I am looking at these dragon videos and the way that you make them and it seems to almost be effortless, I remember the first dragons that i made using the www.origami.com PDF documents and although it was supposed to look like that i remember it ended up being a crumpled mess on my desk because no matter how hard i tried i couldnt sort the head and tail out.
So i suppose my question is really how did you make these amazing pieces, do you use Books, Internet or through demonstrations to learn.... I've also added my Email address to this post, and i hope that you don't find this to presumtuous or rude, but please could you let me know Thankyou so much
I have to admit, my origami skills almost exclusively come from studying diagrams. In the beginning I looked at online diagrams, and later I bought books, also. Now I almost only fold from diagrams in books.
Especially when I started, figuring out diagrams was quite a challenge, and it took time and patience. One extreme example is Kawasaki's new rose. I attempted this model three times, each time spending several hours on winson Chan's diagrams. Between these attempts months passed, because I realised I needed more skill first. Only on the third attempt did I manage to understand the diagrams. My first successful fold (reading diagrams and all) took me about 2.5 hours. Now it takes me maybe 15 minutes. It's actually nice to see how "easy" the model seems now, that I understand how it works.
If you have a finished model, or someone shows you how to fold it, obviously the learning process for that model is greatly sped up. You don't learn quite the same thing, though. By figuring out diagrams yourself, you improve your understanding of origami more broadly. So I find it does pay off to put that extra effort into it.
Obviously, the more diagrams you read, the better you get. I definitely have gotten much better at it. But there's always farther to go.
For example, nowadays I ignore explanatory text given unless I encounter problems. Like this I have to think more myself about what is happening, and this gives a deeper understanding, still. Also, by being less dependent on text, diagrams in languages I don't understand get more accessible.
A next step might be to look into folding from crease patterns. I've reverse engineered a couple of folded models, which is a step in the right direction. However, folding from crease patterns without having a completed model is something I'll have to work on a lot to perhaps master it sometime in the future.
And finally, of course, I want to get into designing. We'll see if I will ever reach that point. I am an ambitious person, though, and I think if I work hard for it, it might just happen. Give or take a couple of years, obviously. :)
Having said all this - I would have greatly appreciated videos on how to fold different models when I started. That's partly why I am doing them now. Unfortunately, I haven't found anyone else so far that does instructional videos beyond relatively simple models. But maybe I'll motivate others to start with it. And then they'd have a fan sitting right here immediately. :)
Comments
Submitted by Eastern Dragon (not verified) on 26 November 2007 - 2:36pm Permalink
How did you learn this
Hi again,
I am looking at these dragon videos and the way that you make them and it seems to almost be effortless, I remember the first dragons that i made using the www.origami.com PDF documents and although it was supposed to look like that i remember it ended up being a crumpled mess on my desk because no matter how hard i tried i couldnt sort the head and tail out.
So i suppose my question is really how did you make these amazing pieces, do you use Books, Internet or through demonstrations to learn.... I've also added my Email address to this post, and i hope that you don't find this to presumtuous or rude, but please could you let me know Thankyou so much
Geoff
x
Submitted by Sara on 26 November 2007 - 3:20pm Permalink
My resources: diagrams, time and patience
I have to admit, my origami skills almost exclusively come from studying diagrams. In the beginning I looked at online diagrams, and later I bought books, also. Now I almost only fold from diagrams in books.
Especially when I started, figuring out diagrams was quite a challenge, and it took time and patience. One extreme example is Kawasaki's new rose. I attempted this model three times, each time spending several hours on winson Chan's diagrams. Between these attempts months passed, because I realised I needed more skill first. Only on the third attempt did I manage to understand the diagrams. My first successful fold (reading diagrams and all) took me about 2.5 hours. Now it takes me maybe 15 minutes. It's actually nice to see how "easy" the model seems now, that I understand how it works.
If you have a finished model, or someone shows you how to fold it, obviously the learning process for that model is greatly sped up. You don't learn quite the same thing, though. By figuring out diagrams yourself, you improve your understanding of origami more broadly. So I find it does pay off to put that extra effort into it.
Obviously, the more diagrams you read, the better you get. I definitely have gotten much better at it. But there's always farther to go.
For example, nowadays I ignore explanatory text given unless I encounter problems. Like this I have to think more myself about what is happening, and this gives a deeper understanding, still. Also, by being less dependent on text, diagrams in languages I don't understand get more accessible.
A next step might be to look into folding from crease patterns. I've reverse engineered a couple of folded models, which is a step in the right direction. However, folding from crease patterns without having a completed model is something I'll have to work on a lot to perhaps master it sometime in the future.
And finally, of course, I want to get into designing. We'll see if I will ever reach that point. I am an ambitious person, though, and I think if I work hard for it, it might just happen. Give or take a couple of years, obviously. :)
Having said all this - I would have greatly appreciated videos on how to fold different models when I started. That's partly why I am doing them now. Unfortunately, I haven't found anyone else so far that does instructional videos beyond relatively simple models. But maybe I'll motivate others to start with it. And then they'd have a fan sitting right here immediately. :)
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