Origami Spirit Subscribers were invited to a live event: conversation with Ali Bahmani . Share your name and email with us HERE to receive FREE invitations to events like these. A recording is be available to Origamigos members (OrigamiSpirit membership)
Topics covered in our conversation.
- Early life around age seven (family, siblings, growing up in Iran, six years in Japan)
- First contact with paper folding and introduction to origami (including first models learned)
- First origami book Academic background, interest in mathematics, and path to a Master’s in Museum Studies
- Influential origami designers and specific lessons learned from each
- Exploration of pentagonal papers beginning in 2013 (reasons for choosing the pentagon and its geometric significance)
- Development and history of specific portfolio works (corrugation, cubes, hexagonal, and circular models) Mirrorigami series (exploration of pattern and reflection) Aineh-kari / Ayeneh-kari tradition (Persian mirrored architectural ornament and geometric mirror mosaics) Ayeneh-kari-inspired origami works
- Work as a digital product designer and its intersection with origami
- Experiences hosting the Origami Talk Project (surprises and common traits among origami designers)
- Collaboration with Versace and other brands (origins and experience)
- Licensed skydiving and any connections to origami
About Ali Bahmani
Ali Bahmani, born in Iran in 1990, is an origami artist, designer, and educator now based in Toronto, Canada. He spent part of his early childhood in Japan, then returned to Iran, where his interest in origami deepened, and later lived in Dubai for three years before moving to Canada about two and a half years ago.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Museum Studies, a combination that shows in his approach to paper. Ali is drawn to simplicity, favoring elegant, geometric models. Most of his designs carry a clear structural logic paired with a distinct aesthetic sensibility in the finished piece, with his work focusing on geometry, patterns, surfaces, and three-dimensional form.
That geometric instinct led him somewhere many folders never go. As Ali puts it: “Origami is not just about a single square sheet of paper. Since late 2013 I began working with pentagonal papers.” His exploration in the land of pentagonal origami has shaped some of his best-known models, including the Sakura Star, a flower-like star folded from a single pentagon, and Star Within, built around an unusual inside-reverse-squash technique.
Another major body of work is his Mirrorigami series, which explores pattern and reflection, drawing on Ayeneh-kari, the Persian tradition of mirrored ornament. His practice also extends to geometric tessellations and corrugations, and beyond paper into installations, workshops, and collaborations that stretch into metal and other materials.
His work has been published internationally in conventions and collections across the USA, UK, Germany, Australia, and Italy, among others, including the MIT Origami Convention book and the 22nd Origami Tanteidan annual book in Japan.
He has also collaborated with brands including Versace, Prada, Cursor, and Stripe, and presented his work at Dubai Design Week and Downtown Design.
Ali currently works as Head of Product at a software company, and often brings the two disciplines together. He applies origami’s folding logic to design projects and teaches both the scientific and artistic sides of the craft in universities and schools.
Teaching remains one of Ali’s favorite activities. He has led origami workshops across Japan, Dubai, Qatar, and Iran for audiences ranging from designers and engineers to mathematics and computer science students.
He’s also active in voluntary and humanitarian work, including with Mehr Charity, and in 2016 co-founded Omid-Origami, a volunteer group in Japan. Through it, he traveled to Tohoku to run origami workshops for children affected by the tsunami, as part of a broader disaster relief and care program.
Find Ali Bahmani on Facebook, and Instagram.
Ali was the host of Origami Talk Project, a weekly live chat with origami artists where they shared about their personal journey, artworks, and creative process.