Outside Reverse Fold
When you pull paper back over itself to enclose the other two layers of paper, you also turn the tip of the paper over, showing the other side. This maneuver is called the outside reverse fold.
Rabbit Ear
When you pull in paper from two directions and are left with excess that sticks up in the middle, the maneuver is called a rabbit ear.
Squash Fold
When you raise a multilayered flap perpendicular to the table and the remaining paper, open the layers, then press the center mountain fold flat to the table, this is called a squash fold.
Petal Fold
When you pull a point across the other layers of paper, lengthening the form by bringing in paper from the sides to cover the top, you are making a petal fold.
Sink
When you reverse the mountains and valleys that form a point or peak in order to create an indented form, this maneuver is called a sink.
Crimp
When you grasp a folded piece of paper and insert a symmetrical, mirror-image pair of mountain and valley folds on either side of the central mountain fold, the central mountain fold turns direction due to a maneuver called a crimp.
ADVANCED FOLDS
The advanced folding techniques used for the projects in this book include curved folds and wet-folding. These techniques take time to master, but they are crucial to creating complex models.
Curved Folds
Folds do not have to follow straight lines. Sure, straight folds are easy. Since two points define a line, two landmarks on an origami model often describe a great place to make a fold. Why make a curved fold? There are two reasons: one part is technological, the other is aesthetic. A curved fold locks its own shape. A straight fold is nothing more than the spine of a book, where pages are free to open and close about the spine line. A curved fold is a tension-compression structure, one with give and take. It demands that the paper respond elsewhere. A curve yields a softer appearance and throws a softer shadow. For these reasons, wet-folders often finish their models with a series of curved folds, a process that can take much longer than all of the straight folds leading up to the finishing steps.
To make curved folds, trace an arch with your thumb and index finger in the paper. Use these fingers in concert to “draw” the shape of the curve you need. Curves may be gentle or sharp; they may be sinusoidal. Curved creases can add dimensionality and a lyrical, animated quality to the sculpture.
Wet-Folding
Wet-folding allows the paper to keep its integrity since the fibers will bend and not break as they do in dry folding. Moreover, the models stay folded after they dry. Heavy papers that could otherwise not be used can be wet-folded because they become flexible and compressible once they are wet.
Wet-folding changes everything. The paper fibers swell, often in one direction more than the other (see the Grain section on page 19). This throws off the point-matchers—dry folders who align every crease by matching points. The wet-folder locates the crease, not the points; there is a difference. The advent of wet-folding brought about a new style of origami art. Wet-folded origami fish now appear to be swimming thanks to the graceful curves possible in the fins and other folds. Wet-folded origami flowers seem to be growing, and butterflies no longer look like pin-mounted specimens in a museum box.
Ever since I began folding my own handmade papers and other soft Asian papers, I realized that I needed to back-coat or add size to them to make them stiffer. I had learned about cooking starch paste for other art projects, but since my family was in the construction business I had methylcellulose wallpaper paste readily available. It did not require cooking and when it dried it was invisible. I tried it. Methylcellulose proved ideal for my origami art. When I folded my orchid for the first time, in 1973, I was experimenting with machine-made crepe paper. I realized that I needed to add both water to fold it and size to keep it in shape after it dried. Instead of moistening and surfacesizing the entire piece of crepe paper (which would have destroyed the creping), I dry-folded the model but applied methylcellulose strategically to stiffen the lip and petals and to hold other layers together as I folded it. Since then, I have referred to this method as “folding with live paste” and I use it for folding insects and other complex designs that use very thin papers requiring additional stiffness.
Soft, rounded, gentle curves and expressive sculptural folds characterize many of today’s excellent wet-folded models. Wet-folding requires paper with supple, long, strong fibers. Wet-folding enables the fibers to be bent, not broken, upon folding. This allows the artist to tackle complex designs that often require multiple folds along the same line or intersecting at the same point. Dry-folding these complex models would not be possible without breaking through the paper at key intersections. After being wet-folded, the subsequently dried model will retain its shape, a property particularly cherished by the serious origami art collector. Wet-folding will allow you to make use of a greater range of art papers that would be too thick to fold dry.
Typical papers chosen for wet-folding are often heavier and rather soft. You should rarely burnish wet paper with the back of your thumbnail since wet paper is prone to bruising. When wet-folding large paper in the air, you must use gravity to its best advantage, folding downward from the top, letting the hanging portions of the paper guide your fingers to their target.
Wetting the paper with water can be done in several ways, but the water must always be added to both sides of the sheet to mitigate curling of the paper. Water may be sprayed with a plant mister. You can also apply the water with a damp cloth or sponge.
Be sure to apply water evenly across the sheet and allow the water to be completely absorbed into the paper. Use the least amount of water possible. The paper should be limp and cool to the touch but it should not look wet! Add more water as needed while folding. A small, soft paint brush or the corner of a rag is useful for this purpose.
Every project in this book can be wet-folded but some, such as the North American Cardinal (page 28) and the Origamido Butterfly (page 33), will require relatively little moisture, and often that need be applied only along the line of an important crease.
Preparing Your Paper for Wet-Folding
The surface properties you want for your paper will be dictated by the characteristics of the model. A leathery creature, such as a bat, requires a stiffer fiber and plenty of sizing. A fuzzy subject, such as a piglet, requires softer fiber, such as cotton, with its fuzzier texture and warmth. Folding can be tough on the surface of the paper and most wet-folders prefer
