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Hobby Hobo: Origami
Feeling bored? Why not take a rough piece of paper and fold it into a.....butterfly? Interesting? Do you know what the art of folding paper in various shapes is called? It is called origami. Origami is a Japanese word, which means ‘paper folding.’ Do you remember the simple boats and planes you used to make when you were small. You were practicing origami. Origami involves folding paper into flowers, animals, insects, dishes, or anything else. In origami, you don’t need to cut or paste paper, you only need to fold it to obtain shapes. There are many types of origami. Making models using two or more sheets of paper is known as modular origami.
Paper and folding
You can use any sort of paper to make models, but make sure that the paper is folded properly and is of accurate size. You can even use paper from the trash to make your models! Card paper, tracing paper, glaze paper, crape paper and tissue paper as well, can be used for this purpose. You can also use old news or magazine paper. If you have a paper which has one side white and the other coloured, you need to fold the paper in such a way that when you make the model, the outer side, (i.e. the one which is visible) should be coloured whereas the white portion should be on the inner side of the model, not the outer.
If you want to make a butterfly, and want its wings coloured, you need to colour those particular parts on paper before folding, so that when you have made your butterfly, the colour should appear on its wings. Remember that the points on which you make your folds should be very accurate and correct.
If you do not fold very accurately, you may not obtain very good results. The paper and its edges should be cut out properly.
Your models
In the beginning, you need to learn the ‘base’ or ‘standard’ folds. These are the folds, which form your base, and when you have learned these base folds, then the making of bigger models becomes simple, as you just need to add folds to the base folds. When you have learned the base folds, you can then start off with simple models. To practice, you can use rough, or tattered papers. But never use such paper for your actual models, as it would not give you a good result. Remember practice makes perfect, try again and again, and you will soon improve.
After practicing with simple models, you can proceed to make bigger, complicated models, like a scorpion, or start off with modular origami, that is using more than one sheet of paper. Here are some sites which offer step by step instructions on how to make numerous models:
http://www.origami4u.co.uk
http://www.origami.com
http://www.origamiheaven.com
http://www.origami-usa.org
Remember while making models, follow all the instructions given to make the folds properly.
Tips
You can add glitter, beads, small stickers, or paint over your model after you have finished it to make it more attractive. You can also write a message on your model, such as on a paper model of a whale you can write “save the whales”. You can also add a note with a string on your model and present it to your friend; ; a small models is also perfect to give the finishing touch to a present. You can also arrange a display of your models. You can make your own zoo, with your paper models of animals, or a flower garden, or even decorate your house with these models, or make a mobile of these models and hang it in your house, or in your younger brother’s/sisters’s cot — there are endless things to do.
Origami models can also come in handy in school projects: where you need to make models of dough, you can replace them with simple paper origami models, which do not take much time. The best thing about origami is that it is very cheap. For this hobby all you need is paper. So try it!
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