ORIGAMI

Origami  (折り紙?, from ori meaning "folding", and kami meaning "paper"; kami changes to gami due to rendaku) is the traditional Japanese art of folding paper into a shape representing an object.
There is much speculation about the origin of Origami. While Japan seems to have had the most extensive tradition, there is evidence of an independent tradition of paperfolding in China (traditional funerals include burning folded paper), as well as in Germany, Italy and Spain among other places.

Akira Yoshizawa - Origami master showing us... a  turkey!

Origami tools:

You don’t need any origami tools to fold paper. All you need is your hands, a piece of paper, and a flat surface to fold on. Easy. You can do it at home, you can do it at school (oops, did I really say that?). You can do it on the train, you can do it on the bus. You can do it in a coffee shop, you can do it in a restaurant or...

(see dollar-bill origami and napkin and towel folding).

How to make origami:

There are many folding techniques that you need to learn to form a shape out of a piece of paper. Folding techniques. Two most important techniques are valley-fold and mountain-fold. At least, you must know what they are and you will have no problem of folding a simple origami model by using only these two folding techniques.

Wet folding origami:

Wet folding origami is a relatively new way of folding paper. It was developed by origami master Akira Yoshizawa and it involves moistening the paper before you fold it. The resulting model has a softer, textured look with gentle curving lines.

Gilad’s web site shows the difference between a regular origami dog and a wet fold origami dog. Wow! [Puppy created by Francisco Javier Caboblanco; photo by Gilad Aharoni]

Interesting links for origami:

• Origami and pop-up books.
• Origami Maniacs.
• On October, two years ago, I visited 'ESTAMPA ARTE MÚLTIPLE' FAIR which was held in Matadero Madrid. I discovered a new exhibitor: MAATT (I think they have disappeared now). Maatt was brand-new company focused on home decoration objects. They exploited the possibilities of any material they found on the way. Their first collection (I don't know if it was the last one) was based on paper and it was called Animaatts, and the best was that it was a do it yourself!, of course, with instructions. I saw this collection 'in situ' and it looked great!. It is a good example of 'minus is more'.