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How Do I Make Origami?

Answer:
Origami is the ancient art of folding paper in an artful way.

There are two main things that you will need in order to take up this fun hobby: patience and paper. That is all. No tools are necessary.

Most origami patterns will be completed with a single unlined sheet of paper. The Yoshizawa-Randlett-Harbin system for documenting the instructions will be used in most modern diagrams and patterns. The pattern will show you in which direction to fold the paper.

Two of the main types of folds used are the valley fold and the mountain fold. A valley fold in when you fold the paper toward you along a line. A mountain fold is the opposite. You will fold the paper away from you along the same line. Almost all folds in origami will be a variation of these two basic folds. A reverse fold is when a tip of paper is folded so that the ends of the paper end up between different layers in order to have two or more layers folded along a single crease. A reverse fold is often used to represent a bird’s beak, for example. There are also many other folds to master, but the best thing is to master these basic folds, and then find some basic patterns and start having fun.