Choosing How You Want To Start With Origami - (Tips+Stories)

I began my journey with origami when I saw a colleague of mine had produced a brilliant origami flapping bird. He passed it to me and I pulled the tail and remarkably it flapped. I was intrigued and after I had got over the initial excitement of a flapping bird, attempted to unfold it to see whether I could work it out. Obviously this did not work.


 I went home that night and quickly went to my computer to Google "how to make an origami flapping bird". The first result was a series of videos which I studied. I found myself pausing the video very often because I could not keep up. I got to the stage where it was about to start looking like a bird and could not work out how to do it. I watched the part of the video over and over again, without success. The videos that I saw were these:

• Youtube
• Howcast
• Video Jug

After this ordeal, I quickly thought that I might have been going the wrong way with videos and went to the second website that Google suggested. This was an animation website that suggested an easier alternative method, I found this helpful and this is how I made my first successful flapping bird. This website is here at origami.org


You would think now that everything would be all well and jolly? Well it was for the flapping bird, I had learned how to make it. Now however I felt like I needed to make something else to amuse other people with. I decided I could resort to origami.org for some trusty animations so I did. Their other diagrams were either boring or too similar. All I found was:

• The Peace Crane - Far too similar to the flapping bird.
• The T-Shirt - Really simple and boring.

My original trusty friend had let me down. I had another look around for other things to make. I quickly discovered 'The Waterbomb'. This was basically a paper cube that you could either inflate by blowing into it or filling it with water (and then possibly throwing at an unsuspecting victim) This looked like brilliant fun. I however struggled to find any of the helpful animations for it. I quickly chose to shy away from the pesky videos (a move which I would later regret). I therefore looked at some pictures which I found at origami-instructions.com. These looked good but I struggled in the early stages.

I was beginning to get annoyed with the whole idea of origami thinking that nothing should be this difficult. At a last resort I returned to my nemesis, the video. I looked at the Youtube video here and did it first time. I also then discovered in the related videos section that there is a far more variable amount of videos than there is diagrams. This means you can have more choice about what you actually want to make.

The morale of this story really is that it is down to personal preference for how you want to learn. I have personally used all different models. Mainly I use videos and then as I have got better at learning the symbols in diagrams have used them as well. A good tip with this is to watch the video whilst looking at the diagram to get both perspectives. For this reason, I will be posting videos. I have chosen not to include diagrams because they are really hard to create and often nowhere near as good as watching someone do it in front of you. I will also describe how to make each model in a paragraph below the video. I will try to make the videos as clear as I can. If you are struggling with a particular bit then comment and I will make an edit to the post with a brand spanking new video for that part - just for you! I hope this means that everyone will be able to enjoy this website!


I am also going to be posting origami tips and stories. The tips will aim to improve your folding skill and technique whereas the stories will be more to entertain and intrigue you into the wonderful world of origami.


ENJOY!