Fold and reopen
Fold around behind
Flip the whole piece over
Most pieces start with the paper facing color side down. The drawings show the front in color, and the back in white.
This is a mountain fold; it looks a bit like a mountain.
This is a valley fold.
Some shapes are made with reverse folds. Start by creasing the paper along the fold lines. Open out the paper slightly, reverse each of the folds, and re-crease them to make a neat corner. The series of illustrations above depicts an outside reverse fold followed by an inside reverse fold.
The directions tell you to fold on such-and-such a line, but if you use your own paper you won’t have the lines. No problem! Just remember that in origami folds are usually made so that corners and edges meet, or folds start at half-way points. The diagrams for each model show you which edges and corners to use. And where corners and edges aren’t indicated, the placement of the fold isn’t that critical.
basic folds
There are only so many ways to start folding origami projects. A few of the most common ways are called bases, and they’re used as starting points for folding diagrams. Here are the bases used in this kit.
waterbomb base
The waterbomb base is the beginning of the famous waterbomb, but it is also the beginning of many other projects. Here is an easy way of doing it.
1 Start with the color side down. Fold and unfold from corner to corner. Flip the paper over.
2 Fold the paper in half and unfold it again.
3 Collapse the sides away from you along the creases you’ve made.
4 This is the finished water-bomb base.
blintz base
The blintz base is named for the pastry it resembles. Some projects fold the corners in just once, and some fold the paper two or three times, but either way the process is the same. The first step is to find the center of the paper.
1 Start with the color side down. Line up opposite corners and crimp the paper with your fingers to make a tiny crease in the middle.
2 Crimp the paper again in the other direction to find the center. A tiny crease won’t be as noticeable in the finished piece as a long fold would be.
3 Fold the four corners in so they touch the center.
4 This is the finished blintz base.
kite base
The kite base is called that because it looks like a kite. A variation is to fold two opposite corners in to the center, like half of a blintz base. The kite base is the start of the fish base.
1 Start with the color side down. Fold and unfold from corner to corner to find the center.
2 Fold the corners in to the centerline.
3 The kite base is finished.
fish base
This base looks a bit like a fish without a tail. It has two flaps in the middle that can be used to make fins, legs, and all sorts of things.
1 Start with the color side down. Fold and unfold as if making kite bases facing up and down.
2 Fold the corners in to the centerline.
3 Press down the folds to crease the paper underneath and the fish base is finished.
making a collage
Making a collage is no more difficult than folding the individual pieces. You can put as much or as little time into it as you like. The simplest collages are just origami glued to a paper backing. At the other end of the scale are pictures made up of dozens of tiny pieces filled out with paint and paper cutout details. Or you can take the middle road: a simple paper background with just enough origami pieces to make up a nice composition.
You’ll want to do a bit of thinking before you start cutting and pasting. For example, you’ll want to have a theme. Birds, fishes, a garden, a zoo, dinosaurs—anything goes! Without a theme, your collage will probably just look like a bunch of origami stuck on a poster, though even that could turn out fine.
Think about the relative size of the pieces. Do they look like they belong together? Use different sizes of paper to get them right, or use large and small pieces to give your picture depth. The style and level of detail should be about the same too. And how about color? Care with color choices can give you a really striking result.
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