Profile for NYC - Origami Lessons

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NYC aka B has been a member since June 2, 2007, has scored 171 submissions, giving an average score of 1.39.

AIM: NYC

Jun 07 '07 by NYC

35 Comments

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Origami Lessons

If I were to post a step by step, text-only guide to making say, an origami bird, would anyone be interested?

peater on Jun 07 '07 at 9:29am

Is it an especially badass, balls-to-the-wall origami, or just the normal crane kind?

NYC on Jun 07 '07 at 9:30am

Well, it would be a normal crane, but then again I could post an especially bad ass flower, rabbit, masu box or kusadama.

peater on Jun 07 '07 at 9:36am

not sure what the last two are, but they sound wicked. Teach me, sifu.

NYC on Jun 07 '07 at 9:37am

well, the box is a basic square box, and the kusadama is a modular cube with crazy wraparound wing things that will take you at least half an hour. Sup to you.

NYC on Jun 07 '07 at 9:38am

when I say box, it's kind of like half a jewelry box, open top. But you can make a lid. Good for keeping change in.

peater on Jun 07 '07 at 9:43am

you should wait, till there's a bigger audience.

NYC on Jun 07 '07 at 9:44am

Maybe I will...

Polyester Jones on Jun 07 '07 at 9:50am

I already know how to make a crane, and boxes, etc. So for purely selfish reasons on my part, post the kusudama!

isneked on Jun 07 '07 at 9:56am

the only thing i know how to do is the crane

i can never understand the diagrams in the books

shirtflirt on Jun 07 '07 at 9:57am

does it take more or less than 10,000 folds?

if less, i'm out

NYC on Jun 07 '07 at 10:17am

It's about 10,001 folds. I'll post the kusadama brocade thingamajig in a bit then.

NYC on Jun 07 '07 at 11:07am

Alright people, hold onto your hats...it's origami time. Apologies for any formatting/spelling errors, I did this in Notepad. Good Luck!

1. You will need 6 pieces of square paper. If you have coloured paper, 2 of each colour works well.

2. Place 1 sheet of paper on a firm surface, so that it is square (ie not a diamond, as you see it). Fold the paper in half, then unfold it, so you have a horizontal crease. Fold the bottom edge to meet this crease, then repeat with the top edge. You now have a rectangular piece of paper.

3. Fold the bottom left corner up to meet the middle of the new upper edge. Fold the top right corner down to meet the middle of the new lower edge. You should now have a kind of skewed diamond shape, with 2 longer horizontal edges and 2 short diagonal ones.

4. Unfold the paper completely. You will notice that two of the corners are creased, and that you have 3 horizontal creases across the paper, and 2 zig-zagging diagonal creases. The paper should be the right way up so the paper wants to curl up along the creases; in other words, you should be looking at the 'inside' of the horizontal creases.

5. Fold the crease at the top left in, so one edge lies along the top horizontal crease. Repeat with the bottom right crease, so one edge meets the bottom horizontal crease. Repeat with the other two corners, so you have a square with folded in corners.

6. Fold the bottom edge of the paper to meet the bottom horizontal crease. Repeat with the top edge. You
have two diagonal creases running from 'North West' to 'South East' on your paper. Fold the bottom left segment along the left hand diagonal crease, so the left edge of the paper meets the top horizontal crease.

7. This is a tricky bit. You should be able to see, on the flap you've just folded over, a vertical crease, that corresponds with the exact centre of the paper. Fold the flap along this crease, from right to left, while simultaneously folding the bottom edge along the bottom horizontal crease. As you do this, the part where the diagonal crease reaches the edge of the paper will lift. Push this down and left. If you've done it right the edge of the bit that lifted will lie neatly along the diagonal side.

8. Turn the paper through 180 degrees and repeat step 7 with the other flap. Tuck the loose flap under the horizontal fold made in step 7. You should now have a shape similar to the skewed diamond of step 3, but with a folded rhomboid shape in the middle.

9. Turn the paper over so you can't see any of the folds. Arrange it so that the long edges are horizontal. You will see that the paper can be divided into 3 shapes: a square with 2 triangles either side of it. What you want to do is fold the triangles over so they sit on top of the square. So, fold the top left corner of the paper to meet the top right corner, and the bottom right corner to meet the bottom left corner. You should have a small square of paper now. Unfold the triangles so that they stand up at 90 degrees to the work surface.

10. Repeat this with the other 5 pieces of paper. Essentially what you are doing is making 6 sides of a cube.

11. This the the REALLY tricky bit. Take one of your 'modules'. Place it on the surface so that the square side is facing you. Take another module and place it so that its square side is 90 degrees to the side of the first one; you are making two sides of a cube. To make the cube, you will see that the triangular flaps have to overlap the sides of the other module. Tuck the triangular flap under the folds on the face of the square side. Each module will have one flap tucked into the fold of another module. Slot together all 6 modules in this manner. Just remember, you are making a cube. If you are using 3 sets of 2 colours, make, sure the 2 colours are opposite each other in the cube for best effect.

12. Once you have made a cube shape and everything is tucked in, look at the folds that cross each face diagonally. Tuck your fingers under these folds and pinch them together; repeat all the way around the cube, and you will see that the folds form a continuous 'ring' around the whole thing. Once they're all pinched, you're done. Neat eh?