Origami and Craft Ideas

Origami (meaning "folding", and kami meaning "paper" (kami changes to gami due to rendaku)) is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture. In modern usage, the word "origami" is used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat sheet square of paper into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques. Modern origami practitioners generally discourage the use of cuts, glue, or markings on the paper. Origami folders often use the Japanese word kirigami to refer to designs which use cuts, although cutting is more characteristic of Chinese papercrafts.

Below is a list of origami types featured in this web site. Each style of origami will produce a different genre of origami models. Click on to a branch of origami to learn more.
Action Origami
Golden Venture Folding
Pure & Pureland Origami
Business Card Origami
Modular Origami

Pureland origami deals with just mountain and valley folds. No squashes, sinks, twists, double back handsprings or other arcana. It is an exercise in simplicity and austerity.

In modular origami (also known as unit origami) you assemble many small units, each folded from separate pieces of paper, to make a larger geometric shape. Many origami boxes are made from modules. When the shape is two-dimensional you have an origami quilt. Modular origami also encompasses Golden Venture models where many identical units are assembled into larger sculptures.
Letter folding is the art of folding a piece of paper into an envelope. Many letter folds expose just one side of the paper: you can write your letter on one side, then fold it up, address the other side, add a stamp and drop it in a mailbox.

Money folding comes from making models out of paper currency. It works best with currency that's actually paper or a high-cotton rag (such as US dollar bills) -- bills with more plastic content tend not to hold creases as well.

Business card origami is related to both money folding and modular origami. Because of the stiff material and small size of most business cards, unit origami models are particularly popular here.

Strip folding produces models from long, narrow strips of paper instead of one or more square pieces. Knotology and Snapology both fall into this category.

Wet folding is a technique that can be applied to any other type of origami. In wet-folding you moisten the paper (just barely!) to loosen the sizing that holds it together. When the paper dries, it holds whatever shape you have imparted to it. Wet folding can be used for sweepingly beautiful curved forms.

Kusudama are modular origami ornaments that are sometimes glued together. They are often hung from the ceiling.

Origami tessellations are repeating geometric patterns folded from a single piece of paper. This category also includes shadowfolds, tessellations folded from translucent paper or sewn from thin layers of silk that show strikingly different patterns when backlit.

Crease patterns are origami puzzles. Fold a piece of paper into a model and then unfold it back to the original square. Go over the creases with a pen. If you're feeling generous, highlight mountain and valley folds in separate colors. Take a picture of the result and send it to someone else, post it online, or publish it in a magazine. The challenge is then to reconstruct the folded model from just the crease pattern. These range in difficulty from simple to impossible. Oddly enough, very complicated crease patterns are not always the most difficult to solve.

Action origami includes models that do something. The jumping frog, banger, origami tops, kissing lips, and many others fall here.