Peter Engel - Origami Odyssey: A Journey to the Edge of Paperfolding

Dear Reader: In order to view all colored text and non-English text accurately, please ensure that the PUBLISHER DEFAULTS SETTING on your reading device is switched to ON. This will allow you to view all non-English characters and colored text in this book. Tuttle Publishing ORIGAMI ODYSSEY NOTE: Page numbers correspond to the print edition. Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. www.tuttlepublishing.com Copyright 2011 Peter Engel M.C. Eschers Reptiles 2010 the M.C.

Escher Company-Holland. All rights reserved. www.mcescher.com, p.14 Froebel paperfolding: Photography by Kiyoshi TOGASHI, p.17 Figures 127 and 128 from On Growth and Form by DArcy Thompson, abridged edition edited by J.T. Bonner. Copyright 1961 Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press, p.28 All photographs by the author except as follows: Sunny Grewal: Photographs of origami models, throughout, except Moon and Forest Troll; teacups, p.30; bottle and wooden mold, p.32 New York State Department of Tourism: Origami Lighthouse and Mountains, p.20 Quesada/Burke, New York: Origami Elephant, p.21 Cheryl Perko: Phone booth with New Yorkers, p.20 Kate May: Photo of author All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Engel, Peter, 1959- Origami odyssey : a journey to the edge of paperfolding / Peter Engel ; with an introduction by Nondita Correa-Mehrotra. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-8048-4119-1 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4629-1558-3 (ebook) 1. I. Title. Title.

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Contents ORIGAMI PROJECTS CHAPTER 1: CHAPTER 2: CHAPTER 3: CHAPTER 4: CHAPTER 5: intermediate more difficult most challenging How to Download the Bonus Material of this Book.
1. You must have an internet connection. 2. Click the link below or copy paste the URL to your web browser. Foreword
by Nondita Correa-Mehrotra H ow wonderful it is to fold a simple square sheet of paper! A square is perhaps the purest shape, and through the elementary act of folding this sheet, we can create an object. Foreword
by Nondita Correa-Mehrotra H ow wonderful it is to fold a simple square sheet of paper! A square is perhaps the purest shape, and through the elementary act of folding this sheet, we can create an object.

There are no implements, no tools for measuring. This is why the origami models I enjoy most are those that clearly relate back to the square paper I began with, like the elegant crane we all learned to make. The steps to create it are few and the time taken so little that I am amazed at how quickly I can craft this bird! However, as one progresses to the more complicated models, like the complex insects with perfectly proportioned legs and antennae, the skill and deftness required can often be very demanding. That, I suppose, is what defines the more advanced paperfolder from the beginner. Yet, what fascinates me about origami is not necessarily that kind of complexity. Rather, it is the straightforwardness that I strive to find, the purity in the ideas that created it.

The ideas I am talking about are really ones that a paperfolder infuses into his modelbe they ones that push the medium of the paper and the rigor of the folds, or, as Peter Engel eloquently describes in his essay in this book, the spirit. And when you see origami in this context, you realize that in simplicity there is simultaneously a surprising complexity, running like an undercurrent, stemming from the ideas that the folds and processes explore. It is important to define these ideas, for as Henri Matisse said, Much of the beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium. This is so true of origami, as the medium is extremely limited, the parameters tight. The one thing in our control is the folding itself. Of course, one of the most beautiful and gratifying aspects of origami is undoing all the folds and analyzing the square again.