Chinese Thread Book-Zhen Xian Bao

This beautiful, detailed, origami book is a culmination of hours of research, practice, design, and yes even math.  I hope that I can save you hours of pain and frustration as you make this amazing and intricate Chinese Thread Book (Zhen Xian Bao).

This idea popped into my head after seeing a random project on Pinterest. It had such an impact on me that I had to click.  I then spent hours looking at all sorts of origami boxes and thread books.  It is a book of folded paper boxes that are glued and stacked on top of each other hiding the ones underneath. I was more interested in how the origami boxes fit and worked together than what it was used for.

The brief history of the Zhen Xian Bao originates in the southern provinces of China. The Dong and Miao people still use them to hold their threads, needles and patterns for intricate embroidery.

This picture is from Pamela on tribaltextiles.info 

Miao women sewing--zhen xian bao in her lap

It was impossible to find an existing project that had the type of folded boxes I wanted, and the size I wanted for the finished project in one place. So I had to piece instructions together from multiple sources. So instead of me writing everything, I will post links to the sites I used to help me fold and construct the individual parts of the book.

Supplies I used:

Toyo Tant 12 Color Jumbo Origami Paper 13.5" square --2 packages

Mulberry Paper 8.5" x 12"

Wrapping Paper

Bone Folder

Rotary Paper Trimmer

Rotary hand held trimmer just for paper

Straight edge quilting ruler

Cutting Mat

Scissors

Ruler with centimeters on it

Pencil

Scor-Tape 

Glue Stick

Cotton Fabric

HeatnBond UltraHold

White tissue paper

Iron and Ironing Board

Craft knife

Flat ribbon

Charm or pendant and extra jump ring

Needle and thread

I had an idea of the rough sizes of boxes I wanted my finished book to have, but had to do a bit of math to calculate the measurements and was happy that I didn't end up with irrational numbers. I decided that working in metric centimeters would be the easiest way to measure, cut and fold all of the boxes so they fit together. The larger boxes fit nicely on the jumbo origami paper, except the big box on the bottom. Wrapping paper was the easiest large paper I could locate. So use a sturdy paper like Hallmark and avoid the thin cheap dollar store wrapping papers.

In my design there are two types of small square boxes on the top layer. The flower top box (dark red) and the pinwheel twist box (pink). Both are a finished size of 5 cm by 5 cm.

The flower top box cut dimensions are 10 cm by 20 cm. If you want a different size, the formula is (finished size * 2) by 2*(finished size*2). Make 8 of these.

The source and video I used to fold this box are from OrigiamiTutorials.com

This is also the video I used for the small long box and the square box. 

The pinwheel twist fold box cut dimensions are 25 cm by 10 cm. If you want a different size, the formula is  (finished size*5) by (finished size*5)/ 2.5. Make 8 of these.

The source I used for the twist box is from PaperKawaii.com Her method makes two boxes at once, helping to ensure they line up, but I made each of mine separately based on my single box dimensions.

I used a different source for the pinwheel fold at the top, but the only source I could find was a picture of a book with instructions in it.

This is from Bookzoompa.files.wordpress.com

Follow the instructions on picture 4 and 5 for the folded box, cutting 2 cm in for each of the cuts.  If combining these two designs is too difficult you can just use the approach above by PaperKawaii.com 

The small long box is a finished dimension of 5 cm by 10 cm, so two small boxes will fit on the top. The cut size is 10 cm by 20 cm. It is the same size cut paper as the flower top box. Watch the video for the flower top box above on how to fold it. Make 8 of these.

The square box has finished dimensions of 10 cm by 10 cm, so two small long boxes will fit on it. The cut paper size is 20 cm by 20 cm. If you want a different size (finished size*2) by (finished size*2). Watch the same video as the flower top box on how to fold this one. Make 4 of these.

The large long boxes open slightly differently. Their finished dimensions are 10 cm by 20 cm. The cut size is 30 cm by 30 cm. If you want a different size the formula is (finished short side*3) by (finished short side*3). The two boxes are stacked on top of each other and will fit two of the square boxes on top. Make 4 of these.

The source I used to fold these boxes are from Bookzoompa.wordpress.com She uses different measuring sizes for her box in the video.

