Jackson - Origami toys: that tumble, fly, and spin

A successful origami toy is an appealing combination of good design and innocent delight. The very first model I designed was a toy (the Flapping Bird 1), and ever since then, my greatest satisfaction in origami has come from designing interactive toys that flap, jump, fly, spin, swim, bang, tumble, turn inside out, peck, snap, rock, and talk.

For me, a successful toy is the most satisfying form of creative origami. This is because to be considered a success, the mechanism must function well, and this functionality is the result of a design that is refined in both its concept and its folding sequence. With noninteractive models, the concept and the folding sequence are almost always compromised to achieve a degree of representation or realism, but when a model is designed to move, these cannot be compromised or the mechanism will not function well.

The best origami toys, then, have an inherent directness and claritythey seem somehow pure or obvious, to have been discovered in the paper, not contrived from it. However, behind this apparent obviousness often lies a great deal of work. Some of my toys were folded into endless variations before I decided that one variationand only onewas somehow the best, the most perfect realization of an imperfect idea. These variations were always in search of an apparently effortless merging between a mechanism that operated to its optimum efficiency, the aesthetic appearance of the completed model, and a fluent, concise folding sequence. When I had the balance right, I would know it. The key word to describe my favorite pieces is elegance.

My origami toy heroes are Bob Neale (USA) and Seiryo Takekawa (Japan). Both these creators have designed origami toys of supreme originality and elegance. In todays origami world, where mathematical complexity and representational details rule, these simple, charming toys can easily be dismissed as nave, but this is to misunderstand them. I thank them for their inspiration and for the joy their work has given me.

The designs that follow are a selection of my favorite origami toys. It has been a most pleasurable assignment to review, edit, redraw, and write about three decades of themed design work, reopening old origami documents and magazines, reviewing drawings on yellowing paper from times past, and reminiscing about treasured origami friendships, some with people no longer with me. For that, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to write this book.