A First at Origami
A bit of a journey
Origami— the art of paper folding—supposedly simple so it would seem…
For starters, the thumbnail image itself is inciting: complete instructions for constructing a miniature dragon entirely out of folding a square sheet of paper.
On the other hand, without having any particular origami experience before, a 27 minute video did not seem particularly daunting…
After the fact, I was clearly mistaken.
Getting started
To start, I glanced at the description to see what I would need. I didn’t have any thin, square origami paper and instead choose an untouched pack of A4 drawing paper (from a trip to Brazil of all things).
Given the rate the level of difficulty of low intermediate, the author makes the assumption that using thicker paper makes more more difficult folds. I learned that later down the road.
The A4 paper — already 21 cm wide — had to only be measured and cut into a square. Using a cutting board — or precut square paper for that matter — would have made for a straighter edge.
After the first couple of folds, having not-quite-square paper was a bit of concern. And my not-quite-as-perfect craftsmanship as a novice would also be partially to blame here.
Largely, it took a significant amount of time before my folded paper looked more like an actual figure of sorts. I soon learned this was a process of delayed gratification.
A growing vocabulary
…mountain fold, reverse fold, squash fold, rabbit-ear fold, crimp fold, peat fold…
The tutorial did say it was intended for low intermediate, but I did not consider that origami would have its own nomenclature folding. In terms of the author’s audience, others more versed in folding origami would work more efficiently with the vocabulary. Though, with the video, it just took me more time to visual process what was going on.
Pre-internet
Before the ease and control of speeding up and clicking on annotations in a YouTube video, instructions for origami would more likely be written on paper in a series of diagrams detailing how to fold the paper.
For better or worse, I personally find repeating and slowing down the video significantly more intuitive than attempting to understanding folding diagrams at least as a novice.
A long journey
Takeaways
Origami is certainly an art — a disciplined art. It requires incredible patience and attention to detail. Given the time and patience, a novice like myself maybe able to finish a more complex tutorial, but it’s the mastery of the craft that makes the difference.
In a way, the paper acts like putty in your hands, you need to know how to work with it — not against it.
At times, it was quite relaxing; at times, it was quite frustrating.
I would never expected that that constructing dragon origami would take several hours not just the 27 minutes . Notably, most of the that time was spent playing the video at 0.5 speed and constantly repeating intricate steps to identify small details being overlooked.
If anything, I’ve gained a newfound respect for the art of folding origami.
