Recently I had a trip to my home country, Japan.  Aside from visiting my family and friends, my mission was to get inspirations for my origami work, as well as to stack up on paper materials.

My first stop, Origami Kaikan in Ochanomizu, Tokyo was just the right place for what I was looking to do.  Absolutely the lovely place it was.  I wish I lived closer!  I will definitely go back and visit there again.

Store front of Origami Kaikan

Since its first establishment in 1858 as a Japanese paper (washi) dyeing factory, Origami Kaikan has developed into a mecca for origami crafters.  The facility houses everything from origami exhibit space to paper shop, classrooms and washi dyeing factory.  Displayed artworks have emphasis on renzuru (multiple paper cranes made out of one sheet of paper) and flowers.  Some of them are renzuru made to look like flowers.

Christmas tree display at their store front

Garlands of paper cranes made to look like wisteria

Renzuru in a shadow box frame

They offer a wide variety of origami classes, though I didn't have time to take one at this time.  Maybe next time.  The photos below are samples from the classes that they offer.

2013 animal zodiac (snake) workshop

Washi bonsai workshop

Christmas tree workshop

As for the origami shop, they have the largest selection of origami paper I have ever seen!  They had a wide variety of not only origami packs, but also single sheets of chiyogami and washi in different sizes, tools, kits, and origami instruction books.  I wish I had more specific origami projects that I am working on; this place would have everything that I would need.

This is just one section of the store where they have large paper

They sell many complete kits such as this chrysanthemum making kit

I visited another floor of Origami Kaikan where they dye paper and visitors can watch it.  Not only I got to see the paper being dyed, I got to meet the chairman of Origami Kaikan and a renown origami artist, Mr. Kazuo Kobayashi.  I regret that I didn't take a photo of him, though.

Brushes used to dye paper

Huge stack of washi

Origami Kaikan's website can be found here.  Most of it is in Japanese, but you can read the general info in English from here.  All the photos are taken and uploaded to my blog with a permission from Origami Kaikan.

I remember that the Christian high school that I attended in Japan had a Christmas tree with apples as ornaments.  I don't know whose idea it was to decorate that way, but I thought it was strange not only to see apples hanging from an evergreen tree, but also to use the "forbidden fruit" as ornaments.

In our household we don't have a Christmas tree, but if we had one, I would of course love to decorate it in origami!  Since I never get to do that, I was really excited when my school asked me to decorate a Christmas tree with the kids for our neighbor, especially since the "neighbor" was Cavalia!  They have been performing in Portland, and their tents are set near our school.  They offered to do a special performance for some school children in the area including ours.  Cavalia also asked our school to decorate a Christmas tree for them.  The school put me in charge of this project.

For the past week I had been teaching the kids how to make origami ornaments.  We made 4 different kinds, about 50 ornaments in total.

3D snowflake design found at Papar Zone

Six pointed star found here

Step 8 of this frog model assembled together to make these ornaments.

My simple design of accordion folds and gluing ends together

I also folded an origami horse as a tree topper.  This origami horse model is from a little book I picked up at a 100 yen shop and by Makoto Yamaguchi (it is called 親子で折るおけいこ折り紙上級).  I used wet-folding method for the first time for this model.  Wet-folding is a technique developed by origami artist Akira Yoshizawa, and many origami artists who like more realistic looks on their models use this method.  Wet-folding creates more curves instead of geometric sharp edges that comes from normal origami folding.  Since it was my very first wet-folding model, it didn't look perfect but I think it came out pretty cool!  Thank you RC from POPS for giving me tips on wet-folding.


Here are some photos of the Christmas tree taken at Cavalia.  I got to go to the show as one of the chaperons for our school children.




The entire Cavalia performance was breathtakingly amazing and beautiful.  I enjoyed every second of it.  Since photographing was not permitted during the show, unfortunately I don't have any photos to share.  But we were allowed to photograph during Q&A after the show.  It was such a holiday treat to get to watch this special Cavalia performance!

