I learned that flower from Becky Berman who ran the origami group in Teaneck, NJ. She learned it from Anna Lee Culp - a long time friend of Lillian Oppenhiemers. She claimed that she learned it from Becky Berman. Rosaly Evnine, Lillia's daughter, learned it from the Arab (Egyptian) doorman at the Paris Opera House many years ago. I have heard stories that it was popular around WWII in the Mediterranean area. IT was traditionally made from a cigarette package which was made of gold and silver foil. The foil was divided into three strips and folded into the units. The cellophane string that you opened the pack with was used instead of the pipe cleaner. I remember in the late 1980's or the early 1990's the BOS magazine had a story about somebody learning the flower in Cyprus. I diagrammed the traditional and a second model model a long time ago. Beck had a variation with 2 units to make an easy butterfly, instead of the 3 units for the flower. Since then there have been other variations - which are not diagrammed to my knowledge. This is a great teaching model for beginners. When done at a street fair or public setting people go around wearing the flowers - creating more interest. The first that I learned was created by one of Becky's students - The made a regular size unit and a smaller unit to create a double decker flower. The were used at the celebration Phyliss Meth's Birthday many years ago. Glenn McNitt made a variation on the unit. He added an extra fold at the points of the unit which bisected the point. Then he folded down the top edge as in the traditional model This flower is put together in the traditional way - except that it used 4 units. When done out of all red papers in looks sort of like a poinsettia. In all yellow, it reminds me of daisy. I like using one traditional unit and one of Glenn's to make a swallow tail butterfly. The last flower variation is made with multiple units - 3 or 4 stacks of 3-5 units. The are joined upside down by the pipe cleaner. The final flower is made by doing outside reverse folds one layer at a time in a rotating fashion. In some cases, I have seen the bottom layer in green - opened in the traditional manner - serving as a leaf/calyx. I have heard this flower called a Lotus or rose/rosebud - depending on the tightness of the outside reverse folds.
Mark Kennedy
