Masu boxes with tesselation lids

Through the years I have regularly been looking for paper boxes or gift boxes for all kinds of different occasions but always had trouble finding the box I need. And then when and if I find one it costs more than what I´m about to put in it. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I discovered the vast world of origami box folding. You can make boxes from one sheet or multiple sheets, without or with lids, in many different shapes such as triangles, squares and hexagons and with endless different decorative effects. 

For a beginner in the box world there is no better box to begin with than the Masu box. This traditional design is both fast and easy to fold and it's size can be changed with just a simple adjustment of creases. And no surprise my newest video here below is a tutorial on how to fold that same box.

I have been looking into another branch of the origami world called tessellations. Origami tessellations are the art of folding geometrical shapes and repetitive patterns from a single sheet of paper. The paper is folded into pleats or twisted by the use of various techniques as to form the wanted pattern. I have taken the simplest of these techniques called by Eric Gjerde in his book Origami Tessellations: Awe-Inspiring Geometric Designs the 90-degree pleat intersection and applied it to the Masu box. The result are some nice variations of that traditional box. Here below are images of three of the variations I have designed and folded. 

Box with a cross

Folded from origami paper.
Cross pattern folded from a grid of 16 x 16 squares.

Mountain peaks box

Folded from wrapping paper.
Pattern folded from a grid of 32 x 32 squares.

Folded from wrapping paper.
Pattern folded from a grid of 32 x 32 squares.

Box with a cross and side flaps

Folded from heavy wrapping paper.
Pattern folded from a grid of 32 x 32 squares.

Folded from thin see-through paper used for pattern making.
Pattern folded from a grid of 32 x 32 squares.

These boxes are a bit more complicated than the original box yet they are not that difficult to make. But they are time consuming. Before I could begin folding the 90-degree pleat intersection I had to pre-crease the paper into a grid of squares. The first box, and the easiest to make, requires a grid of 16 x 16 while the other two versions need a grid of 32 x 32. As for the Masu box these boxes are folded from two square sheets of paper but instead of two sheets of equal size the lid requires a much bigger sheet than the box because of all the pleats for the pattern. 

For you who are interested in learning how to fold these boxes I will make a tutorial video soon for the box with the cross and post it here.

I hope you enjoy the video and the images,

until later.