3d Origami Doll

3d origami, or golden venture folding, is a form of modular origami. Unlike traditional origami, folding one sheet of paper into a 3d design, 3d origami takes hundreds of small sheets of paper, folding them into similar triangular pieces that you slot together to make the sculpture. With enough triangles, and some patience, you can make almost anything you want using 3d origami.

This form of origami reminds me of Legos, which I really loved growing up. I think that's why it stuck so well. I enjoy making dolls like this, sometimes basing them off of a person I know. In a way, I feel I'm able to preserve a moment or memory, by incorporating those emotions into the piece I design. Sounds cheesy, doesn't it? Regardless, this doll was made off a spur of the moment idea. Purple can represent nobility and sophistication, as purple dye was expensive, reserved only for those nobles who could afford it. Likewise, I went with a more noble style.

Feel free to change out colors through this guide, to make a doll more like how you want. For someone Doing this for the first time, I'd recommend against using all the colors I did, and doing a more monochromatic dress. I've been doing these for a while, and just happened to have a lot of purple, so i tried things out. Be prepared, as prepping the materials can be a pain, but if you're willing to sit through it, you'll end up with a timeless, memorable art piece, made completely of paper. Remember to glue every individual piece as you stack them together though, just to really reinforce it.

Scissors

Glue Gun

10 sheets of A4 ivory paper (for the skin)

20 sheets of A4 dark purple paper (this is the main color of the dress. I subbed some of these out, using 10 sheets of dark purple, with 5 sheets of white, and 5 sheets of a different purple)

10 sheets of A4 light purple paper (sub color of the dress)

10 sheets of A4 dark blue paper (for the hair. You can switch this for any hair color you want.

Elmers glue

Everything about 3d origami relies on one thing: the triangle piece. To make it, you take on of your sheets of paper, and fold it in half 3 times portrait. Unfold that, then fold it in half 2 times landscape. Basically, you're folding the paper to make 32 individual rectangles. You then cut those out, and fold them as followed in the images. You will have to do this for each sheet of paper. This is what I meant by prepping can be a pain. 10 sheets of paper make you 320 pieces. By the end, you'll get 320 ivory, 320 light purple, 320 dark blue, and 640 dark purple pieces.

First things first. If you got to this step, give yourself a pat on the back. That was probably a lot and deterred a lot of people. You must have been very determined, or very bored. Now comes making the head. You'll only need

Here's an organized list of how the rows should be made.

Row 1: 6 pieces

Row 2: 6 pieces

row 3: 12 pieces

row 4: 12 pieces

row 5-10: 18 pieces

To increase a row, you place a piece in between 2 pieces in the previous row, which adds one more piece to the next row. This'll be important, as you'll have to expand rows a lot for things like these. Try to memorize patterns.

List of instructions for the hair

row 1: 6 pieces

row 2: 6 pieces

row 3: 12 pieces

row 4: 12 pieces

row 5: 24 pieces

row 6: 24 pieces

row 7: 23 pieces

row 8: 23 pieces

row 9: 22 pieces

row 10: 15 pieces

row 11: 15 pieces

row 12: 15 pieces

hair bun:

row 1: 4 pieces

row 2: 4 pieces

row 3: 8 pieces

row 4: 8 pieces

row 5: 16 pieces

row 6: 16 pieces

You'll be using the dark blue, or whatever hair color you chose for this. Now, the first part of the hair gets a little tricky, as I'm not sure how well pictures can explain it. Some of the pictures show it, but basically, in row 7, you're going to leave a one-piece gap. for row 8, you're going to start from the left side of the gap, placing pieces around as normal, until you get back to the gap. the 23rd piece goes over the piece in row 7, and one of the pieces in row 6, left exposed from the gap. the 9th row, you're just placing 22 pieces like normal. For the 10th row, you will start from the right side, once again putting a piece over one of the ones in the previous row, and one of the pieces in the row lower than previous that was left exposed. You'll then continue until you add 15 pieces. and do that again for the last 2 rows.

