Mutsumi no

Origami

I've recently dived back into this after years of messing about withsimple books as a kid. It's finally starting to feel less impossible and like I can achieve anything with it, just with a bit of patience and time

The book that really turned things around was Genuine Origami by Jun Maekawa. I went through the entire book from beginning to end, which took about three months. It teaches lots of different origami techniques and at the end you should be ready to tackle most complex origami books. Be warned that although it says "from basic to advanced", you really need some previous experience with easy models. I got stuck on many models, even the first one!

I perservered, taking breaks and refolding models when I wasn't sure. In really tricky models I sometimes needed to watch videos of people folding that model, or ask for help. But it was totally worth it! I feel much less frustrated folding now, because I'm familiar with the general folding patterns.

Since then I've picked up many new Origami books. The majority you will need to order online--most bookshops, even bigger ones, only sell easy origami books.

I've been trying to go through and finish all the models in each book like I did with Genuine Origami but have been a bit more scattered. It has been useful because I've become a lot more familiar with particular designs specific artists use. Also some models look a lot more attractive in real life than they do in the book. I've become very fond of intermediate models, which are often very charming even if they don't look 100% realistic. Complex models take such a long time investment (3+ hours!!!) that it can be incredibly frustrating to reach the end and just have a crap crumpled model. At least with simple and intermediate models I don't mind restarting.

Another thing that has been helpful for improving has been learning more about different paper types and making my own double tissue paper. This really elevates the model past the kiddie craft look that you get with most kami.