The last layer is the big box on the bottom where I had to use wrapping paper. The jumbo origami paper wasn't big enough. The finished size of the big box will be 20 cm tall by 20 cm + 2.5cm wide, approximately. The cut size I used is 30 cm by 42.5cm. The formula is a little different because you're using your other smaller boxes as measurements for the big box. (4 of the long boxes wide plus 2.5cm for the spine of the book) by (3 of the square boxes tall). Only make 1 of these.

I used Bookzoomba's video on how to fold the large box as well.

Next, I added mulberry paper as a liner inside the boxes to give a color contrast and to cover the back of the wrapping paper (unless you like looking at grid lines). I just trimmed them a little smaller than the finished sizes and used a glue stick to glue them to the inside.

You can now start taping your boxes together. Carefully lay them out in the pattern and orientation you want them to open. You can stick on all the tape, being careful to not peel the backing until you are ready to stick them all together.  Do not flip or rotate your pieces as you peel the backing off and stick them into their final positions.  Do them one at a time or you might make a mistake, and the tape I use is not forgiving on that paper. With the small long box and the square box, the video recommended tucking the flaps into the sides of the boxes above them; I just taped the flap to the bottom of the box on top. This way the boxes will stay put and open easier.

On all but the largest box I used the center line of the box underneath as a guide to line up the edge of the boxes on top. If you weren't precise enough in cutting and folding, the box might extend over the lower layers of boxes. Using the center line minimizes that problem. The whole thing should fold in half with room for each layer. You may need to tuck in corners and flaps while closing it so they don't get crunched. On the long boxes you need to line it up with the edges of the big box, leaving a gap in the middle to be the spine of the book.

To make the cover, I made fabric book paper, the easy way.

Cut piece of fabric 35.6 cm long by 26.1 cm wide

Cut HeatnBond 30.5 cm long by 21 cm tall

Tissue paper large enough to cover fabric.

I used this video from Sea Lemon as a guide. I centered the cut HeatnBond on my fabric, leaving an even border of plain fabric around it. Then I trimmed the ironed on tissue paper right up to the HeatnBond.

Fold in and glue/tape the edges of your fabric over the edge of the tissue paper and HeatnBond anyway you like. Remember, the HeatnBond is the finished size for your cover, so don't fold the edges of the fabric past it. 

Pick a side you want your ribbon to come out of as the book tie.

Then cut a centered slot, about a centimeter from the edge that is the width of your ribbon. I used a full yard of ribbon for my book (36"). Thread your ribbon through the slot and tape it to the inside cover, extending nearly to the other edge. It's extra sturdy this way and won't slip out with use. Then I cut a piece of scrapbook paper sized 29.5 cm by 20 cm (I should have used the mulberry paper) and glued it centered on the inside cover over the ribbon and the folded edges of the fabric as a pretty end paper. Add your charm and stitch the end of the ribbon closed through the jump ring. That particular charm is an hourglass from Tim Holtz Assemblage.

Now you can glue/tape the entire folded box assembly to the edge of your end paper opposite the ribbon. I found it best to peel the backing off the the tape in stages. I started at the edge and took the backing off the tape of one side and carefully placed it on. I did the spine separately, pressing from the outside cover onto the spine. Then finish the other half, leaving the book flap with your pretty end paper showing. If you glued everything on straight, admire your handiwork and test out the cover and tie.

Now you get to decide what to put in it, I put in some of my test origami boxes and patterns. This particular book is a gift for a family member, so I might make another one for me.

*All links to other sources are their rightful owners' property and noted as such in this post. I am not compensated for promoting product in this post, but it's there for your convenience. All other content and opinions are mine.

Sourdough Pancakes

Here is another recipe from Dale Dailey's sourdough starter collection. When my jar of sourdough starter is getting really full and has about 3 cups of start in it. I make this recipe of pancakes. The great thing about this one is I just use the starter right out of the jar from the fridge and don't feed it the night before. As long as you have been feeding it at least once a week, this recipe works just fine. The baking soda in the batter will help make it rise just enough for tasty pancakes. Recipe and PDF link at the bottom of the post.

If you haven't seen my other post about making sourdough bread, it has the instructions for making and feeding your own sourdough starter.

Begin gathering your ingredients of sourdough starter, egg, sugar, salt, flour and moistened baking soda. Just splash a few drops of water in your baking soda and mix it up so you don't get lumps of it in your batter. Baking soda lumps in your pancakes don't taste very good.

Mix up your batter and let it sit for a few minutes to rise.

