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Simple Origami Tutorials
May 9, 2018 05:43:21   #
Leonard
 
Hey everyone. I hope you all had a good time. Well, as this is a pretty new forum, I thought it would be great to share some tutorials first - both easy as well as those a little bit more advanced. Origami surely is an art itself and every single creation of ours requries the utmost attention, focus and well.. some great imagination on top of solid manual skills. But, well as you probably know if you tried yourself - manual skills can be learnt.

Sure, some are are good at that and some are worse, but even if you are good, you still probably create anything advanced right out the bat, right? So, even if you feel really terrible at this - don't worry - it can be learnt, just like every other skill. The important part here is to keep learning and keep trying. As long as you like it, you will eventually master the art of origami.

Well, master is probably not the most suitable word to apply here as after all, the possibilities of origami as well as skillcap itself are pretty much unlimited, so in my opinion - nobody ever perfectly masters the origami, but you surely can take yourself up to advanced level and further, if you are dedicated enough to do this. Heck, even I myself - and I practice for over 8 years wasn't good at this at the beginning. I could say that I was far below what most beginners level are, I never did too much of activities requiring manual skills, and well, play video games isn't the best way to teach yourself any kind of manual skills anyway, right? So, I started off being terrible, but I was slowly making my way through and after few years I got pretty good - or so I think. Anyhow, everyone can become good at this - all you need is dedication and the very love for the art of creation.

Okay, so let's get onto some tutorials first. Frankly, there is so many different ways to learn something and there is basically endless amount of patterns, so I will only show you guys a couple of my favorites, but if you have any questions or a specific pattern, that you would love to see included, then I will make sure to write you guys a tutorial :)

FLOWER

Fold the square origami paper into two parts - through the center, basically fold them in half. Then fold this very small fragment from the bottom (preferably right corner) and pull out the corner, so you can form an "inverted triangle" - do the same with the second half of the paper, and once you are done with it - pull those two corners outward. After this turn the paper to the other side and do the very same thing with remaining two corners. Okay, after you do this you should be around 80% done - now, cut off the protruding ends and you should have a pretty nice flower.

Of course, there are various ways to do that and many different design, this is a recipe for the simplest flower.

CHICK

This one is pretty easy, but it's also one of my favorites and I literally always love to build it.
For the starter, you should fold the paper in half - just like if you were to cut in half, then unfold it. Then, start from the bottom and make both sides to meet the center crease and then proceed with the tip of it - fold it down a little bit, and then fold it a little bit up. Basically, the tip should stick out approximately half an inch from the top edge.
After you are done with those steps fold paper in half, rotate it by around 90 degrees and pull down the beak (kind of like it were to point in the left, if we are directly looking at it. The view you should take to evaluate that is with the tip of our soon-to-be a chick pointing down. The paper will shift back a little bit, you should just press it down flat a little bit (but not too hard, and recrease the edges). Then, you should make a diagonal mountain, fold it, crease well and unfold it.
The crease is an every important step here, you should make an reverse fold, but focused to the inside. And well, that's should it be it. Pretty simple, but a lot of steps that can make some people confused.

SWAN

Origami Swan is basically a classic - everyone knows this one and once you think of origami, you always imagine some kind of bird to be created - for most people, especially those not interested in origami, that have just heard some stuff about it, it's usually a Swan.

So Swan isn't that easy as the Chick for example, but you shouldn't encounter any problems as well as you have created a few of them in the past already.
So firstly, you should take out your origami square paper and fold it diagonally - just like with the chick, literally like you were to cut in half, and then unfold it. Then, you should fold the lower edges into the centerline - we'll call it a kite base, and flip it over. After this, you should make a double fold and repeat it on the other side as well. Point of the piece should be folded upwards, while the very "head" of our swan should be folded downwards. After you do this fold the swan in half, pull its neck a little bit upwards and unfold what should make head and the body.

Okay, after this you should be done and your beautiful swan should be ready. Don't worry if you didn't make it in your first try, but keep trying - you will eventually get it, it's pretty simple even if pretty hard to visualize during the process.

