Origami Toys shows you how to make many paper toys and games that are fun for both children and adults. If you have ever folded a paper airplane you have already tried origami. Origami is the craft of folding a piece of paper into a recognizable object, using only your hands, which is exactly how you made the airplane. Many people are fascinated with origami and find it to be a relaxing, yet challenging hobby.
Origami Toys contains a lot of practical information, including:
Step-by-step instructions
How to make unique decorations
How to create new designs
How to use different papers
How to teach origami
How to use origami as an educational tool
How origami fits into the world of computers and technology
You may be amazed at what's in store for you in Origami Toys.
To help you make sense of the lines and arrows on the drawings, you should study the explanations of a few basic techniques. It will be well worth a few minutes to learn to recognize the "Four Important Symbols" and "Three Procedures," which are international standards for origami.
Any action to be taken at each step is shown in red on the diagrams.
FOUR IMPORTANT SYMBOLS
Learn to recognize these four simple clues, which are often overlooked by beginners.
1. Valley Fold
Fold the square in half by bringing one edge of the paper toward you and matching it to the opposite edge.
A valley fold is always shown by a line of dashes. You have made a valley fold.
With this one simple fold, you have made a greeting card.
2. Mountain Fold
Fold the square in half by guiding one edge of the paper to the back and matching it to the opposite edge. A mountain fold is shown by a dash-dot-dash line and an arrow.
You have made a mountain fold.
With this one simple fold you have made a tent.
3. Arrows
Make a valley fold.
Double arrow — Fold and unfold.
Make a mountain fold.
Curly arrow — Turn the paper over.
4. Existing Crease
An existing crease, made previously, is shown by a thin line that does not touch the edges.
Existing crease
THREE PROCEDURES
In these three procedures, which occur frequently in paperfolding, several steps are combined into one standard process.
1. Inside Reverse Fold
One of the most common procedures is called an inside reverse fold.
1. Fold a small square from corner to corner.
2. Place the paper exactly as shown. Fold the top corner over to the right, so that it peeks over the open edge.
3a. Let the paper open up, and push the corner in between the two layers of paper, on the creases you made in Step 2.
3b. Close up the paper.
4. Completed inside reverse fold
The instructions for making an inside reverse fold are indicated with a dash-dot-dash line, the same as for a mountain fold, but the text states that you must make an inside reverse fold.
You may wonder why this procedure is called a reverse fold: In Step 2 you will see that the doubled paper is made up of a mountain fold on the front layer and a valley fold on the back layer. After you have pushed the corner in between the two layers of paper in Step 3, you have "reversed" the valley fold into a mountain fold.
2. Outside Reverse Fold
With an outside reverse fold, the paper is wrapped around the outside of a corner.
1.