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Origami or paper folding
Origami is the Japanese form of paper folding. It is the best known of two. There is another form: the Chinese art of paper folding.
Chinese are world-renowned for their handicraft. In China,
little boys and girls are taught by their elders to use their hands.
Even at an early age those chubby hands with their tiny, nimble
fingers, are busily engaged in making paper toys such as boats, boxes, hats, and birds, for themselves and their playmates.
Although almost any laminar material can be used for folding, the choice of material used greatly affects the folding and final look of the model.
Normal copy paper with weights of 70-90 g/mē can be used for simple folds, such as the crane and water bomb.
Heavier weight papers of 100 g/mē or more can be wet-folded. This technique allows for a more rounded sculpting of the model, which becomes rigid and sturdy when dry. Special origami paper, often also referred to as "kami", is sold in prepackaged squares of various sizes ranging from 2.5 cm to 25 cm or more.
It is commonly coloured on one side and white on the other; however, dual coloured and patterned versions exist and can be used effectively for colour-changed models. Origami paper weighs slightly less than copy paper, making it suitable for a wider range of models.
Foil-backed paper, just as its name implies, is a sheet of thin foil glued to a sheet of thin paper.
Related to this is tissue foil, which is made by gluing a thin piece of tissue to kitchen aluminum foil. A second piece of tissue can be glued onto the reverse side to produce a tissue/foil/tissue sandwich. Foil-backed paper is available commercially but not tissue foil. Both types of foil materials are suitable for complex models.
This paper-folding art, as we call it in China, is done with only a single sheet of paper and your hands, without any pasting
together or the use of scissors. It is the most interesting, inexpensive, and useful art for children and grownups. Origami gives endless joy to youngsters and also to invalids confined to the narrow
limits of a home or hospital.
Origami can be most advantageously used
as therapy for patients with paralyzed hands endeavoring to regain their dexterity.
When I was a little girl my mother taught me, as her mother
had taught her, how to make toys with paper. I used to spend
many rainy days trying to create new origami objects that neither my
mother nor my grandmother knew how to make. I was so proud
of myself!
Of course, this was a long time ago. Now I have a little girl
of my own. She loves all the origami things I teach her to make, especially the multicolored ones that we make together for her birthday and Christmas parties. Her little friends, and their parents, all enjoy them as much as we do. They come back time and
again to get me to show them how to do the origami paper objects. Their eagerness and deep interest have prompted me to put my paper
foldings in this website.
I hope that my American friends, especially the Junior Americans, will find great interest and enjoyment in the art of origami or Chinese paper folding.
This website will teach you :
Sooying May
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