https://www.origamiway.com/origami-pelican.shtml

Published in

Digital Culture Fall 2017

3 min readSep 25, 2017

https://www.origamiway.com/make-origami-paper.shtml

For my first project, I chose to fold an origami pelican. Now I know what you must be thinking, of all the animals to fold couldn’t you have chosen something more challenging or more majestic than a pelican? The answer is no because I’m a novice at the art of origami and I have the delicacy of a T-Rex. However, the pelican is an appropriate choice for my digital culture class because it is a very social bird, living in communities numbering into the hundreds and this class is all about communities.To begin my descent into darkness, I Googled origami (I know how sophisticated lol) and selected the website Origami Way where they had designs for almost everything. I selected the pelican under the birds tab and began reading the instructions. Right off the bat it wrote to get your favorite piece of origami paper and I sat there because I neither had a favorite paper nor any origami paper at all. The website had my back though and had a link for instructions on making your own paper. Making the paper was pretty straightforward, make a few folds and cut a piece off to make a perfect square.The instructions were pretty simple with not a ton to read into. Now back to the pelican, the instructions read like regular instructions but there is a feeling of you should know how to do some of this. For instance, when it’s time to fold the head, the author simply writes, “Do an inside reverse fold to form the head” (Origami Way). They do provide a very quick explanation on how to do it, but it was insufficient for me and I relied heavily on the two pictures provided to help me. The author in general explains the steps very quickly and does not go very deep into detail almost like they’re writing Sparknotes for this design. The author also provided pictures to go along with every step to show how the pelican should be coming along, which is a tremendous aid.Therefore, I’d reason that these instructions are for the arts and craft community but those that have some experience with origami, not a noob like myself. Folding the pelican wasn’t particularly difficult but there were steps where I had a question or was unsure about how to make a fold such as the aforementioned reverse fold to form the head. Instead of tapping out, I chose to remain stubborn and work with the information provided to fold the head instead of searching the internet for more help. This is where I would suggest improvements such as writing a better explanation, adding a few more pictures to show a difficult step in detail or maybe even attach a video. Nevertheless, I followed the instructions step by step and sure enough I ended up with a pelican that can stand on its own. Overall, I’d say these instructions were adequate for learning to fold an origami pelican even with absolutely no prior experience or paper.