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Square Beads
Designed by Michael G. LaFosse from a traditional base
The Square Bead is easy to fold, quick to make, and it displays the paper’s features beautifully. This bead is the real workhorse of our origami jewelry design system, and we use it time and again. Combining various sizes of Square Beads with other elements provides end less possibilities for distinctive folded jewelry. This bead consists of two squares, each folded to the “upside-down sailboat” shape (step 5) used throughout this book.
1. Begin with the display side up. Valley-fold in half, bottom corner to top. Unfold. Turn over and rotate 45 degrees.
2. Valley-fold in half, edge to edge, both ways, unfolding after each. Rotate 45 degrees.
3. Valley-fold the top and bottom corners to meet in the middle, where the creases cross.
4. Use the existing mountain and valley creases to collapse the model, folding the left and right corners in half and moving them to meet at the bottom.
5. Your paper should look like this. You will need two units of the same size for each square bead.
6. Apply paste to the top surface of the two sail-shaped tabs of one unit. Slide the two units together with the paste in-between the tabs of both units.
7. The completed Square Bead.
Methods for Mounting Square Beads
1. Insert the beading string or a suitable wire space-holder at step 4 on page 12. This may be done to one or both units. (A double strand is more secure and may help to prevent twisting of the beads while wearing.)
2. Square Bead on string. The result of this method is that the dividing line between the two units will be in line with the string.
1. Alternately, the Square Bead units may be strung with a needle and cord, piercing the folded corner at what was once the center of the square sheet.
2. Apply paste to the tabs just before sliding the units together.
3. The result of this method is that the dividing line between the two units will be perpendicular to the string.
Yet another way to string Square Beads is through the center, perpendicular to the face. There will be a natural space available for use just before the two units are fully joined.
An eye pin may be glued into place between the double layers at any of the four corners.
A bent wire may also be glued into the double layer of any of the four corners. This is one of the most secure methods of adding a mounting loop to the Square Bead.
Bead Caps
Designed by Michael G. LaFosse from traditional bases
Bead Caps are used for decorative contrast, setting an additional right triangle perpendicular to those two displayed in the Square Bead. It may also serve to secure one or two corners of a Square Bead for mounting purposes, and to add more colors and shapes to a piece of jewelry consisting of several Square Beads.
Here we present several styles of Bead Caps: Triangle, Square, Pentagon, and Fiesta (see facing page). You may develop more variations on your own; experimenting with different sizes of Bead Caps will alter the look. Thinner papers usually produce the best looking Bead Caps.
1. Begin with the display side up. Valley-fold in half, bottom corner to top. Unfold. Turn over and rotate 45 degrees.
2. Valley-fold in half, edge to edge both ways, unfolding after each. Rotate 45 degrees.
