Origami: Renaissance Of Productive Pastime
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According to Cambridge dictionary, origami refers to "the art of making objects for decoration by folding sheets of paper into shapes". This paper folding craft gets its name from two Japanese words—‘ori’ for folding, and ‘kami' which means paper. Therefore, Origami is the craft of molding a paper into realistic two dimensional and three-dimensional models. Basic origami uses a square sheet of paper that is transformed using folds and bases. Usage of any adhesive (fevicol, gum, fevi-stick) and scissors is discouraged.
Paper was invented in China in around 107AD. Paper folding was practized after that and was an active part of rituals. It was then called <zhezhi
. The time was of gold and silver, resulting in gold papers being folded. Paper folding was not commercialized nor was open to the world to practice.
“Since 6th century, paper cranes are the most popular form of origami. History of paper crane is deep and powerful, and its symbolism is a moving message of hope and unconditional love."
In 1860s, Japan opened up its borders to the world and with it, the culture of origami art spread across the globe. In the beginning, Japanese artists put a ban on the cutting of paper. They promoted folding of a square-shaped, bi-coloured sheet of paper into beautiful models.
The basics of origami are formed from a few essential bases, folds, tools and knowledge of paper (kami). Origami is one of the most interesting forms of art where you shape up your creativity into a paper model. Some very basic and traditional folds of origami involve valley fold, mountain fold, reverse fold (outside and inside), squash fold, and petal fold. 80% of modern origami starts with some ‘bases’ which are essential and specific for different origami models. Some of the bases include bird base, square base, frog base and water bomb base.
Paper and Tools
Though any flat paper can be folded into an origami model, the origami artist keeps certain points in mind before choosing kami. Paper for origami should not be too hard to fold and should not be too soft such that it tears down after a few creases. ‘Crease’ is a ridge produced after folding a paper or cloth. ‘Crease pattern’ is of immense help while making any origami model. Consequently while selecting paper, it is important that a paper produces deep and strong creases.
The crease should only be made when absolutely necessary. Paper of weight 70 to 90 g/m is a standard weight of origami paper which is easily found in notebooks. Water bomb and crane are best made from such paper. Heavier paper is used in ‘wet folding’, another sub-type of origami where the paper is made wet for better round curves.
Aluminium foil or white foil are also used as lighter paper. Foil can easily incorporate a countless number of creases without tearing up. Although precision is very important, while working with foil to avoid its tenderness interrupting a model’s perfection.
‘Washi’ is a traditional Japanese paper and derives its name from ‘wa’ which means Japanese, and ‘shi’ meaning paper. The assistance of few tools is always needed to make an origami model. In origami, a flat surface is necessary. Along with a flat surface, paper clips, tweezers and bone folder are used.
Types of Origami
With modernization, the forms of origami have changed:
Action Origami
A form of origami where a part of the model is animated or can move. This origami usually involves cutting of paper. Original traditional action origami was flapping bird. These models involve a special action, like moving wings of butterfly or bird, moving paper fortune teller, or blowing up of water bomb. An origami model which gained significant popularity was jumping frog. Designing an action origami demands high mathematical and graphical knowledge.
A form of origami which stands out from basic origami in the sense that the artist folds the paper in traditional origami, while in kirigami, they are free to cut and paste. It gets its name from the word ‘kiru’ which means to cut.
It is a type of origami created by Heinz Strobl which requires folding of strips of paper to produce modular pieces that are connected to give web like origami creations. This style of origami discourages use of any sort of adhesive; instead strips of paper are connected with each other.
This form of origami is also known as unit origami and requires two or more pieces of paper which are folded into a particular shape known as a unit. These units are then rearranged into the origami model.
3D origami, or block origami, or Golden Venture origami is similar to modular origami, but here all the units are folded in the same way. It became popular in the 90s. Each sculpture is stunning and comprises dozens and dozens of triangular shaped units.
Tessellation is a new trend in origami which works solely on creases and borders. Tessellations are often periodic and may be flat or three dimensional. It is no surprise that majority of artists who practice tessellation are mathematicians.
John Smith of England came up with this form of origami. In this, only mountain fold and valley fold are used. This gives rise to easy and innovative origami creations that are easy to imitate.
This form of origami was first practiced by Grandmaster Akira Yoshizawa himself. In this technique, the paper is dampened which permits it to be folded in smooth curves—giving the origami model a more realistic appearance. As the paper hardens, the folds harden and result in beautiful and realistic paper creativity.
Money Origami
Some enthusiasts use currency for the art; such type of origami is often termed as dollar origami, Orikane, or money origami.
Akira Yoshizawa
Akira Yoshizawa, born on March 14, 1911 in Kaminokawa, Japan is greatly known as the ‘Grandmaster of Origami’. He was able to achieve this feat due to his immense passion and love for the art of origami. In 1930s Mr. Yoshizawa left his job to pursue his art and after two decades when his work was recognized, he was hired to make models. He even introduced the system of origami notation thorough which anyone, be it an amateur or expert, could understand the language of origami. Using dotted lines to indicate the folds and arrows to indicate the directions of the folds, the system is widely used today. Mr. Yoshizawa also pioneered a technique known as wet folding.
In his lifetime, he created more than 50,000 origami figures. Unfortunately, only a few hundred models were documented in his published origami books. A great book featuring his work—Akira Yoshizawa—was published in September, 2016.
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
It is the tale of a girl named Sadako Sasaki who was a survivor of Hiroshima Nuclear bomb radiations during World War 2. Her life was short for which her friends asked her to make 1000 cranes to be able to wish for anything. Unfortunately, she only completed 644 before she became too restless and died. Two of her friends later completed the task of 1000 cranes in her memory. Since then millions of paper cranes from all over Japan are put around the statue of Sadako which lies in the Hiroshima peace memorial. It is believed a person who creates 1000 paper cranes in their lifetime will be granted any wish.
Mathematical Origami
There have been numerous mathematical studies on the art of origami. Fields of interest include a given paper model's flat-foldability (whether the model can be flattened without damaging it) ,and the use of paper folds to solve mathematical equations.
T. Sundara Row, an Indian civil servant published Geometric Exercises in Paper Folding in 1893, which used paper folding to demonstrate proofs of geometrical constructions. This work was inspired by the use of origami in the kindergarten system. In 1949, R C Yeates' book "Geometric Methods" described three allowed constructions corresponding to the first, second, and fifth of the Huzita–Hatori axioms. The axioms were discovered by Jacques Justin in 1989 but were overlooked until the first six were rediscovered by Humiaki Huzita in 1991. The first International Meeting of Origami Science and Technology (now known as the International Conference on Origami in Science, Math, and Education) was held in 1989 in Ferrara, Italy. The mathematics of paper folding has many applications. One of its biggest application is in deploying of solar panels on a satellite in outer space. The fold used is Miura Map Fold, which is a type of rigid origami fold. Origami is also used in trisecting an angle, something which can’t be done using compass and ruler.
Abhinn Gupta is pursuing his graduation in life sciences and has a keen interest in art and craft especially origami and painting. Vedant Gupta is a B.Tech in Mechatronics with a keen interest in origami and history. You can connect with Vedant on LinkedIn.
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