How to Make a Japanese Paper Doll

I love making these little guys. I crafted a bunch using local paper during my stay in Japan, and I actually taught a group of Japanese university students to make them. I ended up teaching quite a few origami models while I was there, but this one was one of the most popular.

The variations are infinite, once you understand the underlying concepts, so it's a good project to have under your belt if you like paper crafting. I use my ningyo (doll/s: literally "person shape") for art, but they can also be used for crafts like cards and bookmarks. They are just so cute!

Chiyogami: Or, Help! I'm drowning in the prettiest stuff on earth!

I hate papercuts. If you were to give me the option of getting punched in the arm or recieving a small, non-bleeding papercut on my forefinger, I'd take the first choice and ask for more. I hate papercuts. Detest them. Abhor them. Hate them.

Which should tell you how much I love chiyogami. I am constantly risking terrible agony just to be near it: and I covet it. I drown in it.

It is at this point that I should admit that I have a problem. I've never bought anything so compulsively as I buy chiyogami (known to the uninitiated as origami, or origami paper). Fortunately (and unfortunately) it wasn't as ubiquitous in Japan as I expected it to be.

Which doesn't mean that I didn't spend a small fortune on it. Especially the gorgeous double-sided stuff that you can't find or is ungodly expensive over here.

The above image features most of my origami paper-- except for most of the nice stuff, which is kept hidden away. 2.5 of the larger boxes are filled with quarter-size sheets of paper, which means that there are four times as many (albeit smaller) sheets in those.

Now they just need to start sending the season-specific floral paper over to America, for the sake of all that's good and holy.