| In 100 AD, when origami was first invented, designing | | | | paper in some odd pattern. |
| the piece took serious effort and planning because | | | | In reality, it makes the paper into amazing things like |
| paper was not cheap. The artist had to envision the | | | | bugs, animals, people and anything else you can think |
| finished piece emerging from a single flat piece of | | | | of. The problem is getting to the point of understanding |
| paper as a fully realized three-dimensional piece of art. | | | | the folds on the paper to know when to fold what and |
| At first, this was a very difficult task and only true | | | | which way to fold it. |
| masters could do it. | | | | Honestly, just looking at the folding patterns on the |
| As time progressed and more and more people were | | | | paper before it is turned into origami is almost as |
| able to enjoy the practice of origami, books were | | | | amazing as the finished product. This is especially true |
| written detailing how to make different pieces. | | | | if you love math and the origination of lines and graphs |
| Especially now, with the Internet, if you do a search for | | | | that come with a love of higher mathematics and how |
| origami, you will find endless sites on how to make this | | | | numbers translate into images. However, you don't |
| or that but very little about learning how to design | | | | need to know all that stuff in order to create truly |
| these incredible pieces of art. | | | | amazing origami. |
| Now, because of computers, you can have all of this | | | | People have been designing and folding paper for |
| done for you. One such program called Tree Maker is | | | | centuries before computers were even imagined in |
| a free bit of software, which allows you to do the | | | | any way. This is an ancient art and, if you really want |
| design on your computer. Just because this software | | | | to get into origami, learning how to do it the old |
| is available doesn't mean you can just download it and | | | | fashioned way would be wise. Without this type of |
| off you go. It requires a good knowledge of origami as | | | | knowledge from the beginning, you would be ignoring |
| well as mathematics and computers. It's a bit confusing | | | | the rich history and skill involved in creating these |
| but it can crank out some awesome designs. | | | | wonderful pieces of art from single pieces of paper. |
| When origami was first introduced to the world, a | | | | Start with something simple and familiar - a paper |
| complex piece may have had about 30 or so different | | | | airplane. Did you know folding a paper airplane is |
| folds in it. These days, because of computers and | | | | considered to be origami and there are people who |
| advanced mathematics, pieces can easily have 300 or | | | | make these so complex they can fly in the air for up |
| more folds on a single piece of paper. Looking at one | | | | to a minute at a time? So grab a piece of paper and |
| of these diagrams is confusing if you don't understand | | | | fire up your imagination and start folding. |
| it. All it looks like are a bunch of lines all over a piece of | | | | |