Paper Creations: The Beginner's Origami Resource

Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper. In Japanese, ori means “folding” while kami means “paper”. Started around the 17^th century AD, it has grown to become one of the most popular pastimes in the world. Origami involves the folding and sculpting of a flat piece of paper into a sculpture without the use of glue or cuts.

The origin of origami is a subject of speculation. Though most people would think that origami originated from Japan, countries like China, Spain, and Germany are also believed to have their own paper folding traditions. The picture of an origami boat can be discerned in the 1490 edition of Johannes de Sacrobosco’s Tractatus de Sphaera Mundi. The earliest reference to origami in Japan appeared in Ihara Saikaku’s 1680 poem when he wrote “The butterflies in Rosei’s dream would be origami”. In Shinto wedding ceremonies, origami butterflies were used to symbolize the bride and the groom. As early as the Muromachi era, samurai warriors practiced the art of ceremonial origami by creating Noshi, which was a kind of good luck charm.

The father of modern origami is Akira Yoshizawa. Along with Kosho Uchiyama and other origami masters, Yoshizawa began to create and record original works of origami in the early 1900s. Yoshizawa developed such innovative folding techniques like wetfolding as well as the Yoshizawa-Randlett diagramming system. Yoshizawa’s work sparked off a renaissance in origami which is still alive and thriving today.

Origami is usually done on square paper which can be as small as 2.5cm or as big as 25cm. These prepackaged papers are available in most stationery stores. Most origami papers are white on one side and colored on the other. Other types of origami papers are foil-backed paper, washi, artisan papers, and even paper money. Nowadays, origami is not just confined to the butterfly or the crane. It has expanded into various branches like action origami, modular origami, wetfolding, pureland origami, origami tessellations, and kirigami.

General Origami Information

• Origami Database: Possibly the most comprehensive origami database on the Internet.
• Basic Instructions: Provides information on the basics of origami covering symbols, types of fold, and more.
• Folds: Learn how to do the valley fold, mountain fold, book fold, diagonal fold, inside-V fold, and more.
• Folds & Symbols: Shows the basic folds and symbols of origami.
• Making Origami: Learn more origami techniques like the gate fold, outside reverse fold, cushion fold, squash fold, balloon base, bird base, and more.
• Origami in Japan: An overview of the history of origami in Japan.
• K’s Origami: The website has an animated studio, folding gallery, fractional library, and spherical window.
• History of Origami: A more detailed look at the history of origami.

Collections of Tutorials

• Endangered Species: Offers instructions to make origami sea turtle and origami blue whale.
• Folding Hearts: Provides folding instructions for two simple hearts, a token of love, and love links.
• Paper Crafting: Shows how to make house, simple fox, simple pig, box, dog face, and more.
• Easy Origami: An extensive collection of easy origami like a whale, a tulip, a horse, a sunflower, and more.
• Diagrams: Many diagrams for easy origami including cup, envelope, flapping bird, frog, sailboat, and others.
• Let’s Make Origami: The website has tutorials for easy, medium, and hard origami.
• Zen of Origami: A gallery of origami diagrams from beginner up to expert level.
• Origami Fun: The lessons show how to make simple origami like lucky star, pelican, jumping frog, ladybug, and more.

Single Tutorials

• Jumping Frog: Provides instructions on folding a jumping paper frog.
• Traditional Shuriken: Learn how to make this two-piece throwing star.
• Valentine: Shows how to make a simple valentine with a dollar bill.
• Snowman with Santa Hat: An original creation by Joseph Wu, a well known origami master.
• Fortune Teller: Offers step-by-step instructions to make this fun origami toy.
• Simple Box: Beginners would find this box to be very easy to make.
• Barking Dog: Come here to learn how to fold an action model barking dog.
• Crane: A good place to learn how to make an origami crane.
• Fish: Tammy Yee shows how you can make a simple origami fish.