ATC things that fly

My friend VA is an avid artist trading card (ATC) designer/creator and had participated in various ATC trades. As a result, she has an impressive collection of cards and several extras from sets for trading. I liked this card below themed "things that fly". In return, I needed to make one that fit the same theme.

I came up with my card idea below while I was browsing my origami books for the convention countdown. It fits the flying theme and is also seasonal. The hummingbird is created by Robert Neale and folded from harmony paper. The color change hydrangea (creator Fujimoto?) is folded from small rose patterned paper.

more process descriptions after the jump...

I learned the Robert Neale piece from a Robert Harbin book called Secrets of Origami. The hummingbird is made from an equilateral triangle, not a square. There are several methods of making these triangles. Below are two triangles cut from a rectangular piece of paper.

For the final bird selected for the ATC, I actually didn't use cut triangles. I looked up an equilateral triangle folding method in John Montroll's Origami and Math book folded back a triangle from a square sheet of paper.

 I picked this rose patterned paper from a souvenir shop in Chinatown a long time ago. The set also included 3 other booklet of various cartoon characters and patterns. Size is perfect for ATCs although the paper itself is quite thin so wouldn't work well for modular origami. 

The cardstock is from a Brooklyn Botanical Garden postcard I got in the mail. It had a nice design but I noticed it only had vegetables, not flowers. This is why I ended up making a flower for the humming bird. I used the floral pattern paper (found in wrapping paper scraps) in the back of the card.

I wonder if I will make more hummingbird+hydrangea ATCs. I enjoyed folding them and may try extra cards in foil or some other pattern combination. First, I have to continue with the convention countdown and the ATC set for that trade. 

The same Harbin book also featured two other hummingbirds. This one below is a ruby-throated humming bird by Harry Weiss. The instructions called for green/red paper. I didn't use green/red paper but you can see the color change at the throat. 

Ligia Montoya's humming bird. Also not used. I didn't even see this one in the book until I finished the card and was trying to find the diagram again.