Origami Links
Rules for the all-thumbs
The whole point is to fold; after a bad start with stiff paper, I realized that the best results can be obtained with paper that is easy to fold and crease. The first few constructions below are very forgiving, but the ones beyond that require accurate folding. It is not difficult to be accurate if the paper size is comfortable: use the biggest square you can get out of a full A4 sheet (or US letter). Once your hands are set, you can begin to use smaller sizes of paper.
When is something to be called ultra simple? When even I can make a passable construction at the first go it has to be simple.
Static
- Penguin/Whale one fold, two results. How can you start with anything else!
- Swan (traditional design).
- Hedgehog: a simple and forgiving modern fold.
- A sailboat: the logo of Origami USA.
- Shirt
Moving shapes and toys
- Jumping frog: the simplest. And, a bit more real-looking
- Fortune teller
- Face is an easy fold for later colouring.
- A barge is useful in the monsoon.
After learning these simple models take the time out to learn the eight ways to fold (counting the valley and mountain folds as one), and the virtues of the six bases.
| Name | Fold (pictures from Peacetree) |
| Valley fold: (see simple box) |  |
| Mountain fold: (see simple box) |  |
| Petal fold: |  |
| Rabbit-ear fold: |  |
| Squash fold: |  |
| Inside-reverse fold: (see simple bird) |  |
| Outside-reverse fold: |  |
| Crimp fold: |  |
| Sink fold: |  |
These are called elementary by every other page that I'e come across, and who am I to say that they are not? But they are harder than the ones before: calling for more accuracy in folding.
Traditional
- Letter folding
- Frog: more complicated, with 4 legs. [2]
Traditional Movers and boxes
- Flapping crane requires precision, and is best done with thin paper.
- "Simple" box: needs manual skill, but starting from an A4 sheet one can build a box strong enough to hold a couple of cups of rice!
Since Origami does different things with a sheet of paper than Euclid, it can get different results; among them constructions which trisect an angle or find the cube root of two. See the paper A mathematical theory of Origami constructions and numbers by Roger C. Alperin (New York Journal of Mathematics 6, 119, 2000).
An origami page would be incomplete without a mention of Akira Yoshizawa, (March 14, 1911 to March 14, 2005) the originator of "wet folding", and John Montroll, the inventor of the dog base and the insect base.
- The biographer's tale, by Anita Byatt
- The maelstrom was made of a kind of bravura and exaggerated origami, a funnel of scissored and foaming navy-blue paper with spiring silver coils and feathery snipped and streaming froth.
Sourendu Gupta