Water Lily Origami

Water Lilies are one of the prettiest flowers to look at as they bloom with their vibrant yet soft pastel colors of pinks, purples, blues, and whites. It's so surprising and enchanting that nature enables them to be born out of water instead of the traditional soil.

Water lilies are enchanting because they rise from muddy water to bloom beautifully, symbolizing purity and strength. Their bright, colourful petals contrast with their watery surroundings, creating a stunning visual. This transformation from murky depths to vibrant blossoms captures the magic and resilience of nature, making them truly captivating.

In this Instructable, we'll see how to make Water Lily out of paper via step-by-step process. You'll need minimum stationary items to make this beautiful flower and use them for decoration, gifting, or just for fun to enhance your creativity.

SUPPLIES FOR WATER LILY

1. A4 sized Origami Paper or Pastel Sheets of different colours (use yellow, orange or white for anthers, and green for leaves, and preferably white, pink, purple, red, yellow or blue for petals).
2. Rubber band (matching the color of the anther)
3. Ruler or scale
4. A pair of scissors
5. A pencil for marking

Take your origami paper and measure and cut them as the specified measuring

For Petals - 10 strips of 15 cm length and 7.5 cm breadth

For Leaves - 5 strips of 15 cm length and 7.5 cm breadth

For Anthers - 3 strips of 7.5 cm length and 3.75 cm breadth

You can adjust the measurements of the flowers if you wanna make bigger or smaller flowers according to these ratios.

1. Take your 15 x 7.5 petal strip and fold it into half length wise.
2. Then fold the two outer corners downwards as shown.
3. Fold the top to the bottom as shown.
4. Repeat step 3 and 4 the other side as well.
5. Do this with all the 10 petal strips.

Refer to the images for more clarity.

1. Take your 15 x 7.5 leaf strip and fold it into half length wise.
2. Then fold the two outer corners downwards as shown.
3. Fold the top to the bottom as shown.
4. Repeat step 3 and 4 the other side as well.
5. Then fold the two sides towards each other as shown.
6. Do this with all the 10 leaf strips.

Refer to the images for more clarity.

1. Take your 7.5 x 3.75 anther strip and fold it into half length wise.
2. Then again fold it breadth wise as shown.
3. Then take our scissors and make thin fringes as shown from the open end of the paper along the breadth.
4. Then open the anther paper completely.

Refer to the images for more clarity.

Make the rest of the pieces and they should look like something like this.

PART 1

1. Take one leaf part and point the plain/closed side upwards.
2. Then place two pieces of petals (open side) on top of the leaf as shown.
3. Then fold the combined piece together from the middle and squeeze to stack them properly.
4. Then open it and place the anther strip as shown on top of the petals.
5. Assemble and make 3 of these pieces.

PART 2

1. Take one leaf part and point the plain/closed side upwards.
2. Then place two pieces of petals (open side) on top of the leaf as shown.
3. Then fold the combined piece together from the middle and squeeze to stack them properly.
4. Assemble and make 2 of these pieces.

Refer to the images for more clarity.

1. Place the parts containing anthers (PA) and the parts not containing anthers (P) in an alternate order (PA, P, PA, P, PA).
2. Then bring them together and tie them tightly from the middle using a rubber band (Use same colour rubber band as that of the anther to camouflage it better).

Refer to the images for more clarity.

1. Now separate the pieces such that 3 pieces are at the top and bottom and 2 pieces at right and left.
2. Then take the anther strips and fold them towards the top and outwards as shown.

Refer to the images for more clarity.

1. Now take the top petal part of any piece and flip it towards the top inward as shown.
2. Take the next top petal part and repeat the same.
3. Likewise flip all the top pieces of petal parts towards the anthers.
4. Once you're done with the top parts, move on to the leftover petals and repeat the same until your water lily looks the picture above.

Refer to the images for more clarity.

When you're done with the petals, move on to the leaves and fold them one by one just like we did in step 8.

And Viola! You made yourself a beautiful origami water lily. Making an origami water lily is fun and satisfying. It turns plain paper into beautiful flowers, showing the magic of art. The process is calming, and finishing a lily brings a happy feeling, making it a great activity for anyone to enjoy.