Origami for Beginners

The term 'origami' is formed of two words, 'ori' (folding) and 'kami' (paper). Origami which evolved in Japan during the 17th and 19th century, is a folk art of paper folding. Converting paper sheets into various sculptures is the main objective of making this paper craft. The art of origami can be taught to the kids with the help of simple tricks and tips. Let us know more about origami instructions for beginners through this article.

Easy Origami for Beginners

The activity of origami should involve the use of simple models specially in case of beginners. Instructions regarding how to read diagrams should be given to the kids. Through these instructions, beginners can understand the meaning of arrows, dashed lines, etc. To learn the process of making different origami arts and sculptures, one should master few basic skills. There are some folds which need to be learned early on to develop the skills in paper folding. The origami instructions for beginners pertaining to making few simple folds are presented below.

Valley Fold: It is probably the first fold used in the process of teaching origami to the beginners. In the valley fold, paper is either folded into a rectangle or triangle. It means that paper is folded onto itself. It is therefore, the most basic fold. The crease remains at bottom of the paper in this fold.

Mountain Fold: The mountain fold is exactly opposite to that of the valley fold. Paper is turned and folded away from itself to make the mountain fold. To check if it is mountain fold, one should see whether the crease position is at the bottom or top; it should be at the top of the paper.

Origami Flowers for Beginners
To make flowers, papers of appropriate size, preferably 6 x 6 inches need to be used. There are few basic folds which need to mastered to move ahead in the activity of making flower with origami techniques. The origami bird base is one such fold that has to be practiced a lot. Choosing papers with natural colors resembling that of actual flowers is recommended.

Origami Animals for Beginners
Let us understand how to start with through this section (origami animals), using the example of making a cat sculpture. The following origami instructions for beginners should be useful in making animal shapes. To begin with, a square-shaped paper should be used. It should be folded along its diagonal axis to create a triangular shape. The triangle should then be folded to form a smaller triangle. The smaller triangle should be unfolded to reveal the crease. The whole structure should be positioned in a manner that crease of the triangle lies at the center and runs vertically from the tip to the base. The tip should then be folded downwards to a distance of about 1/4th the length of vertical axis. The right and left vertices of the triangle should be folded upwards in a manner that they form ears of the cat. The paper should be flipped to reveal a perfect cat-shaped structure. This side of the paper can be painted with eyes, nose, mouth and ears.

The origami instructions for beginners presented in the article should provide a rough idea about how to learn this art. Origami is one of the important arts and crafts taught to the schools kids. It is unique in the sense that sculptures are made only by folding the paper and cutting or gluing is not performed. Once, the basic folds and tricks are mastered, it is easy to move towards more complicated paper sculptures. The points regarding origami for beginners provided in the article should prove to be useful.