ABC Sunday Arts
This page contains the diagrams as taught by Matthew Gardiner on the ABC Sunday Arts program.A big thanks to My Trinh Ha, for all her great design work laying out these diagrams.
Banger
The Traditional Japanese Origami noise maker is popular for children. Its a sane alternative to party whistles, and its good exercise.
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Paper Crane
The Traditional Japanese Papercrane or ORIZURU is famous throughout the world. It is a symbol of origami, and a symbol of peace. An ancient Japanese legend says that whoever folds 1000 cranes will be granted a wish.
Today, in Hiroshima, stands the peace memorial of Sadako Sasaki, built by her classmates in her memory to insprire peace around the world. Visitors to Hiroshima will be overwhelmed by the quantities of papercranes that have been sent by school children from around the world. Visit this link to learn more about Sadako's story.
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Spanish Box
In popular origami this model was brought to the world by the magical Robert Harbin in his BBC series on Origami. We've revived this old classic in our exploration of Spanish folding. If you use a 30cm sheet (or larger) of stiff card you can strong vessels for sweets and foods at parties. The Spanish box is very decorative and festive, have fun!
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Traditional Boat
This boat is an old favorite, if you use a plastic or grease proof paper this model really floats well (its will still float with normal paper but not for long). Its a great model to teach kids in the summer time, hours of fun floating these down streams, just be sure to protect our enviroment.
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Balanced Heart
This model is inspired by the king of origami hearts himself, Francis Ow. Francis is a folder from Singapore and he has published a book on Origami Hearts, its currently out of print and sells for over $200! My Balanced Heart has two stages in this design, one is a quick and simple single sided design that you can stick onto a card, and the other is a double sided design which you can use as a message of love.
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Pajarito - Spanish Papiroflexia
When the Moors invaded spain they brought geometry, mathematics, and paper folding. Years later the tradition of Spanish Papiroflexia continues with a strong origami movement in Spain. This model is the icon of spanish origami, and as a tradtional model it is unknown to the Japanese. This diagram uses no text, so do your best to fold this simple model using only the graphical instructions.
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Polypropelene Lantern
This lantern is folded from polypropelene by scoring with a sharp knife. You score the mountain folds, to make the plastic open up on the cut edge to allow the fold to occur cleanly. Use 0.38 mm polypropelene available from craft stores.
WARNING: DO NOT USE WITH INCANDESCANT LIGHT GLOBES, USE ONLY LOW ENERGY/ENGERY SAVER, LOW TEMPERATURE GLOBES.
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Traditional Masu / Box
The Masu is a traditional Japanese box, which was used to measure grains, and hold a variety of objects. It has many uses, and can be folded from a range of paper types. For larger boxes use heavier card, you may find it necessary to score the card before folding.
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Tri Plane by Nick Robinson
Nick Robinson (http://www.paperfolder.info), author of the best selling book Paper Airplanes kindly gave me permission to teach you this great design of his. Its a stable glider which, interestingly, makes use of a 60 degree angle in its construction. While most of you will know the standard paper plane that everyone learnt at some stage; its geometry is based on 45 and 22.5 degrees. Origami design afficionados around the world are now working outside of the usual 45 degree division of the square, and popular designs are 15 degrees, which are further divisions of 60 degree folds. If it all sounds like too much maths, then just download the diagrams and see how easy it is to do flying origami maths...
Another thing about Nick... He is the editor for the British Origami Society Magazine, and if you interested in origami at all - you should be a member of the BOS. http://www.britishorigami.org.uk
For more info on Nick check out his site: http://www.paperfolder.info
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Coaster
A simple traditional fold, useful for the house, try a coat of polyurethane or laquer to preserve the finished model for continued use.
Episode 6: Master Yoshizawa's Butterfly
This beautiful butterfly was designed by the master of origami himself, Master Akira Yoshizawa. Any folder should be looking at his magnificent works, and studying them in great detail. During his lifetime he created thousands of original works, and this butterly is his signature work. A wonderfully simple expression of life emerging from sheet of paper, happy folding.
Simple envelope
A simple envelope which will compliment a beautiful letter. Get out your nicest paper and start folding some envelopes and practice your letter writing.
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Chopstick Wrapper duck
This Episodes model is a brand new design by Matthew Gardiner, made especially for the Sunday Arts show. It shows how you can be creative with even the most unusual shaped paper. So next time you order sushi, be sure to fold it into this duck. The paper from the chopsticks, not your sushi!
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Unit Origami continued: Polyhedral unit origami.
Polyhedra are geometric shapes: Poly (many) hedra (3d shape made from solid planes). Examples of classical polyhedra date back to Plato and the platonic solids. These are classical forms which express very beautiful mathematical relationships in 3 dimensional forms. See this link on Mathworld for further explanation and great images
Unit Origami is a wonderful tool for exploring and learning about these beautiful shapes. I strongly encourage any folder to take the time to examine the wide range of unit origami works in published books and online. In particular look for works by the following folders:
Kunihiko Kasahara, Toshikazu Kawasaki, Tomoko Fuse, Miyuki Kawamura (all notable experts in origami and mathematics). All of them have wonderful books on the topic, in particular Tomoko, and Miyuki's books are excellent. Tomoko's book Multidimensional Transformations: Unit Origami is a must have for any keen unit folder.
This Episodes diagrams explain the principles for creating two such forms, the Star Tetrahedron and the Stellated Icosahedron. Take your time assembling these models, especially if the shapes are new for you. See the Mathworld site for more help visualising these shapes.
Types of paper
Aviod using glossy paper, it tends to slip when you are in the middle of assembly. You wil find smaller sheets of paper hold together much better than larger ones, but are slighly harder to handle. I recommend starting with 7-10cm squares of quality origami paper.
Colours
I always use 3 colours, as the units are always put together in groups of 3. So if you are making the star, use 3 colours, 4 sheets of each, and for the icosahedron use 3 colours 10 sheets of each.
Happy Folding.
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Unit Origami
This bird cube gets its name from the abstract shape which wraps around the cube that looks like a birds head (its a very abstract shape made up of a square and a triangle). It was originally designed by Kunihiko KASAHARA, a Japanese folder who has published many books on Origami, the best one available in Australia is his book Origami Omnibus by Japan Publications.
The bird cube is an example of unit (or modular) origami and is a wonderful way to while away a long train ride, and is excellent for understanding geometric shapes. Take your time carefully folding the units, as accuracy is important, and be patient putting the cube together for the first time, as it can be a little challenging. Happy Folding.
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Jumping Frog
This jumping frog is a fun action model which is perfect to fold from a business card, and is sure to keep children entertained (if a little noisily).
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Want to learn more Origami?
Everything Origami
Folding Australia 2007 Convention book
Folding Australia 2005 Convention book
Folding Australia 2003 Convention CDROM
