Bird of Paradise - Napkin Fold
If you are bored of the regular table settings, do something fancy for your coming party to impress your friends and invitees. Check out simple table decoration ideas and origami napkin folding instructions. You can lay a flower or check pattern tablecloth in a diagonal fashion, rather than placing it in the straight way. And believe me, a simple bird of paradise napkin fold will add elegance to your beautifully set table, without costing you extra money.
How to Fold a Bird of Paradise Napkin
The bird of paradise napkin fold is inspired from the attractive tropical bloom, the bird of paradise flower, that closely looks like a bird's beak. Though white colored napkin goes well with all types of table decorations, you can think of using orange or red napkin for making a bird of paradise napkin fold. Doing so will create that visual effect of the actual flower.
Step 1
In this particular type of napkin origami, you will be creating standing folds. Hence, to create the best looking napkin fold, you will need fairly stiff linen napkins of a good quality. Otherwise, in case of non availability, apply starch to your regular dinner napkins to get the desired stiffness.
Step 2
Take a pressed napkin and lay it on a table. Smoothen the napkin and fold it into half. Again fold the napkin in the middle and press. Now, you get a quarterly folded napkin (resembling a square shape). Orient the napkin diagonally in such a way that the four free corners are directing at the bottom.
Step 3
The next step is folding the square shaped napkin diagonally into half, to create a triangle. You can lift the free corners to the top end. If you are following correctly till this step, the open tip of the folded napkin will direct away from you.
Step 4
Now, hold the right corner of the triangle shaped napkin and fold it along an imaginary center-line. What you will get is a new tip (on the right side) facing towards you. Pressing it with an iron will do a lot easier in maintaining this fold.
Step 5
Repeat step four and this time, fold the left corner diagonally along the centerline. So, you have a diamond shaped napkin, with two bottom tips extending beyond the original triangle and pointing towards you. Again, finger press the napkin to make clean folds.
Step 6
Tuck the right and left bottom tips underneath the napkin, making sure that they lie evenly with the base of the original triangle. With this, you get the shape of your triangle back, which you have made in step 3. Do not forget to press the fold with fingers or iron.
Step 7
Gently fold the triangle in exact half along the center, away from your side. The central seam will direct towards you, while the triangle corners facing out. In other words, the triangle shaped folds will remain hidden inside the current fold.
Step 8
Now, you are almost ready to create a bird of paradise napkin fold. For making it look like the flower, hold the folded bottom firmly and lift up the four napkin corners (one at a time) to create pointed flaps.
This classic origami napkin folding design will certainly enhance the look of the dining table and give a festive touch to any occasion. Besides this, you can try out fans, double fans, roses, tulips, candles, etc. to complement your party theme and I am sure your guests will also be impressed with your creativity and imagination.
