Iris folded art piece

[Lothruin]

I had never tried iris folding before, but it looked like fun.  Unfortunately, the templates I could find online for free seemed either VERY basic or fairly cheesy.  Good for cardmaking, don't get me wrong, and I might use some of them in the future, but I wanted something a little more sophisticated.  The reason?  Because I thought it would be a perfect way to use some of the hand-made Japanese paper I had in the form of a smallish sample book that I got in a supply swap.  But I wanted to use the paper for something very special.  (I secretly covet an entire room full of hand-made Japanese paper with which I can lavish any paper project I want, but since I have only small bits of it, albeit in a wide selection of colors, textures and patterns, I tend towards selectivity when choosing projects for it.)

So, I made up a template (which you can find here) for a koi.  I jumped in head first, really.  My first attempt is here:

 See here for the full picture, large-sized.)

The piece is framed with heavy black cardstock overlayed with a hand-painted coffee filter.  Unfortunately the scan didn't really capture the colors well.  The oranges and yellows are WAY to bright and stark in these pics, and the blues are not rich enough and lack depth.  But I'm really very happy with it, and have plans already for sakura and kimono designs.

[jMi]

Oh wow thats amazing Loth!

[river_horse]

wow, that is so awesome. looks like it took a lot hard work. great job!

[Lothruin]

Thank you!  It looks complicated, but the most work involved is folding the strips and gluing them down.  Developing a template that works out is not easy, but it's fun.

[From the ashes]

That is so beautiful - the longer I'm looking at it and the more details I'm discovering, the more interesting it gets!

[craftADDchick]

Wow! I love the look of iris folding, and I'm so impressed that you made your own template! It came out fantastic!

I have a friend who is a big fan of all things Asian, particularly paper, and I know that she would love this. I'll be waiting for your sakura and kimono designs- I could make her a triptych!

Thank you so much for sharing the template!

[VictorVenefic]

love love LOVE this!

definitely perfect for cards.

[labibliotecaria]

So beautiful.  Thank you for sharing the template. 

[Lothruin]

Thanks guys.

I should note that the template isn't numbered.  As long as you understand how iris folding works, I think the only thing you really need to know is to start at the tail tips and work down until you get to the spiral, then work around and in.

[craftADDchick]

I should note that the template isn't numbered.  As long as you understand how iris folding works, I think the only thing you really need to know is to start at the tail tips and work down until you get to the spiral, then work around and in.

Thanks for the tip! I was thinking that it started at the head, but I just realized/remembered that you work from the back of the template...