CHAIR



So firstly, get your origami square paper and fold in half - fold both halves of the diagonal axis, crease it well and unfold it. After that, fold all corners that you should have visible now to the very center and flip the paper over. Now, repeat it - fold all 4 corners to the center again, and flip the paper over. Again, repeat - fold all 4 corners to the center, flip it over, pry the paper at the bottom, fold it down and without using too much strength press the paper a little bit flat. Do the same for all of the remaining 6 corners - you should get something looking like a lantern.

Then Repeat it again for those two remaining corners, that you should have now. You should now do all the corners. Now fold up one corner and fold down the second corner - they should be opposite to each other, you have 4 to choose from, so doesn't matter which side you will choose, but they have to be in the opposite direction of each other. Then fold up the remaining two corners, and well... you should have quite a nice origami chair completed! That wasn't so easy, but surely rewarding - although, I'm sure I could do half of it with my eyes closed - yup, I have practiced it a bit :P

BENCH

Very easy one - usually for kids, basically anybody can do it - if that's your first try with origami, then you should start with building a bench, you literally cannot go wrong with this one, trust me! :)

Bench is actually very similar to the chair - at least in the beginning and as long as creating an origami chair is a little bit more advanced, the very first steps are very easy, hence I believe literally everyone, even those that have zero previous experience with origami, should be able to create themselves a nice looking origami bench.

Okay, so start is extremely similar - fold your origami paper in half (both of the diagonal exis), crease it and unfold. All the corners should be folded to the center and repeated for both sides. So first fold all 4 corners to the center, turn it over and fold all corners to the center again. Once you do that, again - just like with the cair, fold all four corners to the center, flip it over and pry at the bottom. This step now is a little bit harder, but I'm sure you will manage - fold it down and gently press the paper a little bit flat, so you have some kind of an opening (we could say it's a mouth). Now, try to create yourself a lantern and do the very same thing for all of the remaining 6 corners.

Okay, now the process is entirely different than when build a chair - once we have our lantern, we should now fold the top layers (the side ones) - we should fold them a little bit like pushing them out to the side, so they create a triangle - kind of like wings, if we were to build something else. Then, flip your paper over, so we can see something like the crater made of 4 different triangles. Now, you should fold the left and right corner to the center, and then fold the whole piece of paper in half and rotate it to the other side. Then the last step - fold down (mountain folds) two opposite sides and well, we have built ourselves a bench. Wasn't that hard, right?

Of course, I'm aware that you will get much more from watching videos - a lot of them are pretty much detailed, but if you can't create anythign with the video alone, well, then I hope my pretty short tutorials will be of help.

Let me know if you don't understand any of the above and I will do my best to assist you :)

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May 9, 2018 05:43:59   #
CatherineC
 
Leonard, nice looking tutorials - yeah, they are pretty short and written in a quite straight-forward manner and I guess total beginners may have quite of a problem to understand what you really wanted them to do, as long as I understood everything, I also have built all of the above many times, so that's less of a problem for me. It would be best if any of the beginners actually replied here to see if they can understand it - of course, without videos or pictures at least it will be extremely hard to do it properly. Even though, I'm not too much of pictures fan - I believe videos are a much better idea, pictures will only limit our dimensional thinking, while videos may not exactly develop it, but are at least pretty much fast-paced, so we have to think for ourselves for most of the part. So, that's a pretty solid supplemntation for the videos, but without them, it's pretty much useless. Hope you don't mind my pretty harsh opinion, anyhow a pretty good job and I'm looking forward to see more, if you have some time to make them :)

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May 9, 2018 05:44:09   #
Leonard
 
Yeah, I get what you mean CatherineC. Just like I said - without videos it would be hard for most people to create it off my tutorials, unless such person already has some experience in origami and has followed the steps I have mentioned a couple of times. But, if we are to supplement my description with videos - which is what you should actually do, I'm sure it will help you get the right idea on what you should do as I was trying to speak this kind of 'beginners' language, wihle most of the tutorials kind of treat like you already had a few years of experience with origami. Anyway, if it's useless I can always delete the thread.

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May 9, 2018 05:44:23   #
Beacon
 
No, no, no Leonard. Don't worry, Catherine may have been a little bit harsh on you, but you did a pretty good job. Although there is only 5 tutorials out there, I'm sure there will be people who will find it helpful. I'm not a total beginner as I already have 1 years of experience with origami, but I have understood your tutorials without a problem and was able to do both bench and the chick without any other tutorials, but yeah, I have already done similar stuff in the past.