Pour out about 1/4 cup of batter on your greased griddle for each pancake.

When there are lots of bubbles showing on the top, now is the time to flip them over.

Toast them to golden brown on both sides.

Slather them with butter and syrup and eat while warm.

If you can eat them while still stacked like this, you're talented!

Sourdough Pancakes PDF

Sourdough Pancakes
By Dale Dailey

1 ½ cups active sourdough starter
1 egg
½ teaspoon moistened baking soda
1 Tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup flour

Mix the sourdough, egg, sugar, shortening, salt and flour thoroughly.  Then fold in the moistened baking soda.  The reason for moistening the baking soda is to prevent getting lumps in the batter, which tastes nasty.  Let the batter rise one or two minutes in which time it should about double.  Then bake on a hot griddle and serve with warm syrup.

A fruit syrup is very complimentary with the sourdough flavor.

Makes 8-9  4-inch cakes.

Homemade Sourdough Bread

I find bread-making a challenge. If it involves yeast, somehow it doesn't turn out like it's supposed to. Except this recipe...my step-dad gave me a cup of sourdough starter that he acquired from a funeral reception for Dale Dailey. This guy began this starter back in the 1950's. What I love about this one is that it's perfectly happy on all-purpose flour, and you "feed" it once a week, like a pet. Hubby's comment---> (although not a dog or cat, they like to be fed every day, so more like a snake, which is active when it is warm, and doesn't do to much when you put it in the fridge).

Here is the history and care instructions to make your own sourdough starter from the author Dale Dailey. Sourdough Care  It's worth reading at least once to figure out how to care for your own particular sourdough start. I added the sourdough bread recipe to the bottom of my post. There is a PDF file available to print too.

So lets get started on feeding your sourdough starter to make bread loaves. I do this the night before I want to make bread. You will need to make the bread starter a little thinner than other recipes. Begin with your flour, water (bottled is what works for me, my tap water has way too many minerals in it for bread), and sourdough from the fridge. I keep it in a quart canning jar with just the ring holding on a couple layers of plastic wrap. That's so the fermentation doesn't break my jar and it keeps all the good bacteria in there and the bad stuff out. I haven't even cleaned out that jar in months. Really, the starter doesn't care. Stir the starter back together if it separated before measuring.

Measure out 2.5 cups of flour, 2 cups filtered water and 1 cup of starter.

Warm up your water to between 95-100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix everything in your bowl that is large enough for expansion, and not metal. Metal is bad for the fermentation process.

Cover your bowl. I use plastic wrap. Then put it in a warm place for up to 12 hours. Approximately no warmer than 85 degrees. I found out that putting it in my oven with just the oven light turned on is the perfect place, and dust free. Each time you make this, the light will be on for almost 24 hours straight, so you may want to have extra light bulbs for your oven on hand, in case it burns out on you. Most likely if the bulb dies it will be when you turn it on, and not so likely when it is on overnight.  This is the initial souring stage, and it will take 8-12 hours. I like to sleep in a bit, and like my sourdough bread a bit on the sour side, so 11 hours sounds good to me.

Wake up! If you fed your starter the night before going to bed, then your starter will look like this in the morning. Look at all those bubbles and it grew too! Pull it out of the oven and peel off that plastic. You can keep this plastic if it is still pretty clean and reuse it later.

Make sure a big portion of your counter is cleaned off and get all your ingredients ready. 6.5 cups flour, 1.5 cups milk, 3 cups of your starter (pour the rest of the starter back into your jar in the fridge, about a cup leftover), 2 Tablespoons melted unsalted butter, 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons salt.

Warm up your milk to somewhere around 85 degrees.

Mix 1 cup flour, the milk, melted butter, sugar and starter in a big bowl. And stir in another 1.5 cups of flour.

Then, let it sit and hydrate the flour for 15-20 minutes. I use a silicone spoon and don't care if I leave it in the bowl. I'm still staying away from metal bowls and utensils at this point. The dough looks like all the flour at that point has been absorbed.

Now you can mix in your salt, and a cup of flour at a time, until you can't stir it in anymore.

This is where you can dump it out on your really well floured board and more flour sprinkled on top.

