discovered the foldings are mostly not so hard (though I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner).