Origami Basics

The basic folds/creases underlying all origami projects are very simple. The two major creases and their symbols (sometimes the symbols differ, but the diagram should tell you if they aren’t using the “standard” notation) are:

1.)Valley Fold (fold the paper so there is a “valley” along the crease): -----------
2.)Mountain Fold (fold the paper so there is a “mountain” along the crease): _--.._--.._--.._—

You can do a great deal with just those two creases! In fact, Pureland Origami (developed by John Smith) only uses those two creases.

-->[3 Pureland style models to try out, and a flash video of how to fold a Pureland Dracula. Also, click the “Smith’s Models” link on John’s site (link above) to get even more diagrams (including non-pureland models). Yay!]<--

The next step from there is to familiarize yourself with common origami symbols/notation, and then get a few bases under your belt. Bases are the series of creases a model is “based” on. Many of these bases date back to the early days of origami, and are used in a huge variety of origami models. The standard bases are also a good place to start if you want to try your hand at making your own models.

A great website to visit if you’re just starting out in origami (and even if you’ve been doing it for awhile) is Oriland. They have some great free diagrams available, as well as a section called ”Oriversity”, where you can access simple diagrams for practice, learn the important origami bases, brush up on your knowledge of origami symbols, and even get some helpful hints. So get folding!

(I guess what I said earlier about “less words next time” was a lie. This is a blog after all, right? :p )

Here are some photos of models I just folded (fresh for you!) from diagrams on the Oriland website:

1.) Box; 2.) Fruit(eggplant...?); 3.)Fern; 4.) Fern and Fruit; 5.) Everyone fits in the box -convenient!

P.S. Is anyone interested in seeing more Kirigami on here? It’s been an age since I’ve done any, but if there’s interest, I’ll try to chuck in some posts about that too. :)