Origami - The art of paper folding

The word "origami" comes from the Japanese words "ori" = "to fold  up" and "kami" = "paper". Origami is the art of  paper  folding into different creatures, objects or any other shapes. It uses  many techniques and the paper is folded to stay in the shape that is  folded into. When the Japanese first folded origami, they used only  one piece of paper. A different kind of origami called modular  origami uses many small pieces that are the same, which are  combined to form one large model. Also, many mathematical  shapes can be made with origami.

The traditional Japanese shapes usually picture animals and flowers. The best known shape is the crane. There is also a legend about this shape that says that after the disaster of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs there were so many losses that the hope was almost lost too. But a little girl started to paper fold almost 2000 cranes and never, not even for a second that she lost her hope for her life to be saved. The legend also says that a man should at least fold 1000 cranes in his life for all his wishes to be fulfilled.

Nowadays though, this art has developed a lot and people fold paper into any other shapes due to every person's imagination and the "rules" are more strict. If the traditional shapes were made of nonsquare paper and the Japanese used even to cut paper, these days the paper is usually a square or rectangular shape and is folded without being cut or glued.

This is an art that requires few resources: coloured paper that is easy to fold up, patience and of course imagination. If you're a beginner like me, there are plenty of  sources that can help you learn how to fold paper into unimaginable shapes like special books and videos just like the next one. Also, if you'd like to know more about this art the web is full of information. Here is a little video with how an origami simple box is made:

I also tried this box and other more complex boxes and shapes. What do you think, are they good? (roll down to see them all)