During the fifteenth century, England was torn asunder by two rival families vying for the throne: the Yorks (whose badge was a white rose) and the Lancasters (whose badge was a red rose). The two feuding clans were finally united (sort of) in the person of Henry Tudor, who rose to the throse as Henry VII of England. To celebrate the end of the conflict, he combined the badges of the two noble houses into a single device, the Tudor Rose, which continues to be an emblem of the royal house of the United Kindom to this very day. (This is a very simplified view by a not-English-person. To learn what really happened during the Wars of the Roses, visit your local library.)
Kunihiko Kasahara has created a lovely wild rose pattern. Early on, I discovered that it was possible to place a half-size rose within a larger one. (This is my "design" contribution.) By placing a white rose inside a red rose, I achieved the anglophile origmi enthusiast's dream: a Tudor Rose.
This model was created from a 5 7/8" square of red, a 3" square of white, and a 3" square of green standard origami paper. The rose is 3 1/8" in diameter with a leaf of similar length. The pattern for the rose is found in Kasahara's masterwork, Origami Omnibus. The leaf was designed by Gay Merrill Gross; a pattern for it may be found in Michael J. LaFosse's "Origami Flowers" kit.
