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Origami: 10 Tips for The Best Origami

Origami is a great approach to accessible sculpture. You can take a flat piece of paper and create something beautiful. The word "origami" comes from the Japanese words meaning "to fold" (oru) and "paper" (kami), so let's dive into some tips that will take your folded paper to folded art.

Basic Tips for Origami

1. Follow instructions thoroughly. Every step is important, whether it is a strong fold, a soft crease, or unfolding an existing fold.

2. Start with simple designs and work steadily towards more complicated work. Simple origami designs, like the jumping frog, will help you learn basic folds and techniques, ensuring that you have a foundation and an experience base for when you approach more difficult designs, like an origami dragon.

3. Understand geometry. If you have a basic knowledge of geometry and how three dimensional objects are built using planes, lines, intersections, points and corners, then you will be able to grasp complicated designs and complete them, and perhaps start designing your own.

4. Use paper designed for origami. Origami paper is designed to be just the right thickness for folding, is perfectly square, and has a top and a bottom, usually with a design or color being the only on the top, or front, of the paper.

5. If you aren't using origami paper, whether it is for artistic purposes or whether it is for availability, then make sure that you cut it into a perfect square. If it isn't perfectly square, then your design will probably be lopsided or even incorrect.

Origami Folding Tips

1. Make a soft crease before you commit to a complete fold. This way, if your fold is slightly off, you can correct and perfect it before making the hard fold.

2. Fold each crease well. Each crease needs to be flattened strongly and precisely for most origami creations to look as they should, so crease each fold with a scoring tool, also called a paper folding tool, to reinforce it, unless the directions say otherwise.

3. Use a flat surface on which to fold your designs. Make sure there are no ridges or dents, otherwise that will possibly affect the final result of your paper design.

4. Pay attention to symmetry of each fold. Symmetry is a large part of successful origami, so making sure the each fold is nice and symmetrical where it should be will help make the final piece as perfect as possible.

5. Learn to make a square base. Many of the most favorite designs start with a square base, so this is a good fold to learn and master.