Paper Folding Techniques

Who in the world would have thought that mere folding would convert a piece of paper into a beautiful miniature blue print of something big? The Japanese, who else! You can trace origami back to Japan of 17^th century AD, when the art of paper folding or origami came into its own. Since then, it has been popularized as a modern art form and is loved and practiced by young and adults alike around the world. By just using a flat sheet of paper, the aim is to transform it into a tiny sculpture through folding (no glue). Want to give it a shot? What you need to do is buy some prepackaged squares of origami paper or find some regular copy paper at home. Now you’ll need to learn some basic paper folding techniques before you can put your artistic skills into action, so go through rest of the article.

 

The most basic of the paper folding techniques is a valley fold. It requires a paper to be folded on itself. Divide the paper into two halves by setting a crease with your fingernail and fold the paper on itself in the shape of a “V”.

 

The second most basic of the paper folding techniques is the mountain fold. It is similar to a valley fold, except it’s in reverse. It requires a paper to be folded upside down. Divide the paper into two halves by setting a crease with your fingernail and fold the paper in the form of an inverted “V”.

It is a variation of the valley fold. You’ll need a squared paper to make a diagonal valley fold. At the upper left or right end of the paper, make a straight crease (diagonally) with your fingernail, it will make the paper easier to fold. Now simply fold the paper onto itself.

 

It is a variation of the mountain fold. It is nothing but a diagonal valley fold in reverse. At the upper left or right end of a squared paper, make a straight crease with your fingernail. Now, instead of folding the paper onto itself flip it or fold it in reverse (backwards).

 

Another basic and easiest of the folds is the blintz fold. At all the four corners of a squared paper, make diagonal creases and fold all the four corners right down to the middle with all the four tips of the corners touching each other.

 

Also known as the accordion fold, a pleat fold consists of several parallel valley and mountain folds in between.

 

Petal fold is usually made of two mountain fold and one valley fold. It requires raising a layer, opening it up and then flattening.

 

For making a squash fold, you’ll need to start by making two radial folds from the closed point down the centre of the flap. Now open the flap and refold downwards to make two adjacent flaps.

 

These origami techniques may seem to be a little difficult to comprehend but with practice, you would get the result. Try perfecting these techniques before you move on to the more complicated ones. Happy Folding!