Origami Paper - Pack Discovery, 30 sheets

I had placed an order at the beginning of this month – June – for the Pack Discovery – 30 squares from Origami-Shop.com. It reached yesterday (I reside in USA and the postage time is a decent 2.5 weeks on average) and I was pleasantly surprised!!

Sample papers 'package' with surprise origami gift

With my order was the customary packet of sample papers sold at this shop, but this time with a new addition – an origami dog complete with eyes and a nose drawn on it!! It is really cute and folded from foil paper. I was simply elated!!

This is the second time I purchased an item from this great online shop. The first time being my order of Roman Diaz’s Origami Essence. With this order too, came the little packet with sample papers. Initially, I didn’t know that this sample package came along with every order. There was no ’surprise origami gift’ inside of this pack, though. I liked the Tant and foil papers in this sample a lot and went ahead and purchased the pack discovery of 30 sheets the very next day!!

The paper quality is really good and since I live in Atlanta currently, I do not get such papers easily here. I am really glad I came across this online shop and am certainly looking forward to new stuff on the site.

I am posting a couple of pictures of the ’surprise origami gift’ along with the papers I ordered. I can’t wait to get started on my folding with these, now.

Have a great weekend!

Lizard 1 (Design by Robert J. Lang)

I received the book – Origami Design Secrets: Mathematical Methods for an Ancient Art – last week and was eager to try out something from it. I chose this Lizard to start off with, as besides being less tricky, I have never folded any reptile so far.

Lizard 2 (Design by Robert J. Lang)

This is a great book to have and I would recommend buying it, too, as the Author – Robert J. Lang – explains in detail how he has designed his various models as well as provides tips and ideas into designing your own model.

Paper to use:
This model will require a bit of wet folding, so it is better to select paper which is thicker than your regular kami. I selected duo colored green kraft paper which is thicker and makes wet folding easier. You can also use single side colored, too – you will have start with the colored side up in this case. The sheet I started folding with measured 10 inches in size (square).

This model is referred to as “lizard, opus 337″ on Robert Lang’s website. The only diagram to this – as far as I know – exists in the book “Origami Design Secrets”.

This model has around 45 steps to complete and most of them are sinks. I would place this model as an intermediate level model.

'The Last Waltz' (Design by Neal Elias)

'The Last Waltz' (Design by Neal Elias)

This is my first fold of Neal Elias’ ‘The Last Waltz’; folded out of duo colored kraft paper. It is definitely for the advanced folder and requires that your creases are precise and crisp in order to have the model aligned properly towards the end.

It took me around 6 hours to fold this model (with a break in between, no doubt) and I followed Sara Adams’ helpful instructional video to fold this model. I have kept the legs of the ‘man’ in the model straight in my version of it, but one can give the legs a slight bend to mimic the dance step and add aesthetics to the model.

Paper to use:
In my case, I bought bottle green duo colored kraft paper from Michaels last week and thought of trying it out on this model. The paper size should be in the ratio of 1:3 and I have taken a sheet of kraft paper measuring 12 inches x 36 inches in size. The final model in my case turned out to be approx. 8 inches in size. I wanted a larger model to keep on my table, and hence the larger sized paper.

How to fold this model:
Sara Adams’ has recorded a pretty detailed instructional video on this particular model and you can refer to it, too. She suggests a paper size of 6 inches x 18 inches which makes the final model being approx. 4 inches in size.

For more of Neal Elias’ work, you can refer to this website which is an online tribute to him.

Spiral Star (Design by Tomoko Fuse)

Spiral Star (Design by Tomoko Fuse)

This is a design from Tomoko Fuse’s book – Shells and Spirals 3 – which is available in Japanese language. The technique used in this model is same as that of Tomoko Fuse’s Spiral design and is pretty easy to fold, too.

What you need:

3 square sheets of origami paper, wrapping paper or any other paper of your choice. It does not matter what kind of paper you use to fold this model, because the folds are pretty simple and repetitive. However, it would be beneficial not to use card paper or very thick paper for this as it would become difficult to fold the repetitive folds towards the end.

