The Origami Forum

I have been interested in Origami for quite a while now and, while I am by no means an accomplished folder, I have folded all the diagrams in the two books I have (Rick Beech's "Handbook of Origami" and Kunihiko Kasahara's "Art and Wonder of Origami") and would like to move onto the next step. My question is what books would you recommend that deal with stuff like wet folding, tissue-foil and MC? (though the last two are probably too advanced for me now)

ooh, another question, how do you pronounce origamist? Is it like bigamist or is it orig-ah-mist? lol

You can try Michael LaFosse "Advanced Origami" (review is here: http://www.giladorigami.com/BO_AdvancedOrigami.html) - it is great-looking and not very difficult models using a combination of wet-folding and tissue foil.

If you are looking for something really challenging and hard - try "Works of Satoshi KAMIYA 1995-2003" (http://www.giladorigami.com/BO_Kamiya.html).

P.S. I wish we had the origami paper here in Ukraine, so that i could fold the his Ancient Dragon

Escapist wrote:ooh, another question, how do you pronounce origamist? Is it like bigamist or is it orig-ah-mist?

Welcome to the forum! I would say it's pronounced ori-gah-mee-ist

And for books, I reccomend Robert Lang's Books, especially "Origami Design Secrets"

Thanks for your replies, I think the Kamiya would be too callenging at the moment but I'll definitely look out for the LaFosse book. Is "Origami Design Secrets" good for if you just want to fold models?

yes the models in the book are very good. they range from quite simple to very complex. But you dont need to be an expert to gain from the very interestig design side, and even the hard models dont need a gineus as they are extremly good diagrams.

I prefer "paperfolder", actually. "Origamist" and "origamian" sound too contrived to me.

How about Origamaniac

I agree with Joseph Wu, paperfolder sounds better.

I think I'll get the LaFosse book first, the Lang one is twice the price on Amazon.

Maybe it´s twice the price but you get a lot more for your money there. The book contains around 600 pages filled with interesting insights into origami design and diagrams for such spektacular models like his black forest cucoo clock or one of the loveliest turtle models out there (no, I don´t mean the western pond turtle, the other one).

On the other handside I wouldn´t recomend either Origami Design Secrets or Advanced Origami to a relative beginner in Origami.
A very good book in my opinion dealing with models from very very simple to complex is Jeremy Shafers Origami to Astonish and Amuse.

About wetfolding, tissue foil and the like: You can try this methods with every kind of model. The books containing articles about this issues can only give you recomendations, but what the best folding technique for what model is you can only deside for yourself by trial and error.

I think models in Robert Lang's are rather difficult too, however they're are great, you're right.

I had "Advanced Origami" during a month, and it is quite hard to get the same "polishing" that the pictures of the models in the book got. Lafosse got a special style of free-folding and curves that are quite hard to achieve.

Lang's models, in general, are more "fold this edge to this edge", even the fact that his models take more time to fold.

what about "origamification practitioner" but If it were origamist I think it should be pronounced "or-i-gah-mist". "or-i-gah-mee-ist" sounds contrived to me. Though I think my sugestion has a touch of class to it

How about Lang's Complete Book of Origami? I think that book has a good balance easy, moderate and difficult models.

Another good balanced book (IMO) is Engel's Origami from Angelfish to Zen.

Okay. The next few books that I would recommend are:

1) Peter Engel, Origami from Angelfish to Zen

A great book. The models range from simple to complex, although some are a little dated. The first half of the book is a mammoth section on the history and theory of origami

2) David Brill, Brilliant Origami

Possibly the best British book out there. A huge range of subjects, including modular origami, boxes, animals and human subjects. All of the models are designed to be wet-folded and there is an awful lot on origami technique and theory. The models range from simple to complex.

3) John Montroll, either North American or African animals in origami

John Montroll churns out origami books, of varying quality. What he does very well is to design models that are easy to follow, and produce a series of models that increase in complexity. The final models may not be as elegant as a Lang or a Kamiya design, but you will learn a lot about origami by folding them.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend Lang as the next step up, but you should certainly look at his books as you get a little more confident at folding.

The first book I got before I even had an idea what was possible to do with paper was Origami for the Connoisseur. I really like that book, it contains everything from really simple to rather complex models. It has boxes, animals, modulars... a bit of everything. It also has quite alot of interesting text explaining everything.