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Article in the NYTimes

The Modern Life of Origami, an Art as Old as Paper

Precision is key, whether folding a humble crane or an interlocking modular structure. So is enthusiasm.

Written by Kathleen Massara

Photographs by Ryan Jenq

“I would say the biggest rule is no cutting,” said Wendy Zeichner, the president and chief executive of OrigamiUSA. It’s “one piece of paper and no glue.”
OrigamiUSA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about the art form. The group traces its roots to the 1950s, when Lillian Oppenheimer, one of its eventual founders, began to communicate with paper folders around the world, including Akira Yoshizawa in Japan, who is often credited as the father of modern origami — they would send each other diagrams explaining how to fold different shapes from a single square sheet of paper. Decades later, OrigamiUSA has around 1700 paying members, and it keeps track of nearly 90 community origami groups in the United States.
Origami as an art reaches back thousands of years. “Origami is really almost as old as paper,” Ms. Zeichner explained — it means “to fold paper” in Japanese — and paper in sheet form is thought to have been invented in China around 105 A.D. To start making shapes like cranes and frogs, it boils down to two basic techniques: mountain folds and valley folds, which are different ways to make the edges meet. After that, you can get creative

Read more at the NYTimes

LA Times Blurb from 2018 Descanso Gardens

Yesterday I discovered this LA Times mention of our teaching origami last year at Descanso Gardens.  It includes a nice photo story:

Lisa Lashaway of Montrose shows off her finished Origami Thai tulip she made during the Descanso Gardens Origami Hands-On Demonstration, led by instructor Michael Sanders, at the La Cañada Flintridge landmark on Saturday, March 3, 2018. There were two sessions where about 30 people learned how to make two origami items, including the Thai tulip and a children’s spinner. Participants ranged in age from young children to older adults. All materials for the origami were provided to the attendees. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Kathleen Garcia of La Crescenta folds a piece of paper to finish up the flower part of her Origami Thai tulip during the Descanso Gardens Origami Hands-On Demonstration, led by instructor Michael Sanders, at the La Cañada Flintridge landmark on Saturday, March 3, 2018. There were two sessions where about 30 people learned how to make two origami items, including the Thai tulip and a children's spinner. Participants ranged in age from young children to older adults. All materials for the origami were provided to the attendees. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Muffit Jensen of Sun Valley looks over her finished Origami Thai tulip during the Descanso Gardens Origami Hands-On Demonstration, led by instructor Michael Sanders, at the La Cañada Flintridge landmark on Saturday, March 3, 2018. There were two sessions where about 30 people learned how to make two origami items, including the Thai tulip and a children's spinner. Participants ranged in age from young children to older adults. All materials for the origami were provided to the attendees. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer

Finished Origami Thai tulips are placed next to a larger sample during the Descanso Gardens Origami Hands-On Demonstration, led by instructor Michael Sanders, at the La Cañada Flintridge landmark on Saturday, March 3, 2018. There were two sessions where about 30 people learned how to make two origami items, including the Thai tulip and a children's spinner. Participants ranged in age from young children to older adults. All materials for the origami were provided to the attendees. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Instructor Michael Sanders helps out Beckett Wasson and his grandmother Vicky Adik, of Pasadena, with their Origami Thai tulips during the Descanso Gardens Origami Hands-On Demonstration, led by instructor Michael Sanders, at the La Cañada Flintridge landmark on Saturday, March 3, 2018. There were two sessions where about 30 people learned how to make two origami items, including the Thai tulip and a children's spinner. Participants ranged in age from young children to older adults. All materials for the origami were provided to the attendees. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Instructor Michael Sanders shows how to fold paper while creating an Origami Thai tulip during the Descanso Gardens Origami Hands-On Demonstration, led by instructor Michael Sanders at the La Cañada Flintridge landmark on Saturday, March 3, 2018. There were two sessions where about 30 people learned how to make two origami items, including the Thai tulip and a children's spinner. Participants ranged in age from young children to older adults. All materials for the origami were provided to the attendees. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

The last crane: On parenting a dying child

WaPo:

She took her last dose of chemotherapy the day of that last scan. We paid our last visit to the pediatric oncology clinic.

The “lasts” kept coming — relentless, heartbreaking and agonizingly final.January was the last time she was able to walk upstairs without gasping for breath.February was the last time she had the energy to wake up in the morning and go to school. 

I can’t remember the day she made me the last crane. 

She’d started folding origami cranes when she was about 11. She’d had a liver transplant and her cancer was in remission. She wasn’t allowed back to school because the risk of infection was too great. She’d been drawing a lot, doing projects, and playing with the crafts that so many people had sent her as gifts. She’d gotten some origami paper and a little booklet and folded her first crane. 

She continued making cranes throughout the years, often as a way to thank me for something (e.g., “I’ll make you two cranes if you help me clean my room.”) They’re all over the house — perched on shelves and cabinets, hanging from clear plastic thread above my computer, sitting atop the mantle in our dining room.After her last scan — the “freight train” scan — her oncologist told us her left lung was in danger of collapse and that we’d see obvious symptoms of this soon, likely within weeks. He was right but, still, I wasn’t prepared.She went from going to school three or four days a week to one or two days. She wasn’t able to walk up the path to her classroom, then she couldn’t walk more than a few steps at all without gasping for breath. Her appetite disappeared. She started sleeping more and more. On Feb. 28, she woke up and said, “I don’t think I can go to school right now. Maybe once I’m feeling better …” She never went back.

Read it from beginning to end.


Hat tip:  Joseph Wu

Origami for Self Defense

Well, on the heels of the bottle opener out of paper, I recalled seeing a video of one of my old teachers, Dan Inosanto, teaching about how the old Filipino Escrimadors would roll up a newspaper very tightly and use it as an improvised impact weapon (rolled up densely, it's about as good as wood).

Poking around, this is an example of what you can do with paper:

For kicks, I thought I'd run "self defense origami" in the YouTube search engine.  I was shocked when this lame video came up (not expecting to find a thing under that topic heading):

Yup....5-and-a-half minutes of your life that you will never ever get back.



You're welcome.

Newspaper Cap

How to fold a Marukai newspaper cap

I call it a "Marukai" hat, because Joe Hamamoto prefers to fold this model with Marukai ads. It's stiffer than your standard newspaper, and more durable. Joe says he learned this from Carol Stevens, but does not know the origins. I guess I'll have to ask Carol, the next time I see her.