Fir Tree (Francesco Guarnieri): Instructions

Folder: 
Adams, Sara
Difficulty Level: 
Low intermediate
Model type: 
Christmas
Flowers & Plants
Paper ratio: 
Octagon

Christmas Origami Instructions: Fir Tree (Francesco Guarnieri)

Paper used in this video: two 15cm (6in) squares, one 12cm (4 3/4in) square, one 9.5cm (3 3/4in) square, one 7.5cm (3in) square, green and brown kami (standard origami paper)
Finished model: 10cm (4in) high, 10cm (4in) diameter

Isn't this the perfect video to post just before Christmas time? :)

Comments

Nice!! Thank you for your very timely response in doing this video.

I want to thank you for including the crease pattern in the video as this provides me a way to begin to study how crease patterns work. I am looking forward to making a waxed paper model of the fir tree. Again, thank you.

Hi Sara
Yet a video living up to the high expectations we have to your work.
And I will be folding this for Xmas, probably at our next folding meeting end November.

In your cutting off: Usually I find it difficult to hit these angular edge crossings precisely with ruler and pen or cutting knife. Instead, I recommend this: When you have aligned the diagonal and bookfolds on top of each other, and have the four corners sticking out over the edges, you just fold the corners around the edges (thin paper) or back along the edges (thicker paper), and simply cut off using a good paper knife. I have an old table knife with a smooth blade I use for this.

Best regards,
Hans

Danke shoen fur dieses video! Ich hatte viel spass!
Als ich dieses Model(CP) sah, hatte ich einen Wunsch dass Sara Adams ein gutes Video dafur macht. Und jetzt bin ich total zufrieden. Danke!

When pushing together completly the "chevron" (strangely shaped structure I think you say) I am not seeing the crease referred to at 16:18 in the video and can not complete the final fold. Where in folding would I have created the crease referred to at 16:18? Struggling here. :-( Otherwise it went beautifully. Thank you.

I found the err of my (folding) ways. Just a heads up...for anyone who like I did...folded the 2nd to last triangle along the wider angle nearby...maybe I am up to late (origami does that to me).
This fault will not allow correct folding of the final step...correct that...Voila!!

A beautiful model, and a nicely detailed instructions. I rarely fold from videos, but your videos make diagrams and crease patters much easier to understand, at least for me.

Thanks again!

Hallo Sara,
vielen Dank für eine neues wunderbares Video.
Deine Videos sind eine Bereicherung für mich. So viele Jahre falte ich alleine vor mich hin und jetzt lerne ich bei dir so viel Neues.
Eva

I decided to fold this model from the crease pattern and I thought I would add a few suggestions that (can) speed up the model a bit since there is quite a bit of repetition.

Some of these require some experience to manage well, and others are less precise, but this model does not suffer much from a little error. The reason some experience is necessary is because these methods do not ensure that folds are in the correct direction, only that the precreases are in place.

First of all, to cut my octagons I fold corner to corner, then I fold the other two corners together, then I fold each of those corners to the first pair of corners (I do this separately, one on each side to reduce paper creep), then I fold each of the four layers along the angle bisector from the center of the paper. In fact, every fold after the first is the angle bisector. This creates all of the creases made by folding the octagon in half and, while folded, leaves all four corners pointing in the same direction. Now it is trivial to simply cut them off along the edge of the other layers and quickly get your octagon.

Then I unfold to the point that I have the octagon folded in half and I make all of the halfway mark creases through two layers at a time, going around the folded model. This reduces the number of steps from 8 to 5. I make the second, inset, octagonal creases the same way. This takes 4 steps instead of 8.

Most of the rest is the same, although for larger sizes I will fold more than two layers at a time. I also don't bother to precrease the last angle bisectors because it is not too difficult to make that fold after the collapse.

All that cuts out a fair bit of time for me, hopefully it helps someone else, too.

I would like to try this with some sixth graders but you kind of lost me...any chance you could make a Youtube video of you doing this and post it privately?

Very nice one. Thx a really nice touch to incoming Christmas. So, i would like to ask too for more Christmas foldings. :)
Thx again :)

hi Sara thanx so much the instruction!!!
i folded this model with normal paper but i need your advice...to fold a more natural like tree which paper do u recommend?

thanx 4 your help

My first test I did with printer paper (just one layer of branches, actually). Then I folded the display model from kami. So I haven't really tried experimenting with different types of paper for this model yet.

However, I did see that there is a lot of stress on the tip of the branch layers. For me a bit of white shows, so I'd recommend using paper that is colored throughout.
Thinking about it, Tant would probably give you a beautiful finish.

Hope this helps a bit,

-- Sara

I just found your wonderful site and am so excited to share this with my 10 year old daughter...she adores origami and watches instructional videos on youtube almost everyday...she will truly love your site! thank you so much!!

A brilliant video and I shall be watching loads more of your videos in the near future. I've been looking for a good origami website that isn't really basic for ages, and love your site. Good Job!!! =D

Hi Sara!
Firstly, thank you for making all these great tutorials - they are always very clear and easy to follow. I thought you'd like to know that I made a large version of this model as a table-top Christmas tree. I used the measurements given and increased them proportionally to get a 46cm high tree! You can see it on my blog here - http://brambleandbur...
Of course I did need very large paper but it was definitely worth it! Thanks once again for demonstrating it.

Hi sara just love your Christmas Tree i would like to make a bigger one say 12inch what would be the size of each piece of paper please thankyou.Margaret

You want to have a tree that is 3 times as high as the one I folded. So multiply the paper sizes by 3, which gives you:

two 18in squares (one green, one brown),
one 14.25in square,
one 11.25in square,
one 9in square

Alternatively (or additionally) you can also fold more layers to produce a higher tree. :)

-- Sara

Hi sara thanks for the bigger sizes for the tree.

I would say it is very creative by all art and craft standards. I was so surprised looking at the finishing of that very Christmas tree. It is very mesmerizing indeed. Thanks a lot for the visuals. Keep sharing more of it.

wow!...it is very beautiful indeed!...but very time consuming... :)

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