Origami Techniques - Beginners Guide To Basic Folds And Bases-00-6183

By Author: Jeff BensonII
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Introduction

Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding such as the traditional crane design and also more modern forms such as Stars Wars inspired designs The word derives from ori meaning "fold", and gami meaning "paper".

In general, the shape of origami paper is square, either plain white or in different colours. Patterned paper can make for interesting effects also.

Though there are only a small number of simple origami folds for a beginner to learn they can be combined in a variety of ways to create a wide range of designs. A useful tips is to use a tool such as a chopstick, ruler or biro pen to push along your handmade fold for a tight and clean crease though some purists would argue that this is against the traditions of origami.

Basic Origami Folds

Valley The valley fold is the first basic fold in any beginners repertoire. The fold simply means to fold the paper forward onto itself.

Mountain The mountain fold is basically the valley fold but reversed so you fold the paper back behind itself. Though given a folding name of its own you can simply turn the paper over ...
... and make a valley fold then turn the paper back over and you have your mountain fold.

Pleat or Accordion The pleat fold or also known as the accordion fold are various evenly separated consecutive mountain and valley folds which gives a concertina effect.

Radial Pleat The radial pleat fold is an angled pleat fold, as above, usually anchored from point on an edge or corner sometimes giving a fan effect.

Blintz The blintz fold is made by folding the corners of your square paper into the middle. You can more accurately achieve this by lightly folding and then unfolding two creases through the middle of your paper for a reference point.

Squash A squash fold starts with a flap with at least two layers. Make a radial fold from the closed point down the centre of the flap. Open the flap and refold downward to make two side by side flaps.

Rabbit Ear A rabbit ear fold starts with a reference crease down a diagonal. Fold two radial folds from opposite corners along the same side of the reference crease. The resulting flap should be folded downwards so that the previous edges are aligned.

Petal The petal fold is made by raising a layer then opening it up and flattening. Usually it is made by two mountain folds and a single valley fold.

Origami Bases You can create many designs from just a few simple bases. An origami base means the folds made immediately before the final folding and shaping of the design.

Preliminary The preliminary base is made by a valley fold diagonally from bottom right to top left then unfold. Turn the paper over and then make a valley fold from bottom left to top right then unfold back to your original square shape. You should now see eight small triangles in the creases. Bring the corners together and flatten to from a small folded square base.

Kite The kite base is simply two valley folds that bring forward two adjacent edges of the square paper collectively to lie on the squares' diagonal.

Fish The fish base is two radial folds using a diagonal reference crease on each of the two opposite corners. This should leave you with two flaps on the other two corners which are should then be carefully folded downwards in the same direction.

Bird or CraneThe bird base, or crane base, starts with the preliminary base Now petal fold both both the front and the back layers. The base will resemble a diamond shape.

Frog BaseThe frog base starts with the preliminary fold. Then squash fold all four flaps and petal fold the corners upward.

Summary

There are other folds for intermediate and more advanced origami enthusiasts but the basic folds and bases learnt from this article should start you on the wondrous road of origami.

The techniques described in this article are a useful resource but with a visual medium such as origami, videos and diagrams are other useful sources of information for any beginner learning origami.

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