Valentine's Origami Tutorial: Lovers Ring (Francis Ow)

In this video I'm going to show you how to fold the "Lovers Ring" designed by Francis Ow. It's an origami ring with a heart in the front. Folded in this size it looks a bit more elegant. If you fold a much bigger heart, then it's more of a fun ring and not as serious. In this video I'm going to fold a ring that's about this size. You have to start with a sheet of paper that's about 7.5cm (3in) high and 15 cm (6in) long. But it's not that important as long as it's a rectangle. It's better if the paper is a bit too long, rather than too short. You may want to know what kind of paper I used for this ring. It's covered with golden foil on one side and is red on the other. For this model I used a 4cm by 12cm (1.5in by 4.75in) sheet of paper. This paper was a bit shorter, because the heart doesn't need as much space. Look at it like this: Imagine a square on this side, it will be needed for the heart. The rest of the paper will be used for the ring. The ring has to fit around your finger, so the rest of the paper should wrap around it about 1.5 times. But let's start folding this sheet. We'll start with the color side up to get a ring with a red heart. Of course, you can choose a different color. Now fold the paper in half by aligning the two edges and making a strong crease. And unfold. Then turn like this. Now take this edge and fold it to the center to crease a diagonal. Repeat on the left side. And open again. Now turn the paper over and fold the raw edge to the central crease line, but don't crease in this area. So let's start the crease on the right and only align on the left. Then crease up until you meet that diagonal. This ensures that there won't be any creases on the heart, that looks a bit nicer. Now turn the model. Look, down hier are the creases - the diagonal creases - and we can push the paper up along them. Then squash down. You are creating a new crease here and over here. Make strong creases, for example you can use your thumbnail and draw it along the creases. Then turn the model over again. We're going to fold a rabbit ear now. First take the whole length of the paper and fold it down. Crease only in this area. We don't need a crease in this area. Now repeat on the bottom half. Now we've got these two creases and this long crease. We'll collapse all three at once. For this, first collapse the paper back here and then swing it up like this. Then fold it to the top to flatten it. You'll create a new crease here. Let's turn the model a bit again. We're going to take a single layer of paper and align this edge with that edge. Start the crease on the right again. We want to crease it all the way, but a bit of paper is in the way here. We'll have to make a squash fold there. Let's first fold as far as we can and then open this area with your finger. This was the edge before and now it's opened up. The crease line from that edge will lie exactly on the central line. This will ensure that in the end we'll have a nice, symmetrical heart. We've created the first corner of the heart. Now we'll take this layer - it consists of two layers of paper - and open it. There's a small crease here and we can fold the layer down along it. It should happen almost automatically. While the layer is opened like like we can swing the whole length over to the other side. Now the is visible in the bottom. Now turn the model and - as before - fold this edge to that line. On the other side we again have to open the paper a bit with our finger to then make a squash fold. Done. Now we'll fold this top layer - can you see it? - to create a crease line here. It's going to help us assemble the ring in the end. Do make this crease extra strong. Take your thumbnail and draw it along the crease. Make it really strong. Then unfold again. Now fold the lower section to the top. It should be much easier, because there's a crease there already. You can make it a bit stronger, though. Now we'll assemble the ring. It'll be a bit easier if you first take a round pen - nothing edged, please - and roll the paper around it. The paper will remember the rounded form a bit. It'll be easier to get a nice, round ring like this. You don't need to roll it in very tidily. Now the paper's a bit curved. Now notice that on the right we have an edge and on the left a small pocket. We're going to insert the edge into that pocket. Simply like this. Now all we have to ensure is that the ring will have the right size. You should leave a small gap, because we'll fold the paper inside and the ring will get thicker. That's why I told you the length of the paper, isn't that important. We're going to customize the ring now. But it's good if the paper overlaps to about halfway. Else the ring might unfold itself. So insert the length as far as required. Let me check whether this is the right size. It might already be ok. As you can see there's some space left. That's about as much space as you should leave. The good thing about this ring is: You can unfold it again to change its size. So if you want to give it away and you misjudged their ring size, then you can adjust it right away. Now I've finished inserting the length. Now we'll start right by the heart - look, there are two layers - and fold the layers down together. You'll have to press and push a bit. Then continue all the way around. Press inside and down. At first it's going to look a bit messy, but in the end it will look cleaner. Just press it down all around. We precreased this line, so it should get a nice finish. Once that's done, let's press extra hard right here and maybe even crease with your thumbnail so that it doesn't unfold again. Let's check the size before we finish the heart. Seems about right. Now, let's finish the heart. Turn over. There are small, white areas here. Let's fold those in diagonally. Once and twice. The heart still has these corners, so let's make a small crease to give it a nicer shape. You can add more creases to make it even rounder. I think those two are enough. And then - look - your nice ring with a heart is done. And it even fits! I hope you enjoyed this video. Now take a sheet of paper and try it out yourself!