Hosted on Gilad's Origami Page
A strand of tiny white xmas lights, with each light covered by a traditional origami waterbomb, makes an easy holiday decoration and a great gift. They spread cheer and delight!
You can get these strands with different numbers of lights. Some sets of lights come with the warning not to place fabric or paper over them. The lights do not get hot, even after being left on all day, but I recommend that you don't leave them on overnight or if you go out, just in case.
What size squares work the best? Standard 6"/15cm squares, from solid, patterned, duo-color and graduated-color papers. It might seem a waste to fold a waterbomb from duo-color paper, but you get a beautiful intense red from red/yellow and red/orange duo-color. Or you can fold waterbombs from white kami for strings of colored lights.
It's important when folding to leave a wider hole than most diagrams allow for, so that the origami fits over the light sockets without getting mashed in.
Light shades can be folded from the Traditional Balloon/Waterbomb and other inflatable models: Kettle from Robert Harbin's "Paper Magic"; Easter Egg by John Nordquist from Samuel Randlett's "Best of Origami"; Thai Flower from Joan Appel and Alice Gray's "Origami Flowers and Flower Arranging"; Space Taxi by Robert Harbin from "Paper Magic"; Pinless Pinwheel by Karen Reeds from OUSA Convention Annual 1988; Strawberry by Rae Cooker; Strawberry by Tomoko Fuse from "Simple Traditional Origami; Ground Cherry from Toshie Takahama's "Creative Life with Creative Origami"; Three Vegetables (Eggplant, Pepper and Daikon Radish) by Toshikazu Kawasaki from "Origami for the Connoisseur" by Kunihiko Kasahara; Cucumber, Fruit and Berry by Yuri Shumakov; Traditional Blow-up Bunny,Blow-up Frog and Persimmon; Red and Green Peppers from Samuel Randlett's "Art of Origami"; Drop-shaped Ornament by Rae Cooker and Strawberry Ornament by Alice Gray from "Magic of Origami" by Alice Gray & Kunihiko Kasahara (both can be inflated and used on lights though it is not so specified in the diagrams); Tulip by Yoshihide Momotani from "Magic of Origami"; Bilberry from "Alpine Flowers" by Y. Momotani and da Vinci's Polyhedron, SP3 Orbital and Pi Orbital from Momotani's "Molecular Origami".
