Joost Langeveld Origami Page
            



Home - Gallery - Contact - My Origami - Videos  -  Privacy Policy

                   HISTORY OF ORIGAMI  (main page)
click here for archive page history

What is ORIGAMI?!
The total number of different folds used in origami is not very much, but by the countless
variations between these folds, you can fold almost everything you can imagine.
A SQUARE shaped paper is used for folding origami models, CUTTING and GLUEING is
absolutely prohibited.
Many origami artists still follow these guidelines and succeed in folding these kind of
models from just ONE SQUARE PAPER:

   
advanced origami bug by Robert Lang   origami unicorn by Satoshi Kamiya   advanced origami dragon by Satoshi Kamiya
      Large bug by Robert Lang                     Unicorn by Satoshi Kamiya                     Dragon by Satoshi Kamiya

Some very cool variations in origami have become popular the last few years.
Below are some nice examples:

modular origami dragon    Modular Origami
One large model is created of thousands simple and tiny origami models
more info here




complete paperart city in white    Kirigami
Kirigami is mostly used to make it easier folding a complex model, like an insect.                                     

This paperart/kirigami city is made by Ingrid Siliakus


kawaii strip folded lucky stars    Strip-folding
Cute models are folded of long and mostly colourful paper strips. These are origami lucky stars


These variations in origami don't fit the basic origami-rules and should be tagged with WRONG

Luckely most people are not very strict,
we are permitted to have fun in crafting and have
a smile on our face. So I don't have to DELETE half of my own site and can call this origami
too:
mechanical origami wind vane with flapping bird
Each single part of this model is folded of a square
paper and it is 100% paper, maybe I should call it
a modular origami model...


Why do people like making Origami Models so much?!
What's the reason this craft even exists?
David Lister wrote a piece somewhere about people which have a small piece of paper
in their hands, like a bus-ticket or small flyer. Many people will start playing with/folding
or crumbling that paper subconciously while they are thinking of something else then
that paper. He might be right, maybe we just want to make that paper (=object) as small
as we can and then throw it away or hide it somewhere.
Never mind, our hands are simply made for working all day long:

       
a hand squeezing a piece of fruit    obama picking his nose  hand holding a bunch of dollars      two fleeing monkeys
        Mankind would not       This task requires a great         make this bunch of    Honest handwork can
        have achieved much    deal of concentration, like        money as little as       be very relaxing...

       without hands               origami. Good Job!                     possible, it's mine!

Looks fine to me :)
And picking/squeezing/origami gives most people a relaxing feeling, there are many
written articles about the relaxing/heeling power of crafts/origami.



Where does Origami come from?
How did Origami develop in all these years?
Nowadays, almost everybody agrees that origami originates in China. Most people
that hear the word origami think of Japan first, that's probably because it became
very popular in Japan when paper got cheaper and cheaper, a few hundred years
ago. After that, origami spread all over the world.


The first origami book ever "How to fold 1000 cranes" released in 1797. There
weren't any (official) written origami instructions before this date: The
instructions were teached mouth to mouth to each next generation, so most models
were very simple to learn. Not as advanced as some models we can learn now
from books and videos.
Since a few years it's even possible to design models with the computer: You can
define where you're model needs legs, tails etc. and the software calculates
how to fold your model, Robert Lang made this program, his site shows very advanced
models which he designed using his own software.


Because there are so many advanced models nowadays, it's becoming more and
more important for artists to design a model that also looks good/artistic.
They do this by using paper with nice colourful patterns, for example. Or even
papers with eyes, noses, numbers etc. already printed on.
Origami is becoming more then just designing a model and making a picture of
of it on a one colour background, although some are still very good at this.


Until the seventies is was pretty easy for a person to keep up to date with all
existing origami models and know what the latest developments were.
After the seventies new origami sociëties and artists came so quick that it
was impossible to keep track of all these new developments.


Traditional Models
There have been designed many origami models now, some of them are known by almost
everybody:
   
origami iris    origami frog    origami crane    origami newspaper boat
      Iris more info             Frog more info                     Crane                      Boat

These are 'traditional models' and most of them look pretty simple.
The designer of these kind of models is unknown, because the design is very old and
probably teached mouth to mouth to the next generations.

Below are some examples of models that are called traditional sometimes too:

     
origami kimonos  origami pig   Origami dress card   origami samurai helmet
      Kimonos more info            Piggy more info          Dress more info  Samurai Helmet by Seiji Nishikawa

They aren't designed very long ago, but they do have the same simple looking
style as 'real' traditional models



Origami Great Grandmaster
origami great grandmaster akira yoshizawa
Each sort of art has his own stars, origami too and the biggest is Akira Yoshizawa (1911-2005).
He designed about 50000 models and invented many new techniques,
like wetfolding and folding-symbols for making clear origami folding instructions.


Click here for more info about Akira Yoshizawa

Click here for some videos about Origami Masters (at this site)






click here for archive page history