Cathy’s Blog

How to make a simple origami paper box

I’ve been constantly on the move lately, I did not have a proper desk and tabletop-furnishings to work with. Pretty much everything I use will be trashed when I leave for my next destination. As such, I did not want to buy anything if I could help it.

My work desk had been a mess with pens, rulers, pliers, beads, strings, needles, and miscellaneous art project materials scattered everywhere. Add the bits of rubbish from discarded cloth scraps, trimmed wires and ropes, and eraser dusts … I was running out of flat surfaces to work with.

So, I needed boxes. Small ones for beads and spools. Medium ones for pens and rulers. Big ones for pliers and cloths and paracords. Boxes that would fit on my desk and are free!

So, I thought I might as well re-use (aka up-cycle) the magazines and brochures (spam) from my snail mails. The ones from my alma mater and banks have nice glossy thick paper that makes pretty sturdy boxes. They also come in convenient sizes, such as A3 (by removing the staples from magazines), A4, and square (at least spam can be useful).

Next, I tried looking for a simple origami pattern to make boxes. There are many. Unfortunately, most produced boxes that were too small, about 1/8 the size of the paper. The one pattern that did not do so, had an uneven bottom. So, I fiddled around with A4 and squared-A4 papers to come up with my own design.

In the process:

• I made myself many little wastepaper baskets and stationery containers.
• No more hunting for little plastic bags for sunflower seed shells.
• I learn how to draw simple origami crease patterns.
• I finally found a good use for my phone camera.
• I finally get around to learn how to use a video editing software.
• I learn how to make instruction video (crappy but understandable, I hope).

Win!

Now, on with the origami box.

This design uses square paper. There are two possible ways to fold it using the same creases.

Design 1:

Corners are folded outside the box.

Crease pattern for design 1:

Video instruction for design 1:

Origami tutorial: Square open box (Part 1)

Design 2:

Corners are folded inside the box.

Crease pattern for design 2:

Video instruction for design 2:

Origami tutorial: Square open box (Part 2)