watch out for banana slugs!

(origami banana slugs that is)

Summary

Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper into a new shape or form. You can use many different types of paper. People can create anything from bugs, to trees. They can use one or two papers, or even twenty. There are many styles of origami, like my favorite, wet folding, and tons of ways to do it.

The history of origami started in the 6th century when paper was brought to japan. Back when origami was created it was an art, you could even say it was a system of communicating. Each model had a name, and a purpose. For example, the model "Tsutsumi" was a formal gift wrapper. There was no real name for the art of paper folding back then, and the word origami didn't become popular until the 1890's.

I'm not going to give anything else away about my history post, so it's time to "wrap" it up. Origami is the art of folding paper. There are billions of things to make, and countless ways to do it.

Bibliography

Origami Resource Center. "History of Origami." Origami Resource Center. 2009 http://www.origami-resource-center.com/history-of-origami.html

Shingu, Fumiaki. "Fruits and vegetables; bananas." Origami club. 2009.

http://www.origami-club.com/en/

Sakata, Hideak.  Origami. Tokyo: Graph-sha LTD, 1984.                 

 

Robert J. Lang . "About the Artist." Robert J. Lang Origami. 2009

Nguyen, Duy. Under the Sea Origami. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc, 2005

An awesome origami book

Want to know the name of an awesome origami book? Well here it is. It is called ORIGAMI, and it is by Hideaki Sakata. 

One really cool think about this book is that there is a mini gallery at the front of the book.  It contains all of the models in the book. Right after the gallery, it covers a few basic folds. Then it gets into models. The book covers about 40 models, ranging from flowers to fish, and birds to boats. My favorite model in this book is the whale on page 63. It isn't too complicated, and looks pretty good. You can change around the folds, and change it into a fish. 

This is a really great book, the models are nice and easy, and it is in full collor. It is one of my favorites.

Robert J. Lang

Robert J. Lang is one of my favorite artists. He creates origami models. He is a professional, and he does this for his job, so you can imagine he is good. He has a site with his gallery on it, and I have a link to his site below. He has about three or four books. They are pretty good. The only bad thing about his books is that the models are really complex. He makes almost anything, but he has a lot of wildlife. That is one of the reasons I like him. I don't really care for origami in the shape of cars, houses, and sinks etc. That's a reason I like him.  

Below is some more information on him. I got it from a link on his site: http://www.langorigami.com/artist/artist.php4  

Robert J. Lang has been an avid student of origami for over thirty years and is now recognized as one of the world’s leading masters of the art, with over 500 designs catalogued and diagrammed. He is noted for designs of great detail and realism, and includes in his repertoire some of the most complex origami designs ever created. His work combines aspects of the Western school of mathematical origami design with the Eastern emphasis upon line and form to yield models that are at once distinctive, elegant, and challenging to fold. They have been shown in exhibitions in Paris (Carrousel du Louvre), New York (Museum of Modern Art), Salem (Peabody Essex Museum), San Diego (Mingei Museum of World Folk Art), and Kaga, Japan (Nippon Museum Of Origami), among others.

Dr. Lang was the first Westerner invited to address the Nippon (Japan) Origami Association’s annual meeting (in 1992) and has been an invited guest at international origami conventions around the world.

Dr. Lang is one of the pioneers of the cross-disciplinary marriage of origami with mathematics; he has been one of the few Western columnists for Origami Tanteidan Magazine, the journal of the Japan Origami Academic Society, and has presented several refereed technical papers on origami-math at mathematical and computer science professional meetings. He has consulted on applications of origami to engineering problems ranging from air-bag design to expandable space telescopes. He is the author or co-author of eight books and numerous articles on origami.

Dr. Lang was born in Ohio and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. After a successful career as a physicist and engineer, during which he authored or co-authored over 80 technical publications and 40 patents on semiconductor lasers, optics, and integrated optoelectronics, he is now a full-time origami artist. Dr. Lang resides in Alamo, California.

How to make a horseshoe crab

This is an easy model, and it looks good with other crabs. Use thicker paper so it won't flatten out. I got this from Under the sea origami by Duy Nguyen.

How to make Bananas

1. Start with your paper white side up. Fold it in half triangularly, so you have a yellow triangle.  

2. Next, take ONE of the flaps at the bottom of the paper, and fold it so it sticks up a little over the top.

3. Fold the little flap at the top down the back of the triangle.

4. Fold the paper in half from the middle so that you are left with a smaller triangle with two flaps on the left end.

5. Take the top flap and fold it as far as it can go toward the rite. ( the tip of this flap should not cover the tip of the flap under it.) 

6. Repeat step 5 on the remaining flap.

7. Finished.

Questions

Origami is just one of those subjects that most people can't help having questions about. It just happens. One question that I always have comes up often. Say you just got a knew origami book from a local book store, you take it home, open it up, and stop. Instead of arrows to show how to fold a model, there are words, like "valley fold". When ever that happens to me, I look in the pre-model section of the book. Here are some more possible questions and answers:

1. Why do people always call origami figures "models".

 

 Because that is the official name.

2. What do the symbols mean? 

They can be used instead of words to show how to make a model

3. Do you have to use origami paper?

No, but it is more traditional. Also origami paper is easier to fold than normal paper. 

A Short History of Origami

Paper has been being folded since it was first made, but it was not even close to what we now know as origami. In the 6th century paper started being used to japan. It was very expensive so only rich men and woman could afford it. Paper folding was not a hobby, it was very formal, and elegant. For instance "Origami Tsuki" was a miniature folded sculpture that was given along with a gift. In 1797 the first book was written about paper folding. It was called folding of 1000 cranes.

By 1890 the word "Origami" was more or less used to describe the art of folding paper.

In the 1950, Akira Yoshizana and Sam Randlett developed a standard set of origami symbols to describe how to fold paper into models. The symbols stuck, and we still use them today. There are thousands of ways to fold origami, and thousands of things to make. Origami continues to change for the better.

For more info go to: 

http://www.origami-resource-center.com/history-of-origami.html