Origami Toys
By Paul Jackson
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About this ebook
Step-by-step instructions for making more than thirty interactive origami toys that flap, jump, fly, spin, bang, tumble, turn inside out, peck, snap, rock, and talk. Each design presents an exciting combination of interesting design and innocent delight.
Paul Jackson is a professional paper artist and instructor living in Tel Aviv. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. His previous books include The Encyclopedia of Origami and Papercraft; Championship Paper Planes; The Pop-up Book; Origami: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide; and Tricks and Games with Paper.
Interactive origami toys from world-renowned master.
Paul Jackson
Dr Paul Jackson is an information and knowledge management specialist who has been a systems developer, product development and project director, strategic consultant and university lecturer during an international career spanning 25 years. He has published widely and consults to government and industry.
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Origami Toys - Paul Jackson
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Introduction
A successful origami toy is an appealing combination of good design and innocent delight. The very first model I designed was a toy (the Flapping Bird 1), and ever since then, my greatest satisfaction in origami has come from designing interactive toys that flap, jump, fly, spin, swim, bang, tumble, turn inside out, peck, snap, rock, and talk.
For me, a successful toy is the most satisfying form of creative origami. This is because to be considered a success, the mechanism must function well, and this functionality is the result of a design that is refined in both its concept and its folding sequence. With noninteractive models, the concept and the folding sequence are almost always compromised to achieve a degree of representation or realism,
but when a model is designed to move, these cannot be compromised or the mechanism will not function well.
The best origami toys, then, have an inherent directness and clarity—they seem somehow pure or obvious, to have been discovered in the paper, not contrived from it. However, behind this apparent obviousness often lies a great deal of work. Some of my toys were folded into endless variations before I decided that one variation—and only one—was somehow the best, the most perfect realization of an imperfect idea. These variations were always in search of an apparently effortless merging between a mechanism that operated to its optimum efficiency, the aesthetic appearance of the completed model, and a fluent, concise folding sequence. When I had the balance right, I would know it. The key word to describe my favorite pieces is elegance.
My origami toy heroes are Bob Neale (USA) and Seiryo Takekawa (Japan). Both these creators have designed origami toys of supreme originality and elegance. In today’s origami world, where mathematical complexity and representational details rule, these simple, charming toys can easily be dismissed as naïve, but this is to misunderstand them. I thank them for their inspiration and for the joy their work has given me.
The designs that follow are a selection of my favorite origami toys. It has been a most pleasurable assignment to review, edit, redraw, and write about three decades of themed design work, reopening old origami documents and magazines, reviewing drawings on yellowing paper from times past, and reminiscing about treasured origami friendships, some with people no longer with me. For that, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to write this book.
Read This!
If you are new to origami, or if it has been some years since you picked up an origami book, please read this section. Instead of trying to fold the most complicated models in the book without perhaps knowing the difference between a valley fold and a mountain fold, you should read carefully through these pages. They will help you enjoy your folding and ensure your success.
Paper
Paper, of course, is essential. The absolute best paper to use for most of the toys in this book is specialist origami paper. Origami paper is square paper, colored on one side and white on the other, a little thinner than common copier paper. The difference in color between the two sides is often used to improve the recognition of a model—for example, by creating color-change eyes—rather than being used to prettify a model. Thus, the color change is often functional rather than merely decorative.
Origami paper can be bought from a number of sources:
Stores: Try arts and crafts stores, toy stores, Japanese and East Asian stores, stationary stores, and office supply stores.
Origami societies: Most cities have an organized origami society that will sell origami paper (and books and more). To find the society local to you, simply type origami
and your country or city name into an online search engine.
Online: Entering origami paper
into a search engine will bring up many online retailers. You could also try auction sites for a bargain.
For those impromptu moments when you are seized by the urge to fold, or when someone suddenly requests you fold that amazing model you made last week, other papers are also suitable for folding. Try using printed junk mail—a wonderful free source of excellent paper—or magazines, old photocopies, or notepads. In truth, most papers that are printed on are okay to fold, and the potential for recycling and reusing papers in this way makes great sense in this age of increasing green awareness. Indeed, I know of origami people who on principle never buy paper to fold—they reuse papers of all kinds that others have discarded. Good for them.
Papers to avoid include newspapers, paper towels, tissue, and any other paper that will not hold a crease well.
Most origami books will rightly encourage you to fold your favorite origami masterpieces from beautiful papers and exhibit them for everyone to admire. However, the models in this book are toys, designed to be played with rather than exhibited, so it isn’t at all a requirement that you hunt for that perfect sheet of Japanese handmade washi paper priced at six times the cost of this book. A certain snobbishness over paper for origami is generally a good thing, but it is probably unnecessary for the models in this book.
Creating a Good Environment
There’s nothing to stop you folding on your lap in front of the TV, your phone locked to your ear and the cat sitting on your head...but you can and should create a better environment in which to fold.
Sit at a table. Fold on a hard, smooth, clean surface. If a table is not available or if you are infirm, a large hardback book is a good substitute. Try to organize your seating arrangement so that the light is coming toward you from the front, not from directly overhead or from the sides. A frontal light source will create shadows across the folds of your paper, helping you to fold with greater accuracy and fluency. Try switching lights on or off, moving your chair, or even going to another room. Natural daylight through a window is a better source than artificial lighting. Good light is not an optional luxury, but a necessity.
Turn off your phone, switch off the TV, put the cat out, and do whatever you need to do to be able to