We are having a blast in our course “Think Like an Origami Designer”. Thanks to the magic and connectivity of the Internet people from many different parts of the world have joined the workshop including those representing Norway, Italy, South Africa, Uruguay and the United States.
One of the questions asked during our first meeting was “How do you remember the steps to make an origami model?”
What a great question!
The truth is I don’t easily remember the steps for everything I design or fold. But I do always try to remember and have found the following three tips particularly useful for both learning–and remembering–how to fold a particular origami model by heart:
TIP 1 –TEACH THE MODEL
Teach the model to someone soon after you’ve learned it; and continue to teach it as often as you can. The act of teaching will help you clarify the steps and commit the folding steps to memory.
TIP 2 –TAKE ORIGAMI NOTES
Here is a way to take origami notes, so that you can remember the folding steps for models learned from videos or in person from someone else. This method has been particularly useful to me for remembering my own origami designs.
- Take two pieces of paper to be folded.
- Fold a model with one piece of paper without making any annotations on it. On the other piece of paper write down the numbered step sequence simultaneously while noting whether the folds are valley folds or mountain folds.
- Take photos as well after each step and keep these stored for reference on a computer, tablet, phone, or cloud.
To get a better sense of my note-taking process take a look at the following video.
TIP 3 –MAKE A STEP-FOLDING SEQUENCE
Another way to take notes is to work with several papers and make yourself a sequence of steps, such as the one presented in this photo.
Do you want to fold this fly? Click Here for the video on how to make a fly.
Do you have other ideas to make it easy to remember how to make an origami model? Please share you thoughts in a comment.
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