learn origami

Learned how to make a tulip btw, gave up on the unopened lotus blossom for now.

In other noise spent way too much at the stationary store on origami paper and am likely to make a return trip in the next week or so. The theme for Christmas this year is origami, plan on decking the halls with all my practice attempts.

I’ll call this good after learning 10 origami designs.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Paper-Lotus-Flower/

I love the look of the finished product in this instructable but I have tried this pattern over and over and over again. I still can’t seem to get a crisp looking flower, or even one that’s round. Argh.

At the moment, I have a ton of newspaper. So, I thought it’d be a great idea to use some of that newspaper to make origami. My first attempt, to make a garbage box, was a failure. :( I really need to get some homework done, so I’ll work on this goal later.

Okay, I learned how to make paper cranes this morning and did up a few. If I had prettier paper, I would post them. Alas all I had on hand was some very heavy, lined notebook paper.

The trick will be remembering the steps in a couple days time. One thing about this goal is that I don’t just want to learn a couple of patterns and never be able to pull it off without a diagram in hand. I want to learn and retain so that I can make a few of these from memory.

I had intended to sit down and do a different origami pattern using every last bit of origami paper I had today, and I was possibly going to string them up in front of the south windows, but the first pattern I liked a lot stole my fire.

It was a fairly simple butterfly by a well-known and respected origamist, and I kept making it until I could do it from memory.

That’s the kind of origami I want to do, and while the goal could be rushed over, I don’t want to do that to myself. Things take as long as they take, and if I would just let things have their necessary beginning, middle, and end, maybe I would feel more satisfied with what I’ve already done, rather than constantly chasing the next thing and the next and the next…

Very very soon, I am going to work this goal to completion, because it won’t take much to satisfy myself that I’ve done it, and there are other things that are calling out to take this spot.

My thought is that I’ll get an origami book I like, make a nice handful of the patterns, and incorporate them into some kind of art project – perhaps a mobile or an origami curtain or a 3D wall-art piece.

Youtube has become my origami teacher! I watch the origami videos and follow along with my paper. It is a lot of fun and I am learning alot about paper size, type and side. I will photograph my origami creations and post them for you to see later this week.

I spent part of a movie making a few things, like boxes and a crane, and my biggest success was a confusing 3D heart. I hung with it and figured it out.

Now to pick a list of some 10 or 20 to memorize how to make. When I can make each of them from memory, I’ll consider this goal complete.

So, now I have a pile of old newspaper sitting on top of the box cover, and I can use a simple envelope fold on a full sheet of newspaper. It fits neatly into the trash can and it seems to be doing the trick.

I am going to leave this goal up, keep learning origami, and at times, I may discover another fold to try out of newspaper for throwing away stinky garbage.

One important point to make regarding “learning origami” is that I’ve done origami in the past, but I have never learned the folds well enough that I could sit down away from my instructions and make something – except for a paper balloon, which I learned when I was a girl. My goal is to be able to retain the information, so that I can make things when away from my notes.