Origami Paper Circuits

Contributors:

Sarah Al-Mutlaq

Finishing Touches

For the last step, you can solder wires to the copper tape.

Warning! You might want to set your soldering iron to a much lower temp so that it doesn't burn off the adhesive on the back of the copper tape. If you do not have access to a soldering iron, you can connect the wires to the tape with scotch or other clear tape. Note that this type of connect will be flimsy and may conduct poorly.

Solder wires straight to the copper tape

Make sure if you are using the same color wires for both 5V and ground, as I did in the photo above, that you mark one of the wires so that you can tell them apart when you close up the flower.

Make sure that the 5V and ground copper wires never touch at any point. Since the copper wires are conductive on the surface, if they touch at any point, you will short your circuit and probably burn up your LED.

Once you have double checked your connections and made sure there aren't any shorts, connect your wire to ground and 5V. I have twisted mine to make them the stems of my flowers, or you could go further with magnets and metal sheets like my origami flower art installation and make something bigger.

Some of the LEDs I used were colored, and some where white. I suggest you try both out and see which color you like better, if using colored paper, or, if you just want to use white paper with a surprise color inside, that's fun too!