Friday, July 29, 2011

Fancy Origami Chocolate Bowl for Creativity Expo Challenge


Recently I came across this Creativity Expo Challenge organised by Wholeport- A craft supply company.
This is my creation for this challenge.
Description of Creation: A lovely fancy Origami Chocolate bowl/Centerpiece was made by strengthening the origami paper with heavy card stock in between and red metallic paper on top. The result is a fancy and sturdy bowl that can be used to serve chocolate at home or office or at birthday parties. This creation tells how you can impart the desired strength into Washi (A particular kind of Origami paper) with composite construction technique. I am always fascinated by the vibrant color and design of Washi paper.Of the four sample papers they sent I liked this the most. I guess this paper with Red and golden colors is perfect for holding golden and red Hershey's chocolate.As red and golden is always associated with festivity and happiness, I thought this would be perfect.


Name : Nimisha Singh
Title of Creation: Fancy Origami Chocolate Bowl /centerpiece
Supply: #9 Origami Paper

I need your help to win this contest. The rules say that the entry with maximum likes and comments is going to win.
If you like this creation of mine,Please go to this Wholeport's facebook page by clicking here
and in the Creativity expo photo Album like my creation and leave a comment.
Thanks for your support.

Note : If you are on facebook you can click on the photo of this Origami Bowl at our facebook page Navanka Creations it will take you to the post at Wholeport.
You might have to like Wholeport's fb page to leave a comment. (Technicalities of how fb page works, sorry can't help it.)

Origami Boat made in Craft Class- Teaching kids Maths through Art


These lovely colorful boats are made by students of my craft class.
We have been experimenting with Origami since long. My love for Origami increased during my visit to Tokyo a while back. It seems to me that Japan is the heaven for craft enthusiasts.
Every nook and corner is so beautiful. Whether is a restaurant, hotel or workplace, you are bound to find something creative.
I still remember the lovely pair of origami peace crane on the table in the hotel I stayed.
They were just perfect. I knew origami that time but it’s been a while I practiced that. I guess after that I made it a point to practice anything in Origami that I liked a lot.

It was a pleasure to introduce Origami to my students. We started with fundamentals of Origami.
Things learnt in Origami Classes
- Meaning of Origami
- Brief history of Origami
- Types of Origami Paper
- Basic Origami Techniques
- Basic Tools
- Modular Origami
- Beginner level Origami creations like Paper Cups for Snacks, Paper Fan,
Paper Butterfly, Paper Airplanes, Paper Boats, Paper Box with lid,
Paper Basket.
- Basic Geometry concepts - Revision of geometry parents!!

Best part of Origami is that you do not need to have a lot of supplies to make something. All you need is a piece of paper. It can be an old magazine paper. It is one of the best ways to recycle. There are amazingly simple and amazingly complex things you can make. Here is a link of some amazing videos for those who need inspiration.

Origami Artist Robert J.Lang- An American Physicist and Origami Artist is one of those who has made this wonderful and old art of folding paper appealing to this generation as well by showing the reach of Origami.

Amazingly inspiring video by Robert Lang on Origami Idea+ Square=Origami

Little more on Origami
3D Swan Origami
Big 3D Origami
Travel to Oriland
Quick Guide to Origami via Internet

Note to All Parents: Encourage your kids to learn crafts, they learn many more things from Crafts than you can imagine. It is definitely not just recreational; it is educational in a fun way.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Paper Quilling Flower and Butterfly Note card








I always knew that sharing your skills is a good idea and but didn’t know that it will be so much fun and at the same time will give such creative satisfaction.
This beautiful Paper Quilling note card was created by one of my students - A very talented, soon to be 9 years old girl. She is full of enthusiasm and very eager to learn new concepts and techniques. She made this during her first quilling class.

What amazed me was the ease with which she grasped use of quilling tool, the neatness in her work, considering it was the first time she was quilling. I am sure it came from the efforts she and her mom would have put in doing various kinds of crafts earlier. We believe that if you are good at one craft, it does give you an advantage in learning other kinds of craft. I guess it is something like if you are good in one sport chances are you will do well in others as well.


It gives me immense pleasure to share her creation here. In this class she learnt

- History of quilling
- Tools used for quilling
- Basic quilling shapes : tight coil, loose coil, tear drop shape, scroll
- Different kinds of paper strips used for quilling
- Quilling with multiple colors
- Concept of contrasting colors
- Using Martha Stewart Border Punch

She was very excited throughout the process. Hope she continues to learn this wonderful art and many other beautiful and challenging crafts.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Personalised Frame Art and Tissue Paper Flowers


This summer creativity is in air. The summer craft classes are in full swing and I am glad I have such curious and amazing students.

