The Origami Forum

Alright, so I just got my copy of Origami Masters: Bugs the other day, and I decided that I would review it so that people could know what they are buying.
http://www.amazon.com/Origami-Masters-B ... 1937994104
So first of all, the book is going for $15 on Amazon. Don't let the cheap price fool you - the book is hardcover, and is amazing quality. There are no defects or anything. Some moron said in a review that you shouldn't buy this book unless you like reading the history of origami, and I honestly have no idea what he is talking about. There is literally 6 pages dedicated to history.
Here is the list of models and steps (thanks Shuki!) As you can see, there are 12 models included. The difficulty of said models ranges from intermediate - super complex; so the book is not suited for beginners. In my opinion, the hardest would probably be a tie between Shuki's titan/root borer beetle and Lang's yellow jacket. Haven't folded the yellow jacket yet, so I couldn't tell you which out of the two is more difficult. I was a bit disappointed when I saw what models Kirschenbaum had submitted, as they both have been previously published; they are great models and all, but seriously?
The diagrams are all redone by the some person, so there are no different diagramming styles to deal with. They are all uniform, and this is probably my favorite non-origami part of the book. They are clear and concise, with valley/mountain folds marked with color. This can be rather annoying on a few models (most notably the root borer) where the color of the diagram is nearly the same as the lines, but for the most part, it is a nice addition is you are nearly blind like me

Should you buy this book? Yes, if you like insects. It is definitely worth the $15. The content is great, and 4 of the models, in my opinion, are exceptional.

The diagrams are all redone by the some person

A bit more credit to Marcio Nouguchi please - we all know diagramming is an art, very difficult to do well and extremely time consuming.

I couldn't remember his name, thanks for reminding me. Couldn't walk the 30 feet to my room and get the book due to laziness :p

According to Flickr, this book should be called "Robert Lang's Yellow Jacket And Other Stuff"

thisis an amazing book....and for a complex insect lover like me...it really is very enjoyable. not a single model in the book is considered "easy". id say all models are advanced intermediate or higher...with langs yellow jacket rounding out the book with an expert level model. very challenging book...but well worth the money.

I agree; though I do think that Shuki's root boorer is a bit more difficult to fold. The yellow jacket is just time consuming with steps that could be seperated into upwards of 5 condensed into one.

Thanks for the review Phillip! I don't know about calling the poster a moron, but it was a rather strange review and prompted me to write one myself on the Amazon page which I was never planning on doing.

So, I finished folding all of the models and I'll make a few additions:

On the topic of complexity, Lang's Yellow Jacket is likely the least accessible design if you're not quite up to the challenge because some of the molecules are quite unusual and it's still confusing even with all of the valley and mountain folds pointed out for you. Step 27 could easily be spread out into 10 precreasing steps which would help folders at every level. Besides that, the model isn't THAT difficult as long as you have strong tear-resistant paper and don't mind adding an adhesive to keep all the layers in the prothorax together.

As for my two additions, they're both among the most complex models in the book with plenty of tricky folds which are all to easy to fold sloppily. The Hercules beetle is circle-packed with tons of pleat-sinks (This Model was definitely Lang inspired) which can be difficult to preform and the Titan Beetle is precrease heavy with tiny folds in the tarsi (feet) and more nasty than you would expect folds for the eyes. In terms of simply time required to fold, the Titan beetle and Yellow Jacket are more or less equal. Originally I was just going to diagram my old root borer for the book (that's actually the model the publishers requested), but I thought that might have been a let down for potential buyers, so I went about and updated the look which resulted in an entirely new design.

Jason Ku's two additions are very charming and perhaps more enjoyable to fold than the models listed so far with ingenious folding techniques (very reminiscent of Satoshi Kamiya) and generally more step-by-step folding sequences. The Rhinoceros Beetle has what seems at first like a somewhat basic base and yet through the diagrams transforms into a very elegant model. The Luna Moth is the most lengthy model in the book in terms of step count, but each step goes by with relative ease and and the finished product has to be one of my favorite insects ever diagrammed.

Daniel Robinson's Leaf insect addition is a very pure model with a straight forward folding sequence resulting in a very pleasing result. It's very similar to Robert Lang's early insects and even has tiny mandibles which are invisible unless viewed from below.

I can completely understand why some would be disappointed in Kirschenbaums contributions, I know I was asked to only submit previously unpublished diagrams and it must have been the same for everyone. Now, luckily I never owned his original bugs book, so the folding sequences were brand new to me. His Ladybug has very ingenious color-changes and the finished model is relatively simple with an extremely pleasing result. His Mosquito is also color-changed with a straight forward base which gets surprisingly thick in the body and middle legs, use the thinnest paper you can find and the result is very nice.

Sebastian Arellano is one of the 'fresh new talents' (like myself I hope) mentioned in the book description. The Bed bug starts out with a traditional base and is a high-intermediate cute little bugger, one of only 3 models with less than 50 steps. His Mantis has a very nice and clean base and finished model looks great with the mandible and eye details.

Won Park submitted his $bill flapping butterfly and $dragonfly, both models are pleasing to the eye by the master of dollar bill origami though much simpler than the rest of the books contents. Both designs have similar bases and he mentions that the dragonfly is one of his oldest models designed while he was in high school and the butterfly is one of his newest (2012 is the date on his DA account).


Even if none of my models were diagrammed in this book I would recommend it. I loved folding each one of them and this volume acts as a huge motivator to continue my own journey throughout origami. If you're an advanced origami artist then you should definitely buy this book, well, as long as you don't mind an overload of bugs!

Thanks to all reviewers! My copy is on it's way, so thanks in advance, origami-artist-galen, I look forward failing many times

yet another reason to give up on purism. the astute reader will notice the cp is scored onto the yellow jacket.