I especially liked your chick exmaple - I know it's a pretty simple tutorial, but I have actually learnt quite a lot from it as the video I learnt how to build a chick from was entirely different - and yeah, the outcome was slightly different as well, that's why it's great to have as many tutorials as possible made by different people and from a different perspective. Everyone learnt from other books or other people, some have mastered certain figures themselves, so it's extremely helpful to have as many tutorials as possible. Even the very simple chick can be made in three different ways or probably even more, and every single of those ways are a great learning experience. So, keep the thread and don't worry so much, even though it's a pretty new forum and most people that have joined this community already had some experience with this, I'm sure there will be some newbie to chip in and show you some love

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May 9, 2018 05:44:33   #
Flying Bird
 
Hi, Leonard! Really good job on those tutorials. Well, I'm actually a total beginner when it comes to Origami, so I thought that it would be nice to "chip in" just like Beacon said. I was trying to build a chair off the tutorial you have written here and supplemented myself with the video and it worked like a charm. Sure, video was much more detailed and I have learnt more from here, but the way of building this chair was also significantly different and the video and I'm glad that I now know how to make a chair in two different ways. So just like others said, without pics or the video it is extremely hard to create anything, even if the tutorial is superb - which I consider yours are. Just a little bit short and maybe you could divide into more steps, but well, I could be asking for too much haha - I'm just pretty new to origami, so I feel like I require a special attention.

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May 9, 2018 05:44:44   #
Leonard
 
Thanks guys. Flying Bird - I appreciate your warm words, yeah, I guess I could make it a little bit more detailed, but then again I already had the detailed video in mind, so just wanted to put those tutorials as short as possible - basically highlighting only the most important steps, as those simple activities are pretty hard to write about and well, you will already understand them once you watch the video or even see the pictures, so I tried to focus on the very foundations.

But, If I am to make any more tutorials I would be glad to make some pics or well, maybe even a video and keep it much more detailed, like step-by-step for total beginners, if you would like it guys.

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May 9, 2018 05:44:54   #
Flying Bird
 
Sure, seems exciting. I would personally love that!

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May 9, 2018 05:45:13   #
Albatrose
 
Pretty nice tuts, good job. I am a beginner to origami as well, hopefully I will learn very quickly - haven't had time to try to build anything from your tutorials, but I have already created a swan from the youtube videos, so I will be glad to try and repeat it based on your tutorials and see if I can make it as good as from the video - if not, then well, I still have tons to learn probably :P Anyway, I will make sure to give you feedback wheter I was or I wasn't able to create one just from your tutorial :)

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May 9, 2018 05:45:52   #
Catapult
 
Well, those are good looking tuts, but I frankly expected to see a little bit more :P Well, I know it takes quite some to write those up, even without videos or photos, but as for a tutorial thread I hoped to see at least 10 or 15 different origami tutorials. If you have some time, would be great if you could expand your collection, or actually, I could make some in spare time. Not sure when I will be able to have enough time to prepare anything like this - especially, as I would love to include some pictures as well - video might be too for me, I actually never made a video before, so I think sticking just to photos should be enough, and well, it will also be much easier for people to create their own origamis.

Yes, I know there is tons of pictures and videos already and I could just write a simple text like you did, but I believe it would be much easier with pictures, especially as you could simply start creating your origami following a certain tutorial step-by-step. I believe watching a video or even checking up photos on other websites and following text-only instructions is too much of a distraction cause as it was already said here - it's an art, and as it is always with art, everyone has a different way to create something, is following different patterns and so on, so it's pretty hard to follow two other people doing the same thing, but very differently and expect good results.

Anyway, I'm not here to critique your methods, I believe you did a pretty good job with writing those and I'm sure they will be of assistance for many people, but they just simply don't look complete, if you ask me.