The age range is 6 to 9 yrs and it is a great pleasure to share their lovely creations with all of you.

The above frame art was created by a brother and sister for their father.
The process of creating personaliazed pieces of art is very interesting.
For the same person, different people have different views. Like in this case for their Dad the kids have different opinions. They have different best memories with him.
At such a tender age they do have an opinion and know how to express it. One wants to call their father Dad and one Papa. The boy's memory of the best time he and his father spent together was when he played Cricket with him and the daughter's was when she went to Washington DC with him and she also said she loves it whenever they go outside together.

The picture frame project was designed to capture these special moments. Whenever they will look at the frame it will remind them about the wonderful time they spent together as well as the thought behind the project. Later they put their favorite picture with their father in the frame.

The best thing about the discussion was, it made them super excited about the project. Apart from learning expressing one's thoughts and feelings using craft projects, they learnt about template design, use of templates to cut various shapes,cutting intricate shapes using scissors, different kinds of glues, working with wood, working with self sticking foam and felt. The kids later told their Dad/Papa loved it.





During one of their classes they made tissue paper flowers. They made Fringed double color tissue paper flower and pleated multi-color paper flowers. They came out real well considering they made tissue paper flowers for the first time. Definitely this time the girl liked it more than the boy but I must say that the boy also tries his level best to attempt and enjoy all kinds of crafting challenges. As a teacher it is very fulfilling to see the students enjoy what they do.I wish them all the very best and many more hours of crafting fun.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Quilled number 25 for Silver Anniversary Gift

One of my friends, will be celebrating 25 years of her marriage this month. She is an artist herself and has been very encouraging always. I wanted to gift her something special and handmade for this occasion and the idea of quilling the number 25 in silver and white seemed perfect. I used metallic silver and white quilling strips from Quilled Creations . I also added some red hearts to introduce the color of love. The finished project measures about 8" x 6"  and is framed in a black shadow box.

Here are few more pictures of the project.


As with most of the quilling projects, this looks much prettier in person.



I hope both of them like the gift. Wishing them many more years of togetherness and love.

Happy Anniversary Ami and Jon!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Paper Quilling Flowers

Summer vacations are on here in US. Its amazing how busy parents get when kids are not going to school. It becomes a big task to keep them engaged and not listen to " I am getting bored " all the time ( so I hear from other parents..mine is still on two syllable words). Luckily when kids are interested in crafts its not that uphill a task :).

I have a new student and I must say for a 10 year old she is really is quick at learning. I enjoyed teaching her and was surprised how fast she picked up the techniques. She has little background in quilling so its not totally new to her. She saw one of the cards I made with husking flower and wanted to make one. Here is what she made on her first attempt.


Our second class was all about fringed flowers. We made variations of the fringed flowers and then arranged them to make a card. It was a fun project and now she has a sample of each to practice later at home.



You can see our tutorial for fringed flowers here.

It is so fulfilling to see your student understand and enjoy what's being taught. We are going to attempt making a butterfly in our next class. With summer at its best in Seattle, it seems to be just the perfect project to try.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Paper Quilled Theme Photo Frames for Kids



Like most of my creations, this one was inspired for two kids who happen to be my kiddo's closest and best friends. It just so happened that while thinking about some new product ideas for our online etsy shop (which I call product development) it dawned on me what to create if it were to gift to both of them. Luckily I didn't have to think much. I had a helper, my 3 yr old daughter helped me out.
She immediately told Fire Truck and balloons for Aarav and Air plane or Space ship for Arhunth. What followed was cute little photo frames with paper quilling embellishments of their choice.

It is so interesting to watch kids interpretate your creation. I was happy that Aarav could really see the fire truck in those paper quilled strips. And yes, what I thought was balloons were actually lollipops for him. Thankfully those are his favorites too. I learnt my lesson, look for a better way to make balloons :-)
This is what Aarav got for his birthday.



Now it was Arhunth's turn to get something personalised. He loves airplanes of any kinds. My daughter Anoushka had recently learnt about space shuttle so that was her obvious choice. This is what Arhunth got as a keepsake gift, a picture frame with paper quilled space shuttle and paper quilled alphabet A. This time I got full marks as he was able to identify the space shuttle as well as the alphabet A.


Both kids loved it, as well as their moms. Anoushka loved giving it to them.