Origami has always been a fascinating thing to do — not only as a means to pass time in a fun way, but also to unleash creativity by creating and tweaking paper models. So if you are ready to bring out the hidden engineer in you — get hold of some paper and read on!

http//www.origami-kids.com/
This origami site is specifically for plane and boat lovers and is organised neatly to display over 50 models of gliders, hunters, vortexes, tumbling planes and boats. Each paper model is pictured in detail, along with instructions on how to make them fly. The categories mentioned above are according to the type of planes — for e.g., hunters would fly fast whereas gliders would cover long distance by staying afloat in the air for longer.

Select an airplane to view its folding instructions which appear as animation. The instructions are displayed with a starting paper on the left, folds or creases to be made are animated in the middle, and the resultant shape is presented on the right. At the bottom, there are buttons to for 'Next' and 'Back' to move to required steps.

While creating these planes with standard letter or A4 sized pages (used for printouts and photocopies), also read user comments on how they found the planes. One of the interesting sections present here is 'Flight Simulators'.

These are Flash games allowing paper plane flights in different conditions such as height, speed and angle, etc. Next section worth taking a look at is 'Origami 3D' with models such as popcorn cup, bang (noise creator), turtle, duck and bat, etc. To further improvise these origami models, coloured papers and markers can be used as well.

http//www.origami-club.com/en/
This colourful and extensive site offers much more than airplanes — such as furniture, animals and natural scenery. There's even a section of 'Useful Origami' where everyday usage items can be learned to make, for e.g., an envelope that doesn't require glue to keep it closed.

Steps are shown as Flash animation with speed and step controls to make it easy to follow them along with a real paper, and for those who want to keep the instructions for offline record, a printable image version is also available showing details with arrows, captions and folds.

If you want to impress your parents and peers with your creative skills, log on to this site and make some special gifts for them like a paper basket, toothpick or chopstick case or a photo stand. But that's not it — a lot of fun material is still waiting for your attention in the 'Fun Origami' section.

Other sections are listed at the left on the site such as 'Samurai hat', 'Chinese cap', 'party hat', 'dice' etc.

Other sites to visit for origami include http//www.paperplane.org, http//pem.org/origami/ and http//www.origami.com — as all of them offer lots of good models to try at home. And for those who want to take origami to the next level can take a look at http//www.origamipapercraft.com/ — a site that offers activities similar to origami but through pre-printed papers. These papers are flat designs of vehicles and can be downloaded through an email link. Downloads are PDF files which can then be folded back to look like real 3D replicas of originals. These files are password protected — and password is sent over email.

The instructions and its images look overwhelming at first but reading the steps makes it easier to create the model. Making ambulance, school bus, and sports car models with paper can be great fun as there's no need to manually draw, and everything such as doors, tires and windows are all readymade!

Origami is easy, affordable and requires no supporting props such as glue, scissor or tapes common in other modelling. And when combined with tools available online, it becomes a huge area of art you can master in your spare time.

This art has traditionally been a Japanese practice which is now common from kindergarten to professional trainings to stimulate brain. So wait no more and add origami to your list of things to do this summer!