Table of Contents
HANDS-ON ORIGAMI
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Kazuo Kobayashi’s Super Simple Origami (Gakken, 2018) has “frustration-free” projects appropriate for ages 6 and up. |
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John Montroll’s Easy Origami (Dover, 1992) has about 30 simply projects for absolute beginners. |
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Margaret Van Sicklen’s Origami on the Go (Workman, 2009) is a multifaceted book of information and origami projects, intended to occupy, amuse, and educate squirmy kids on trips. There are 40 different folding projects, each paired with a little something extra: instructions for an origami fan are accompanied by an explanation of the difference between Fahrenheit and Celsius temperature scales; a paper stunt plane is paired with an account of the “World’s Biggest Flyby” and pictures (on postage stamps) of the Wright brothers. Also included are finger puppets, a fortune teller, a jumping frog (made from a business card), and a bowtie (made from a dollar bill). The book is illustrated with color photographs, and comes with 100 sheets of origami paper and two sheets of decorative stickers. For ages 8 and up. |
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Who can resist these? Brian Castleforte’s Papertoy Glowbots is a collection of 46 different paper robots that light up! For ages 9-18. |
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Origami Kit for Dummies by Nick Robinson (Wiley, 2008) consists of a 292-page book and a packet of origami paper. The book includes basic instructions, techniques for designing your own origami shapes, step-by-step folding diagrams for 75 projects (from the simple to the challenging), a description of ten different styles of origami, and profiles of “Ten Incredible Folders.” |
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Jeremy Shafer’s Origami to Astonish and Amuse (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2001) is a clever and hilarious guide to action origami, featuring instructions for paper action models for – among others – a working Swiss army knife, a pair of paper nail clippers, a cheeping bird, a darting Frog Tongue. Inevitably, my favorite section of the book is “Origami for the Almost Deranged,” which includes an Unopenable Envelope, a carbon atom, and a car that runs on four legs rather than wheels. |
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Robert J. Lang’s Origami in Action (St. Martin’s Griffin, 1997) has instructions for 39 different action models, with photographs of the finished product, which yours, hopefully, will look like. Among the projects are a flapping bird and fluttering butterfly, a dog that wags its tail, a kicking otter, a blow-up bunny, a fiddling bassist and an Indian paddling a canoe. |
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Kelsuke Saka’s Karakuri: How to Make Mechanical Paper Models That Move (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2010) combines simple machines (gears, cranks, levers) with paper models. Included are printed pull-out pages for assembles a tea-serving robot, a flapping penguin, and more. |
| Origami Club has dozens of themed origami projects (categories include Animals, Paper Planes, Newspaper and Big Size Origami, and much more). For each there are both diagrammatic and animated instructions. | |
| Origami-Instructions.com has a brief history of origami and a long list of projects for which the instructions are presented with helpful color photographs. Among the categories are “Origami for Kids” (very easy), “Holiday Origami,” and “Origami Toys,” among these last the ever-popular water balloon. | |
| The Origami Resource Center has dozens of creative projects, among them a series of month-by-month “Classroom Projects” for kids, teaching tips, a “Kirigami for Kids” page, Star Wars origami (make Yoda and the Millennium Falcon), and information on tea-bag folding, pop-up projects, and 3-D origami. | |
| The Exploring Origami issue of the San Francisco Exploratorium’s online magazine is devoted to the art and science of paperfolding. Included are informational illustrated articles and instructions for making folded paper airplanes and your own handmade paper. | |
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M.C. Escher Kaleidocycles by Doris Schattsschneider and Wallace Walker (Pomegranate, 2005) has 17 ready-to-assemble 3-D models of (gorgeous) paper kaleidocycles and polyhedrons, printed with Escher designs. |
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Dover Publications is a terrific (and inexpensive) source for origami paper, kits, and project books for all ages, variously featuring birds, bugs, dinosaurs, sea animals, geometric shapes, airplanes, spaceships, and more. |
| Paper Jade sells many kinds of origami paper, from the large to the tiny, as well as project books and kits for folders of all ages. |