Product Description

Origami is an ancient Japanese craft that has grown into a 21st-century art form. In this fantastic book, traditional classics, such as the famous Japanese crane, sit side by side with modern pieces designed by the world's most respected origamists.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #432570 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

An encyclopaedia of origami
This book is really big in size and with plenty of colourful photographs.

Why I called it an encyclopaedia? This is because it reminds me of the days when I would receive an encyclopaedia as a birthday present and would spend many pleasant hours looking at the photographs and reading it.

It starts of with an excellent introduction to origami. It gives history, followed by a gallery of origami masterpieces. Next it discuss what paper, techniques and basic folds are required. I like the part where the various types of paper were introduced.

The sections is divided to

1) Traditional Classics (crane, cup, lily, samurai hat, kimono, crown, sanbo, waterbomb, peace dove, sampan, masu box)

2) Animals, People and Flowers (nun, butterfly, swan, scottie dog, buttonhold flower, rooster, human figure, shell, goldfish, rabbit, tulip and vase, elephant, peacock)

3) Toys, Games & Action Origami (jumping frog, glider, banger, stackers, barking dog, zoomerang, tumblewing, nodding dog, magic star/frisbee, pecking crow, flapping bird, talking frog, catapult and basketball hoop, moving lizard)

4) Practical Paper Folds (page corner, letterfold, pin tray, the ellington, lazy susan, photoframe, square bix, business card holder, heart coaster, easter basket, pinwheel and puzzle purse, gift bag)

5) Party Tricks (Laughter lines, fortune teller, dollar shirt, envelope trick, blinking eyes, strawberry, kissing lips, money pig, newspaper hats, the captain's shirt story)

6) Decorative Origami (sailboat, hanging decoration, bangle, bishop's mitre napkin, pixie boot napkin, swan napkin, rose napkin christmas stocking, gift tag, pop-up flower, button flower, paper chain, heart ring, star, santa and sleigh)

7) Modular origami (spinner, butterfly ball, Japanese brocade, five intersecting tetrahedra. modular star, modular cube, kusudama, fireworks)

Instructions are in the form of photographs not diagrams. In general most of the models are easy to fold. There are enough difficult ones to challenge the more adventurous.

As I had been folding for over 30 years, I have seen most of the models before. As I prefer simple folds (easier to teach beginners), this book brings together many old favourites in one book with some new ones of course. I find this book complement Dave Petty's book, Origami, very well.

I would recommend this book as a lovely present and a good introduction to origami.

As for myself, I plan to get a second copy.

An incredible resource and guide!
I love love love love this book! I am a beginner in origami, but i could easily open up the book at any page and follow the instructions. The models are very nice, there are basic things like the cranes and boxes and very advanced ones (including incredible modular origami). I especially like the photo instructions, you don't see the usual drawn origami instructions that may be intimidating and hard to follow for a beginner, but photos showing how exactly your model should look like at the variosu stages. Very easy to follow and gives you a great feeling of accomplishment throughout the folding activity, because you see that yours is exactly like the one of the author.

This book is also a great gift idea, because it's large format and very nicely produced with glossy paper and excellent photography! Highly recommended!

Observations from a beginner
Having recently become fascinated by origami I was, at first, very pleased to find this book. Why? It offers real photos of the folds being performed, in beautiful color. Not only can you see the process as you would folding your own, but you can be inspired by the materials and uses for the works. However, there are several things that caused me to think twice about this book. First, there are not many of what I would call the more "elegant" animal folds. These are figures that I might use for more fine or interesting display for example the leaping antelope from Eric Kenneway's book. Also, surprisingly, it is somewhat difficult to follow some of the photos. In some cases, for example the 'Rabbit'has a fold that would be much clearer if a diagram was used. The same with the 'Butterfly'. I'm sure a more advanced Origami enthusiast would probably not have a problem with these folds. On the up side, Beech does include a lot of fun projects that children love and offers a nice range of the different types and uses for Origami. There is a chapter on newspaper hats, games, and 3D models. I would suppliment this book with one on animals as well as one that offers more complex projects with more complete explanations such as the Origami Omnibus. I think that learning the folding symbology is important for anyone wishing to move on from the very basic folds and most books use diagrams and symbols rather than live photos.