Text-Only Instructions -
Credits and Resources:
This is a traditional model.
Instructions with supporting pictures and/or illustrations can be found here at
origami.guide
Slight adaptations were made so as to make the instructions easier to follow and the model easier to fold without sight.
Paper TO BE USED: Any square or rectangle can be used, although a long strip with a ratio of 1 to 8 is best.
So, if using copy or similar paper, use accordion folds to divide your paper into eighths and then tear or cut into strips.
If you find that your finished knot seems out of proportion, like if the one end is very short compared to the other, you can try to vary the length to width ratio by, e.g. using a longer strip of the same width or you can fold the strip more times so it is narrower.
Alternatively, you can use a tape measure to make sure you start off with a strip that is e.g. 1 cm high and 8 cm long.
Folding level: Easy/Beginner
Steps: 8
Description:
"This model presents a unique and interesting way to fold a piece of paper into a fairly secure origami creation and is not to be confused with a different model altogether, the Lover's Knot.
This method of folding up a letter or note is fairly easy and takes only a few minutes to complete.
Being a unique and creative way to send letters, the origami love knot letterfold is a useful and fun fold to memorise.
You’ll often see these origami love knots tied to trees in japan at temples and in other situations where a note needs to be secured and tied to something."
Remarks:
A note can be written on the strip before starting to fold. The message will be hidden on the inside of the fold.
The name of the recipient can be written on the arms or ends of the knot.
This knot can actually be tied around something, so have fun presenting it to someone special.
Fold small love knots in colors as tree or other decorations or tie around tablewear or napkins for a party.
You can also use this fold as a decoration for a gift. Place it at any angle you like on top of the gift or tie it around the gift itself.
You can even fold 2 or 3 small knots to make a decoration for a card.
Please note:
For this model it is important to know and remember the meaning of horizontal (left to right) and vertical (top to bottom).
So, when folding, keep the strip as straight as possible on the horizontal or vertical axes when following the instructions below.
If it will help, you can use any object like a book to help you by using the top and left edge of the book as the vertical and horizontal reference points.
If using two-sided origami paper, lay your paper with the patterned or colored side down before starting to fold.
Step 1
Place your strip on a flat surface with the short edges at the left and right or in landscape mode.
Step 2
Valley fold the bottom edge to meet the top edge. Crease well along the entire strip. Leave folded.
For a narrower strip, repeat this step, or if preferred, fold the top and bottom edges into the center and then fold the strip in half again.
Folding in this way will hide the raw edges of the paper and make your knot look nice and neat.
Step 3
Valley fold the strip in half by bringing the left, short edge over to meet the right edge.
Make a light crease to mark the middle of the strip and then unfold.
Step 4
Now valley fold the left short edge over to the right and diagonally down so the fold comes to rest exactly on the center crease you made in the previous step.
The strip will now have one arm pointing straight down while the other arm will still be horizontal, pointing straight to the right.
There will be a diagonal edge forming the top left corner of the shape. The horizontal arm will be behind the vertical arm at this point.
Step 5
Next, lift the model up and holding it in your left hand, use your right hand to fold the horizontal strip on the right away from you and also downwards. This is a mountain fold.
You are aiming to bend the right arm of the strip so it folds backwards to also come to rest in a vertical position, just next to the left arm.
If you have folded correctly, you will have a triangular point at the top of the model with two separate strips hanging straight down alongside each other. Notice that the triangle at the top has a smooth surface on the left and a smaller triangle part on the right.
Your two strips may be the same length at this point or the left one may be slightly longer than the right. As long as the strips are more or less the same length all is fine,.
Step 6
You will now once again move the lefthand strip that is in a vertical position upwards and to the right so that it comes to rest in a horizontal position.
To do this, take the left arm of the model and valley fold it upwards and to the right. The left edge of this arm should meet the bottom edge of the small triangle on the top right of the model.
Put in another way, fold over the left arm at an angle to the right, but making sure that the two top triangles are still completely visible.
The bottom edge of the 2 triangles is your guide in this case.
Once this fold has been made, the top part of the model will look vaguely like a sailboat with the two top triangles being the sails and beneath them there will be a rectangle with its left side slanting sharply from top left to bottom right.
The right side of this rectangle has a straight edge.
Put in another way, the model will have three main areas if laying flat on a table.
(A) A triangle made up of two small triangles at the very top of the shape or furthest away from you;
(B) Just beneath the triangle there will be the horizontal arm that is stretching out to the right with a diagonal slant on the left;
(C) Lastly, there will be a vertical arm that is basically a long, skinny rectangle.
Step 7
The last step is perhaps the trickiest, but it will lock the love knot into place and is one of those 'wow' moments in the folding process of some origami models.
You will have to lift the model from your folding surface and hold it in your right hand with your fingers placed at the top of the model, at the very center of the top triangle.
Hold the top triangle in place while doing this step.
Make sure the horizontal arm just below the triangle can move freely. What you will be doing is to use your left hand to grab the right arm near its end and literally swing it to the left so it moves behind the vertical arm of the model.
Notice that you are not making any creases in this step, but simply moving the front arm of the model to the back.
Put in another way, you will keep the horizontal arm essentially in its position, but tucking it from the front to the back of the model.
So, first bring the horizontal arm towards you, then , moving it down and to the left, then behind the vertical arm and lastly up and to the right.
This is quite a small movement while holding the top triangles firmly and essentially keeping the vertical arm of the model in place.
If all went well, you will end up with a beautiful shape that has two ends pointing down and to the right, with the actual knot connecting them at their center.
If you look at the knot itself, the outside will have a kind of square shape while the inside of the knot has formed into three triangles with the two ends of the knot pointing down and right.
The end result reminds one a bit of a pinwheel where the creases forming the triangles all face in the same direction, namely to the right, if you move in a clockwise direction.
Step 8 (Optional)
You can keep the ends of the knot as they are or fold them inwards in half using mountain folds to make them shorter in which case the knot will seem smaller and more compact.
Tuck the ends into the knot itself or secure the folded-in ends with a dab of glue if preferred.
Making origami accessible to visually impaired crafters through text instructions.
for non-commercial use only.
Compiled by Lindy van der Merwe, November 2022
Revised: October 2023, with thankful acknowledgement to my daughter, Zahn van der Merwe, for assistance with folding this beautiful model
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