You would also need a paper cutter or a craft scissor for this model. Don’t worry, there is no ‘cutting’ involved during the folding process. However, each of the sheets you have selected to fold this model, requires that they be cut into half diagonally.

How to fold this model:

I have recorded an instructional video on this model and am hoping that you will find it easy to follow. 5 pre-creased units are required to fold this model; and it requires that the placement of the units are done carefully when starting to fold them together to form the star.

Have a good week ahead!

History of Origami

What are the origins of the paper folding process we now know as origami? Composed of the Japanese words oru (to fold) and kami (paper), origami has a rich and complex history that spans culture, class and geography.

Classical and Traditional Origami

Paper was first invented in China around 105 A.D., and was brought to Japan by monks in the sixth century. Handmade paper was a luxury item only available to a few, and paper folding in ancient Japan was strictly for ceremonial purposes, often religious in nature.

By the Edo period (1603–1868), paper folding in Japan had become recreational as well as ceremonial, often featuring multiple cuts and folds. It came to be regarded as a new form of art that was enabled by the advent of paper both mass-produced and more affordable. Written instructions for paper folding first appeared in 1797, with Akisato Rito’s Sembazuru Orikata, or “thousand crane folding.” In 1845, Adachi Kazuyuki published a more comprehensive compilation of paper folding with Kayaragusa; by the late 1800s, the term for paper folding had morphed from orikata (“folded shapes”) to origami.

Europe also has a tradition of paper folding that dates back to the twelfth century or before, when the Moors brought a tradition of mathematically based folding to Spain. The Spanish further developed paper folding into an artistic practice called papiroflexia or pajarita. By the 1800s, kindergarten-aged children in Europe and Japan were learning paper folding.

Modern Origami

Traditional origami is characterized by open-access folding patterns and sequences passed down orally or anonymously from generation to generation. Modern origami often features models created by designers. Many of these models are considered copyrightable material or intellectual property. Modern origami often prioritizes a puzzle aspect to the folding, and the challenge of folding a single square of paper without using cuts or glue.

Akira Yoshizawa, who died in 2005 at age 94, is considered one of the progenitors of modern origami. In the 1930s, he developed a system of folding patterns employing a set of symbols, arrows and diagrams. By the 1950s, these patterns were published and widely available, contributing to origami’s global reach and standardization. Yoshizawa and other origami masters formed local and international organizations publicizing the art.

Today, origami has expanded to incorporate advanced mathematical theories, as seen in BETWEEN THE FOLDS. Mathematical origami pioneers like Jun Maekawa and Peter Engel designed complex and mathematically based crease patterns prior to folding, which emphasized the puzzle aspect of origami, with the parameters of using one piece of uncut paper. Artistic origami has also enjoyed a recent resurgence, with abstract paper folders such as Paul Jackson and Jean-Claude Correia.

A timeline of paper folding has been documented and presented by the Origami Swami- Dorothy Engelman. This site is dedicated to collecting interesting tit bits and facts on Origami as an art. I am sure you too will find it very interesting!

The PBS site dedicated to the – Between the Folds documentary- also has a mini game of matching the Crease Patterns (CPs) to the finished model. This is pretty neat and your reward is the ability to downoad any CP of your choice (of the models depicted in the game)! I think this is a brilliant idea and for those of you who are well versed in the folding of CPs you will find this really great! The choices to select from are -

1. Flower Tower (12 fold – decreep method), by Chris Palmer
2. Flower Tower (12 fold), by Chris Palmer
3. PolyPost Regular decagon, by Chris Palmer
4. Acoma Pot 12, opus 555, by Robert Lang
5. Dancing Crane, opus 460, by Robert Lang
6. White-Tailed Deer, opus 550, by Robert Lang
7. One Crease No 2 300, by Paul Jackson
8. Wilbur the Piglet, by Michael LaFosse
9. Vintage Movie Camera, by Erik and Martin Demaine

The People in the documentary…

The Origamists Featured in the movie-documentary are some of the well known faces and names in the art. You can find bios and information about them here – The People.

I hope you find this interesting a read as I did!