How to Make Origami Jewelry

I have enjoyed making origami paper models since I was ten years old and our art teacher demonstrated how to make an origami flapping bird.

I enjoyed origami so much that I purchased several books on the subject and learned how make more animals over the years. There are many popular models, including paper cranes (popular in part due to the legend surrounding them) and frogs are particularly popular, but there are other models that are complicated and positively beautiful as well.

I recommend using paper cranes, frogs, or stars as illustrated by the videos below. These three are the best for making small models that will work well for jewelry.

Origami paper comes in such a wide variety of options that it can seem intimidating at first. To begin with, you may wish to cut small squares of paper from printer paper or other heavier paper. Especially when working with very small models, you may find it difficult not to tear the lighter origami paper at first. Practice will help you to get it right, and it is best not to waste your origami paper (which can be quite expensive, depending on the brand and the source).

Your personal choice of papers will vary depending on the style of the jewelery you are making. If you are going to be using no beads at all, or simple clear glass seed beads, you may wish to work with an extravagantly patterned paper. This will give you quite a flashy and attractive oriental look. On the other hand, if you are choosing to use colored beads, you may wish to opt for a simpler paper in a single color. Most of my origami jewelry so far has been white!

You can purchase origami paper from Amazon (above) or do a web search for your materials. There are many wonderful options available to you!

You may or may not wish to use seed beads for your origami jewelry. In particular, both necklaces and earrings will benefit from beads (hair clips obviously less so). I like to use glass seed beads when I make origami earrings (my favorite type of jewelry to make). They not only help to hide the head pin that I use to thread the model onto, but they add some sparkle and flash to the earrings, as well as some length. I have given several of these as gifts and friends and family have always loved them.

The choice of the type of beads to use is entirely up to you, of course. I have listed some above that can be purchased easily from Amazon.

You may wish to choose beads that coordinate with the color of your origami model. I have included a color wheel below so that you can choose contrasting or coordinating colors for your jewelry. This will help to make your jewelry more aesthetically pleasing.

You can use your lacquered origami model in place of beads in almost any kind of jewelry, provided that you make allowances for the size and shape of the bead. I haven't done a lot of experimentation with using origami models as anything but charms, but using the principles for the earrings, you can use origami models as charms in almost any situation where a charm is appropriate!