Paper Folding Techniques

Indulging into paper crafts is one of the best ways to display your creativity. The rectangular valley fold, diagonal valley fold, and mountain valley fold preparation techniques are discussed in the following article.

Origami
The different paper folding techniques are grouped under the art known as Origami. The word Origami is formed from two different words 'oru' (folding) and 'kami' (paper). Origami is a Japanese art in which the main aim is to create geometric folds of paper in order to represent a certain object. Simple folding techniques used to create intricate designs is the specialty of the art of Origami. Many cool techniques can be created by means of Origami. Any of the designs made by the use of Origami techniques begin with a simple square paper which is folded in different ways to make interesting paper crafts.

Techniques for Paper Folding
The techniques of paper folding included in the following paragraphs are the rectangular valley fold, mountain fold, and the diagonal valley fold. One can learn many different techniques as he progresses ahead.

Rectangular Valley Fold: The preparation of a rectangular valley fold involves simple techniques. A square paper is needed to make a rectangular valley fold. A dashed line is used for making the fold easily. The reference lines required for the fold are made in the form of creases. The first step of the procedure is to roll the bottom half of the paper below the dotted line and to align its edges with the upper half. The edges need to aligned as accurately as possible. The paper which is square-shaped should be centered along the dashed line. The corners of the paper should be held flat and tugged slightly in order to make it flat at the middle. The paper need to be flattened along the edges in order to resolve the crease. The paper should not be allowed to loosen and proper tension need to be maintained.

Mountain Fold: The mountain fold is similar to the valley fold and the difference between these two folds is that the former one is made in a upside-down manner to the later. The mountain fold can be made along the left or right edge of the paper. A dashed line should be created in order to ease the process of making the fold. A reference crease can be made vertically, horizontally or diagonally along the center of the paper. On of the edges of the paper is folded and aligned with the center.

Diagonal Valley Fold: The diagonal folding techniques is one of the simplest techniques. In this methods a square paper is diagonally divided into two halves with a dashed line acting as reference along the center of the paper. One of the halves of the paper should be rolled and placed in a manner that the edges match with that of the other half. Reference creases help in aligning the edges with ease. The corner should be aligned accurately in order to make the fold look good. The edges need to be flattened in order to resolve the corner. This completes the process of making a diagonal fold.

The above article provides information about some of the simple paper folding techniques suitable for beginners. As one moves ahead, there are many different techniques to be learned in this art of Origami.