row 1-4: 6 pieces (ivory)

row 5: 6 inverted pieces (ivory)

row 6: 6 pieces (ivory)

row 7: 12 pieces (6 ivory, 6 dark purple)

row 8: 12 pieces (5 ivory, 7 dark purple)

row 9: 24 pieces (8 ivory, 16 dark purple)

row 10: 24 pieces (7 light purple, 17 dark purple)

row 11: 24 pieces (6 light purple, 18 dark purple)

row 12: 24 pieces (5 light purple, 19 dark purple)

row 13: 24 pieces (6 light purple, 18 dark purple)

row 14: 16 pieces (4 light purple, 12 dark purple)

row 15: 16 pieces (3 light purple, 9 dark purple)

row 16: 16 inverted pieces (4 light purple, 12 dark purple)

row 17: 11 inverted pieces (3 light purple, 8 dark purple)

row 18: 11 inverted pieces (2 light purple, 9 dark purple)

There are multiple things to keep track of here. Inverting a piece just means putting it on backwards, as shown in one of the pictures. In row 17, the light purple piece in the middle is put on normally, while everything else is being decreased. To decrease, you're putting a piece one full piece, and half of one piece, which is also shown in one of the pictures. This should get you the neck and body.

For the sleeves

row 1: 15 pieces (light purple)

row 2: 15 pieces (light purple)

row 3: 15 pieces (dark purple)

row 4: 10 pieces (dark purple)

row 5: 10 pieces (dark purple)

for the arms, these are broken into 2 parts. the top part of the arm is made of dark purple pieces. row 1 is two pieces, with row 2 being one piece. Continue stacking in this order of 2 pieces, then 1 piece. You will also do this for the bottom half of the arm, just with ivory instead of purple.

The dress is probably the longest portion of this design. To begin it:

Row 1: 6 pieces (5 dark purple, 1 light purple)

row 2: 6 pieces (4 dark purple, 2 light purple)

For row 3, you're going to mainly expand by adding dark purple pieces in between pieces, with the exception of one light purple piece that'll go in between the 2.

row 3: 12 pieces (4 light purple, 8 dark purple)

row 4: 12 pieces (3 light purple, 9 dark purple)

Row 5 is similar in the sense of light purple will be added in between the light purple pieces, with dark purple being in between the dark purple pieces. Where the light and dark purple meet, a light purple piece goes in between.

row 5: 24 pieces (8 light purple, 16 dark purple)

Row 6 and beyond is where things get different, it's also where the picture starts, so I won't be listing rows like I've done. For row 6, you're adding 24 pieces, but will be switching between inverted and normal. starting at the light purple, you add a normal piece. The piece next to it will be inverted. The piece next to that will be normal. See the pattern? This may seem unneeded, but it makes the dress come out better, otherwise, it comes out in this big dome that's hard to shape. Row 6 will be 24 pieces done like this. Row 7 is then a normal row of inverted light and dark purple, as shown in the picture. After this, you will expand by adding 1 where the normal pieces are, adding 12 to the row of 24. Now, row 8 is 36 pieces, flipping between normal and inverted pieces, as shown in the picture. Here's where a pattern will come in. The inverted pieces continue down in a 1:2 pattern. In between those inverted pieces, the rest of the row is filled with normal pieces. You expand every 5 rows from the last expansion point, adding 1 normal piece in the middle of the set of normal pieces. Going like this, the dress length can be whatever you want. If you run out of pieces, don't fret, you can always make more.

Congratulations. You've made all the individual pieces. Now you need to get your glue gun, or super glue, and glue everything together. Remember, it is also best to glue every individual piece together, just to really reinforce it. You should be all set after that and have made a lovely doll. If not, it's probably my fault, since this is hard to explain through pictures. There are videos to help make a doll with 3d origami, so if you found this interesting, you should look for those and check them out! I hope you were able to find some interest in this doll, and the wonderful world of Origami!