“Easy” Origami
My journey with this project began with a quick google search of simple origami figures that a novice like myself could approach. The first website I came upon was the Origami Resource Center at http://www.origami-resource-center.com/. Under it’s “easy “ origami section was a selection of various figures which ranged from dogs to flowers, and even boats. I chose to try and make a pig as it looked the most appealing and realistic of all the animals. Once I clicked on the link provided on the website, I reached this PDF.
While it looks simple at first glance, these instructions pretty much translated to this.
However, unlike the panda picture, I only made it as far as step 2 with the origami instructions. Perhaps if I understood the symbols for the folds and what they meant I would’ve had a better outcome but I just couldn’t figure out how they got from step two to step three. I tried various folds and had to start over with a new sheet of paper many times because I had made too many creases. At one point I thought, “This doesn’t look right but I’ll just keep going and see what happens.” It didn’t turn out very well.
Finally I gave up on these instructions. It was clear that even though these were on a beginners website, they were designed for someone who already knows how to interpret these transitions and folds. The creator most likely ruled out what they perceived to be “unnecessary” illustrations in order to get it all to fit on one sheet. Given that the audience already has some basic knowledge of how to read origami instructions this would be okay, but this is not the case. These instructions could be much more in depth and provide moment to moment pictures that illustrate exactly how each fold is done.
Determined to finish this pig, I looked elsewhere for help. Thankfully, WikiHow had a tutorial on the exact same figure. They had a much more helpful and easy to follow procedure. Their format was also much more user friendly, using short GIFS instead of still photos. This allowed them to give more information with each step and allow for an easier follow along. There were 15 steps in all for the exact same figure compared to the 9 still photos in the original instructions. Right away I started to realize that there were so many steps being implied by the first instructions that it served as a horrible example for what beginner origami should look like. No wonder so many people get discouraged when they go to the “easy” subsection of a craft and they still struggle and give up.
Finally, I was able to construct a very decent product. I was happy with it considering I had actually never tried something like this before. I learned that I tend to have a better time watching videos to learn something over reading instructions. Especially when the subject is hard to describe in just words. For Origami, seeing another pair of hands folding the paper each and every which way for me to follow was probably the best way to learn Origami in the first place.
Close enough.