You still haven't used all the flour yet. This dough is really sticky, so take off that jewelry. Dried out dough is really hard to get out of those rings. Get your hands floured and start kneading the flour on the board into the dough. There are videos online showing how to knead bread. The short version is to use the heels of your hand and press into the dough, fold the dough in half, turn a quarter turn and do it again. When the flour on the board is in the dough and it's still sticky, keep adding more flour until the dough is smooth and elastic, and only slightly sticky. You might use all the flour or there may be up to 1/2 cup of flour left in your bowl. It depends on the day.

Grease a bowl that is large enough for the dough to rise. I just use olive oil. Plop your ball in there.

Cover the bowl, again, reusing the plastic wrap from earlier and put it back in the oven with the light on for 2 hours, it should have doubled or at least expanded in size.

This is when you might punch it down to release large air bubbles, but it's still sticky, so don't put your fist in the middle. Instead, gently pull the dough away from the sides of the bowl and fold it into the middle all the way around. You'll have less dough stuck to your fingers this way. Cover and put it back in the oven with the light on, and let it rise some more for 30 minutes. Punch it down again, gently. Cover, and put it back in for another 30 minutes. The second 30 minute rise makes a difference in getting uniform air pockets in the dough.

Take out your dough, and gently dump it on that floured board again. If you still had flour left in your bowl, definitely use that. Then divide the dough in two even pieces. I just use a bench scraper to cut it.

Take half of the dough and press it out into a rectangle-ish shape.

Roll it up into a log and pinch the edges closed. Precision does not matter, because as I said earlier, the dough does not care.

Repeat with the other half and place your two formed loaves pinched side down in greased bread pans. Yes, I even grease my non-stick pans.

Cover them (you can spray the plastic if you want, or just be careful peeling it off later) and put them back in the oven with the light on so they can rise for 1.5 to 2 hours. Mine takes about 2 hours and I like to get the dough to rise about an inch above the edge of the pan. If your pans are a different size, you can decide for yourself when they are done.

Take them out of the oven, carefully peel off the plastic, and you can turn off the oven light. I don't have success scoring the tops of the loaves, so I don't. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and bake your bread for 35 minutes until the tops are golden. It will smell delightful at this point.

Turn your loaves out of the pan on to a cooling rack and brush butter on the tops of your hot bread. Not only is this step tasty, but it will help keep the moisture locked into your bread. When your bread has cooled a little but not still hot to the touch, wrap them up. I just use plastic wrap again, and it will also help keep the moisture in your bread.

My hubby and I only manage to eat one loaf a week. So, we circulate around the neighborhood giving away the second loaf to friends and neighbors. We tell them that the sourdough bread is fantastic toasted or served as grilled cheese.

This process is an all day thing, but you get periods of waiting for the dough to proof and get other stuff done. I work from home most days and I just work at my desk with the timer next to me so I can work until it is ready for the next step. 

Sourdough Bread PDF

Sourdough Bread

By Dale Dailey

3 cups active sourdough starter

(Stir your jar of starter, then measure out and mix 1 cup of the starter with 2 1⁄2 cups flour and 2 cups warm water at 95 - 100 degrees. Cover and place in warm spot for 8-12 hours, when it is done, you should have more than enough starter for the recipe. Just put the excess back into your jar.)

6 to 6 ½ cups all purpose white flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 ½ cups warm milk (85 degrees)

2 Tablespoons melted unsalted butter

2 teaspoons salt

Put 3 cups of starter in warm bowl that will hold 4 quarts or more. Stir in 1 cup of flour and the 2 tablespoons sugar. Add the warm milk and butter.

Stir in about 1 ½ cups of flour and let it sit for 20 minutes to hydrate the flour. Your dough will be easier to work with and the bread will have a better texture if you add this step.

Add the salt and stir in enough flour until the dough is too stiff to stir with a spoon.

Turn out on floured board and knead in enough flour to make the dough smooth and satiny. Adding about 1 to 1 ½ cups of the remaining flour.

Put the dough in a lightly greased bowl that will hold 4 quarts or more. Cover and set in a warm spot (85 degrees) for 2 hours or until doubled. Punch it down and return it to a warm spot for another 30-40 minutes. Punch it down again and let rise in a warm spot for 30 minutes.

Turn out on floured board and divide into two equal parts and shape into loaves. Put them in lightly greased bread pans and let rise again in warm spot for 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours. Bake in a preheated oven 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes. Turn out and cool.

Brush top of hot bread with butter, let cool to warm and wrap up.