Paper Folding for Beginners

by William D. Murray

Within the past few years a new word and a new skill have become popular in America: "origami" is the word and it means the Japanese art of folding sheets of paper to create useful and amusing or beautiful objects. This volume has been prepared to serve as an introduction to this varied and entertaining art, and we are reprinting it at the recommendation of several of America's foremost paper folding experts.

This book is unusual in containing a full, crystal clear text that anticipates all the difficulties which you might have, and more than 275 carefully labeled diagrams that show important stages in the creation of paper objects. As a result you will find everything that you need to know explained in detail, so that you will be able to make the figures you want with neatness and sureness, instead of losing hours spent in infuriating trial and error as is usually the case with other books. Especially helpful is the presentation technique which the authors employ: complex figures are logically and easily led out of relatively simple figures, so that you can proceed at your own speed, and have something to show for your work at each stage. You will discover that this book teaches you the basic positions to the craft, so that you will be able to move on to more complex books with much greater insight and ability.

The authors show you how to make more than 43 different pieces: decorated place mats, drinking cups, bonbon boxes that you can use; sailboats, roosters, battleships, Chinese towers, birds that stand upright, frogs that move their legs, airplanes, cradles, Japanese lanterns, sunfish, talking goose heads, and thirty other ingenious, useful and unusual objects that will amuse you as you make them, entertain your friends, and delight your children.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

95 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1928

Reviews

[Johanna Cormier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a couple dozen origami books, collected over a few decades. This- was my first origami book from which I developed a love of origami when I was about ten years old. The instructions were clear in both wordage and diagrams. I especially loved the story folding sequence that took on through several models until one finished with the complicated 'chinese junket'. That repetion of multiple forms really helped to hone my folding abilities and gave great joy in being able to make many models on the way to the final one.

This is not a babied-down book for children but written with all ages in mind.