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May 9, 2018 05:46:15   #
Leonard
 
Yup, I know what you mean Catapult - they are not exactly 'complete', but as I said, this is was partly my goal as well. I didn't want to build a step-by-step exact tutorial, but rather highlight the most important things during building something. For people with already some experience with origami, this should totally be enough. Anyway, in my future tutorials, I will try to keep it more detailed and hopefully you will guys be more happy then

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May 9, 2018 05:46:24   #
Malcolm_94
 
Leonard! Nice job. Don't pay attention to any negative feedback, those are pretty nice tutorials - I'm totally new to origami and yet I have been able to build a chick with just photos I have found over the internet and your tutorial. It's one of my first few arts I have ever done and I have never considered myself to be exceptionally good manually - average I would say, but always like the very art of creating something. Same I have gotten into origami just now as it seems to be a really cool hobby, but I hope I will be able to quickly make up the difference and soon create some really exciting stuff, just like some of you guys.

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May 9, 2018 05:46:32   #
Kanka11
 
Nice tutorials. I'm pretty new to origami as well, although I have around 6 months experience, but unfortunately wasn't able to spend too much time on this. Seems like I'm getting distracted all the time - university here, work there and well, I barely even have some time to sit on this over the weekend, and even then when I finally have some spare time, I'm not exactly into creating anything as I just feel too tired. Well, one thing I can say that it's not the most relaxing hobby :P I mean, sure it's relaxing, but in a totally different way - once you get back from work or university exhausted, you would rather do something that doesn't require you to think or focus at all, something simple and trivial, and origami is everything, but that. So despite having 6 months of experience in total, I have only built a few simple arts - I will try to catch up on your tutorials and create something, hopefully I can make it happen this month. Still, good job and I appreciate the time you have put to help beginners and others origami lovers.

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May 9, 2018 05:46:39   #
Albatrose
 
Okay, I had a free evening today, so just after coming back from work I started doing a Swan accordingly with your instructions. Gotta say, it was much easier than I have anticipated. Of course haven't been able to create it totally without videos or photos as I have helped myself with the video, that I have used to build my Swan, but it was pretty easy nonetheless. Good job Leonard, I will make sure to do all other 4 and follow your instructions. As the Chick looks pretty easy, I may actually try to create it without following any kind of youtube videos or photos :P The flower also looks quit easy, so I may give it a try as well. Once I do them, I will make sure to respond here again and hopefully... show some great results again :)

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May 9, 2018 05:46:49   #
Leonard
 
Thanks a lot Albatrose. I'm very glad that you have made it work and a bit surprised, that a Swan was quite easy for you, especially as you said you are a beginner. I remember creating my first Swan was quite of a nightmare for me haha. But then again, like I said - I was literally terrible in anything that required manual work. I never worked much manually and was a typical computer geek, so as long as I was pretty handy with mouse and keyboard, anything else was pretty hard to do for me. I remember how father used to scold me when we were renovating our home and I was helping him. I was so clueless about it and even following step-by-step instructions from him weren't that easy. Now, after years of practicing origami I'm also doing some kind of white-collar jobs myself. Not professionaly by any means, but rather helping my wife to have a nice flat + you can save yourself tons of money if you are handy with this kind work as doing everything by yourself is extremely cheap, apart from time of course. So yeah, origami has definitely led me on the right path and I owe it a lot.

As for you though - you may be simply talented if it was so easy for you, make sure to share some pictures too once you have time, we would love to see some pictures of your Swan - don't worry, even if it doesn't look exactly right, there is tons of time practice and polish your skills! :P

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May 9, 2018 05:46:57   #
Albatrose
 
Thanks for kind words. Hah, I would never say that I'm talented or particularly good with my hands, although I doubt that I'm as bad as you once were (no offense). I did a fair share if typical 'white-collar' jobs, always helping my father and very often my mom too as they were unfortunately divorced, and both of them are kind of lonely wolfs, so they only had me to rely on eventually. Anyway, not sure when I will have enough time to share some of my work, but hopefully this week or another I will be able to create something and I will make sure to post some photos here and give my feedback again. As for the Swan, I have already thrown it away - it was far from perfect, so... But I will make another one and hopefully this one will be much better. As long as I said it's easy, I didn't mean, that I have created a really nice looking bird. I was just surprised that I was able to create anything that actually resembles a bird, so... But, I'm sure this time I can make an even better one (or at least, so I hope :P) We will see, hate making false promises.

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