Origami is magical

Origami is magical. It fascinates people on so many levels. There’s no doubt about it.

Origami is such a fantastic thing to be able to do and show to other people, but it can be frustrating as well. For instance, when you don’t know how to do it. How to do it properly.

If you go one level up, to the level of true origami mastery, where one tries to devise their own model, that frustration can be even higher. This is because, only a small percentage of origami enthusiasts have ever managed to become a true origami artist, one capable of designing their own models.

Why people fail?

Why is it so? Well, if you ask me – it is because there is no good and comprehensive source to learn from. There is, of course few noteworthy exceptions. For example: a book “Origami design secrets” by Robert Lang. But despite that, truth is that almost all truly ingenious origami authors are self-taught.

However, there’s something that might be an even greater cause behind the frustration – the complete misunderstanding of the origami design process.

It is strange to see how many people believe an authentic origami design requires special skills. The belief that a true origami artist somehow sees the whole process in advance is probably the most hindering belief newcomers to the origami world can have.

Exactly that kind of attitude is the most important reason why few people ever manage to reach levels of knowledge needed to devise new and unique models.

Origami and math

But there are no reasons for that. Truth is that behind every model, no matter how complicated, there’s always a set of strict mathematical rules. Math is that special ingredient that does all the magic in each and every origami model and this is, if you ask me, a circumstance that is utterly favourable and more than welcome. Why? Because, art asks for real talent. Something almost God-given. Math, on the other hand, at least at this level, asks only for work and persistence. That’s why anyone can do it. Provided that one really wants to, of course.

Please don’t let yourself be intimidated by the mention of math, there’s really no need to. The math behind origami is very simple. It is, for the most part, high-school-level geometry. This is not that hard.

Origami on Internet

For reasons beyond understanding, the internet is full of origami tutorials teaching you how to fold almost any model. However, even though those tutorials are nice and easy to understand, and their authors have put a lot of effort to produce them, they are hardly of any use if you want to understand and ultimately learn the theory behind origami.

Tutorial that explain theory behind Origami are quite rare and unfortunately not that popular (maybe this explains its rarity).

Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong in wanting to learn how to fold some pretty models that other people have designed without getting a broader understanding of it. After all Origami supposed to be fun. Not all people are interested in theory behind origami. I understand that. But for those that are, I started this blog. Idea is to try to devise an Origami blog (Origami school) that will excite an interest and that will stimulate thinking about origami theory.

Simply put, this blog is for those who is willing to put an extra effort to understand the idea behind origami. For those who are not satisfied with repeating other people’s work without understanding how they’ve come up with such a design. You must admit I have put a quite daunting task in front of me. But again: why not. I hope you will not resent me much if I fail.