For Michelle and Elizabeth Acknowledgments Thanks to John Montroll, friend and mentor, to Brian Webb, Paul Frasco, to everyone else who test-folded these models and gave me feedback and support, and to OrigamiUSA. Special thanks to Bob Plotkin for the wonderful photography, and to my Tuttle Publishing editor, Jon Steever, who was instrumental in shaping this book. Super-special thanks to my wife Jeannie for continually indulging me in my passion for origami and helping in every way imaginable outside of actually folding. Credits All models designed, folded and diagrammed by John Szinger. Photographs by Bob Plotkin. Contents Introduction Asian Elephant Adirondack Camp Canoe Lean-To Adirondack Chair Adirondack Animals Common Loon Foxy Fox Brown Bear Adirondack Moose Insects Inchworm Butterflies Cephalopods Octopus Cuttlefish Giant Squid Arctic Marine Mammals Bull Walrus Elephant Seal Narwhal Hex Base Critters Lizard Snapping Turtle Frog Five-Banded Armadillo American Turkey Fivefold Rose Appendix: Symbols and Folds How to Download the Bonus Material of this Book. 1. You must have an internet connection. 2. Click the link below or copy paste the URL to your web browser. http://www.tuttlepublishing.com/origami-animal-sculpture-downloadable- cd-content For support email us at [email protected]. My Origami Journey Origami is an endlessly fascinating and rewarding art form. It combines sculpture, mathematics, and creative expression in a unique way. Although its roots and traditions go back as far as the invention of paper, origami in the twenty-first century is exploding with creativity like never before, and finally coming into its own as a legitimate sculptural art form. I've been folding paper most of my life, starting with paper airplanes at a young age. As I matured, I devoured all the origami books at my local library. I even experimented with my own designs. Life is full of many roads, and around the year 2000 I came back to origami after a long hiatus. I started attending conventions. I met an excellent community of folders and was inspired to really work at designing my own original models. I began creating original origami purely for personal enjoyment. I undertook the task of diagramming my models for the OrigamiUSA annual collection as a way to share with fellow folders. As my repertoire grew, the idea for a book gradually began to take shape. Along the way I've developed a folding style that works for me and seems to produce nice results. I've spent the last couple of years focused on designing new models and making lots and lots of diagrams. I'm happy that it has all come together in the form you see here. The range of models presented here is intended for intermediate to advanced folders who are looking to tackle some deeper and more challenging models. An intermediate folder can expect to advance as he or she takes on the more complex projects. The chapters generally progress from less complex to more complex, as do the models in each chapter. A good gauge for model complexity is the size of paper that I recommend (larger generally means greater complexity). The number of steps needed to complete the project is another good way to quickly size up the relative difficulty involved in folding a given model. ON ORIGAMI DESIGN If you're a folder you already understand the essential appeal of origami. If you're new to origami, jump in and discover the joy of creating something out of almost nothing; just a piece of paper and some creases. This minimal starting point marvelously gives rise to almost limitless possibilities. Like music, origami has a deep basis in mathematics, particularly geometry and ratios, and from this arises higher levels of expression. Unlike most art forms, which are either additive or subtractive with their media and materials, origami is purely transformative; nothing is added or removed. This book is mainly about animals. Although many subjects—both representational and abstract—can make good fodder for origami, animals are among the most fun to design and fold. They have broad appeal, and can be as simple or challenging as you want them to get. Even exotic animals are somehow familiar in essence, and touch on something deep within the human psyche. My design process begins with meditation on the subject to see if I have anything to say or an approach that looks promising. Which aspects of the subject to emphasize? What should be minimized or left out entirely? Should it have claws? Does it even need legs at all, or is a mere suggestion enough? The balance between simplicity and complexity is a central concern in the creative process. While I enjoy complex models, I don't like complexity for its own sake. It's only justified if it expresses something essential. This first phase, before the folder folds anything, is perhaps the most important. Every artist will answer the question differently, and that is one of the things that makes our art compelling. Capturing something about the posture and attitude of the subject is important. Animals are lively: they move around and do things and are not in the same position all the time. Although a finished origami sculpture is (usually) still, I strive to capture something about the subject's style of moment. Is it strong or quick or fast or slow? The stance communicates much of this. One important area to concentrate on in almost any model is the shoulders and neck; the connection between the head and the body. This often speaks much more about the subject than making detailed and anatomically correct appendages.