Origami : The ancient art of folding papers

Do you remember the first time you folded a paper plane, made that fancy looking hand-fan or ran to play with paper boats on a rainy day? All that simple fun with paper actually dates back to an ancient art form called Origami (oru-meaning fold) and (kami-meaning paper). The art of folding a sheet of paper into something creative, origami is deeply ingrained in Japanese culture.

Although the exact origins of this ancient practice are unknown (some say that the tradition first started in China!) but it has been traced as early as 6 BC to Buddhist monks, who used origami for ceremonial purposes.

Fun Fact: The Japanese consider the crane to be a magical creature and a symbol of hope. They believe that if one folds 1000 origami cranes, one’s wish will come true.

While this ancient art came started off as a folk art, the usage of origami has evolved immensely in modern times. Today, origami plays an important role in several fields like architecture, medicine, space technology, robotics, mathematics as well as art. But above all, it still remains as one of the most popular, effective and mind boggling hobby across age groups!

Origami – A cool hobby

The real art of origami goes beyond just paper kites and napkin folds. No matter how you fold it, origami is a way to improve thinking skills, increase concentration levels and be more creative and constructive. Let’s look at how origami can help you polish your other talents:

• Origami enhances the ability to be more mindful and focused:

The art of folding helps improve your working memory, perfect hand-eye coordination and enables you to pay attention to minute details.

• Math lessons are enticing with origami:

Origami and mathematics are so closely related that you will be amazed! You can study topics like measurements, fractions & proportions and basic reasoning among others, all with just a few paper folds. In fact, researchers have found that students who use origami in math perform better.

• You can be a Miura folding maestro:  

In the 1970, Japanese astrophysicist Koryo Miura invented the Miura map folding – a technique to fold a flat sheet into something creative. At present, the Miura fold technique is largely used in space programs especially while launching a space satellite.

• You can be an origami magician!  

Imagine how cool it would be to create anything with just a piece of sheet. You can take the art of paper folding into next level and turn all your old notebooks into masterpieces. And while you are practicing the paper folds, you can get some friends together and teach them some cool tricks as well!

• Lastly, origami can be the answer to your quirky questions:

Remember those common questions we all had, like “Why are pizza boxes square shaped when pizzas are circular and are cut into triangle slices?” or “Why do some paper boats float for a longer time than the others?” Well, origami and math have answers to all of these!

Many of you would have already played around with folding paper in the past, and already know how to make a paper boat or how to make a paper plane. But there are numerous objects that can be crafted with paper and more than one way of doing the same. So, this month, let’s dive into this exciting hobby and explore multiple ways of turning a piece of paper into creative three dimensional objects.

Here are some easy origami with steps to begin with.  Do tell us which are your favorite ones 🙂

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