Beautiful Origami Hydrangea โ€“ no green fingers needed!

Written byย Russell |ย Intermediate, Models

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origami hydrangea

โ€œLife is too short.ย  Buy the hydrangea.โ€

-Two Women and A Hoe, Garden Bloggers

Iโ€™m in New York this week, and the weather for the last couple of days has been a bit disappointing. Itโ€™s been cold, wet and grey. I thought Iโ€™d try and brighten things up a bit with an origami flower! This is an Origami Hydrangea, designed by Shuzo Fujimoto.ย  Itโ€™s a great Origami spring project for intermediate level folders.

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About Hydrangeas

Iโ€™m hopeless when it comes to identifying different types of flowers or growing pretty much anything, but according to Wikipedia and various other sites, Hydrangeas are Americaโ€™s favourite flowering shrub. They are native to Asia & the Americas and come in a range of colours โ€“ including white, blue, and shades of red from pink to purple, depending on the acidity of the soil.

The name โ€˜Hydrangeaโ€™ comes from the Greek โ€œhydor,โ€ meaning water, and โ€œangos,โ€ meaning jar or vessel. This roughly translates to โ€œwater barrel,โ€ referring to the hydrangeaโ€™s need for plenty of water and its cup-shaped flower.

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Symbolism of Hydrangeas

There are a couple of different interpretations of the symbolism of Hydrangeas. Some people associate it with vanity and boastfulness (perhaps reflecting its abundance of petals and lavish, rounded shape) and others suggesting that a bouquet of hydrangea expresses the giverโ€™s gratefulness for the recipientโ€™s understanding. Still others suggest it represents anything thatโ€™s sincerely heartfelt. The Hydrangea is also sometimes seen as the traditional flower for fourth wedding anniversaries. I thought that was Geraniums, but as I said, I donโ€™t know a lot about flowers.

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Aboutย Shuzo Fujimotoโ€™s Origami Hydrangea

I really like this design, although I donโ€™t think it looks a lot like a Hydrangea. Itโ€™s too rigidly structured for that. Oddly though, itโ€™s precisely that rigid structure that I like. It gives it a very strong, stylised appearance while still obviously a flower.

I categorise it as an intermediate level design as there are a couple of steps in the folding process that beginner folders tend to be scared of: open sinks and spread-squashes. That said, the video instructions I followed are very accessible and I would urge anyone to give this flat origami flower model a go. Donโ€™t be surprised if the first result isnโ€™t as good as youโ€™d like โ€“ treat it as a rough draft and give it another try.

Most paper types will do, although something with some longer fibres would be less likely to rip. I used origami paper or kami to make the model in the picture above, with 24cm x 24 cm (9.5in x 9.5in) sides. This produces a final model that measures 12cm x 12cm (4.75in x 4.75in). You can make this from a square of ordinary kami that is 15cm (6in) a side, but I think this gets a little small to make the final petals.

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Origami Hydrangea Diagrams

There are several sources of origami hydrangea instructions. Shuzo Fujimoto published a booklet called โ€˜Folding Origami Hydrangeaโ€™ containing diagrams for this origami Hydrangea and variations on it. I prefer the video tutorial created by Sara Adams with the designerโ€™s permission. These origami hydrangea instructions use a different folding sequence to those provided in Fujimotoโ€™s booklet.ย 
If you like this folding method but prefer to fold from diagrams, Nick Robinson has a pdf of diagrams produced by John Smith available on his website.

Get Involved

Iโ€™d love to hear your views on this origami hydrangea model. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below, or you find can me on Instagram or Twitter. Check out my Pinterest boards too!

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About the Author

Russell

Russell has been folding origami since he was 8 years old and has recently written the book, Origami Made Simple. He is on the Council for the British Origami Society and a member of OrigamiUSA. When he is not folding, he enjoys photography and traveling.

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