The Origami Forum

Hi!
My name is Kristaps and I'm from Latvia. English is not my first language so forgive me my grammar.
I started creasing last week with lily. I found a video in youtube for it. Now I'm giving them to girls I can make the basic crane also but that's all for now.
The day before yesterday I saw Robert Lang giving a speech in TEC and that was awesome. At that moment I understood that I want to be a real good origamist I really hope that one day will be able to crease the fuselage of Oceanic flight 815 because I'm the biggest fan of the LOST in Latvia.

And I have a question for you boys and girls:
is there any tutorial or guide or book (Christmas are coming ) that teaches you how to make things from a crane to Yoda from Star Wars.
Also I really want to know what to do with crease patterns like these. Is there a guide or something?

I am not the person to ask about tutorials-Sara Adams has released a lot of video tutorials that will probably help, though. For crease patterns, a great starting point is Robert Lang's book, Origami Design Secrets. It is a long read and expensive, but it is worth it.

Hi Kristaps,

Welcome to the forum. You'll find that it can help you lots in many aspects. For one, you can get to know people connected to origami - which I think is really nice. But you can also get help on improving your origami skills. There's an own forum section devoted to answering questions on diagrams and crease patterns.
As to finding things to fold online, there are lots of resources there also:
Of course I'll have to name my website first, which features instructional videos, some downloadable diagrams, and a gallery which usually lists where diagrams for the models can be found. Check it out at http://www.happyfolding.com
You can also search the origami database http://www.origamidatabase.com/ and search for models there. If you restrict your search to web content, then chances are you'll immediately have diagrams that are available online. [Sometimes the entries might be outdated, because some sites have disappeared.]
The site I started folding with is http://www.origami.com or more specifically http://www.origami.com/diagram.html - search for all models, and you'll see just how many diagrams are listed there.
If you like modular origami I'd recommend http://origamee.net/ - in the left navigation bar there are links to "own" diagrams and "other" diagrams, which gives you a big fill of superb modular designs, all of which have diagrams online.

Now there's lots more diagrams online (the next two I'd probably list are http://glynnorigami.co.uk/ and http://origami.as/ ), but I think this should get you started and keep you busy for a bit.
As to working with crease patterns, I think it's better if you work on your folding skills first. Once those are up to par (which might take months, or years - really depends), you can start exploring crease patterns. I think there are a couple of guides on how to fold from crease patterns online (e.g. http://spinflipper.com/origami/cp/ ). In any case, it will be harder than folding from diagrams, so my suggestion is to take it slow.

Best wishes, happy folding, and especially welcome,

-- Sara

Edit: By the way, if you've caught the origami bug, then you'll likely want to start buying books sometime in the future. Lots of superb designs are diagrammed in books, and I think buying those books is not only the way to get those diagrams, but also to show your appreciation to the designers. I started by searching the web for free diagrams, too, but have built up a small collection of origami books by now.

Thank you both!
If you, Sara, wrote it all for me then I can't describe my appreciation. If not - it gave me very useful info, though.
Which books would you advise for beginner with high dreams like me?

Hehe, actually, yes I wrote that all for you.
As to books, that depends which kind of models you prefer - objects (Tomoko Fuse for boxes - she has tons of books, maybe Jeremy Shafer's "Origami to Astonish and Amuse" for fun stuff like a swiss army knife, a man swatter, etc), tessellations (Eric Gjerde's "Origami Tessellations"), animals (John Montroll, David Brill, Robert Lang, etc), or modular origami (lots of choice there, too, but I'm not an expert on which are best).
I'd probably go for a book with models of mixed complexity. My first book was "Origami for the Connoisseur", and that served me well. My second book, I think, was Dave Brill's "Brilliant Origami", and then some books by Robert Lang and John Montroll (animals). With Robert Lang you have to be careful to get one of the "easier" books (rather than just complex stuff), but usually you'll get models of mixed complexity. With John Montroll you're usually pretty safe (as in you won't get only hard stuff, but maybe only easy to intermediate stuff). This is just a random writeup, so it might not be that helpful.
I do recommend you look at Gilad's book reviews before you buy a book (if it's in the list) - that will help you see whether the models look enticing. http://www.giladorigami.com/Books_default.html

-- Sara, tired and going to sleep now

I guess all the creasing makes fingers much more flexible for long texts
Thank you