I do origami anywhere in my house, and anywhere I go to.  At a restaurant, in an airplane, on a picnic table at a park, etc.  As long as I have a solid surface to fold on and good lighting besides paper, I can do it anywhere.  And that's the beauty of this form of art.  "A solid surface" is relatively easy to get; all you need is a table, a lap table, a clipboard, or even just a book to fold on.  But good lighting is not always easy to come by, and it is a must since I want to have those very precise folds, every time.  Besides, my eye sight is terrible in dark.  

So I recently bought a little book light.  It is called MiniFlex LED Book Light by Mighty Bright.  I bought it for about 10 bucks at Fred Meyer but it's available at Amazon, etc. too.  It clips on to a book or it can stand by itself.  It has a flexible neck.  It's so compact you can take it anywhere.  I brought it to a plane recently, and it worked better than that light on the ceiling of the plane.  I plan to bring it to camping trips this summer too.  I think it will come in handy at anywhere I travel to.  I highly recommend this product to anyone!

A few weeks ago, I had posted about a sign that I made with origami alphabet models.  Since then, we made another one.  This new sign was put on another side of the playground fence.

We changed the wording from the last one and also placed some geometric origami models that are two dimensional, just to make it a little more interesting.  We had a bit of trouble laminating so it came out quite wrinkly.  But other than that it came out well in the sense that it's hard not to notice a sign this big and readable.

Most of the geometric models on this sign are from Home Decorating With Origami by Tomoko Fuse.  I have the original Japanese version of this book.  Ms. Fuse is known for her modular origami models and boxes, and this book is filled with her specialty: pretty decorations and practical models that you can use or give as gifts.  It's most appropriate for intermediate to advance paper folders.

I sometimes see female bloggers disclosing what's inside their purses and makeup bags.  I have nothing interesting in my makeup bag, maybe except for an Ebony pencil that I use to draw my eyebrows.  But I thought perhaps I could show what's inside my bag that I carry around wherever I go to teach.  People often ask me where I get my materials, and there are some special items that I always recommend.  So here it is...

This is my big purse, made by Ellington, a local handbag company.  It has many pockets inside and out.  I love it.  I use it not only for my teaching excursions but also for other trips.  It's so versatile.  I have a friend with the same bag in another fabric as a diaper bag.  She loves it too.

In this bag, there is always this tin box for all my origami papers, which keeps them wrinkle free.  It was originally a gift box for Japanese cookies.  Depending on the lesson I'm giving that day, I switch which kinds of papers to put inside, but typically I have a big economy origami package purchased in Japan.  They are so much cheaper to get over there, so I stock up on them whenever I go back home.  But when I'm in a pinch for origami papers, I buy at Anzen, Uwajimaya or Kinokuniya.  They have the best selections of origami papers I've found in Portland area.

I also carry around this stuffed animal... no, it's a pen case!  Isn't he so adorable?  A lot of children become envious of my doggie pen case.  It was a gift from a Japanese boy I used to tutor, and I think his mom got it in Japan.  I know, so many cute things are from Japan.

Inside this doggie, you will find a Signo Uniball 0.28mm pen, permanent markers (bold and thin tip ones), a Japanese calligraphy brush pen, metallic colored gel pens, a glue stick, a bone folder, a Hello Kitty mechanical pencil and an eraser, lead refills, a small snap blade utility knife, a metal bookmark, and self adhesive photo squares.  Obviously, not everything in here is for origami artwork, and some are for manga drawing and card making.

My favorite items among these are the Signo pen, the utility knife, and the self adhesive photo squares.  This pen writes really well, and the point is extremely fine.  It makes a good manga drawing pen too.  As for the utility knife, I don't even remember where I got it.  But this Stanley Snap Off Knife 9mm might be similar to mine.  I find it easier to use than an X-acto knife.  I also like that it's smaller than a regular utility knife for household chores.  I often cut a piece of paper after folding it, putting the blade between the folds and sliding it across.  I also use this utility knife to make straight cuts, by putting the bookmark next to the blade.  The self adhesive photo squares are great to use when I need to glue papers together but am afraid that glue might make it messy.  They stick much better than regular double-sided tapes.

Questions on any items?  Do you have any materials that you recommend for origami art?  Please e-mail me!

I haven't checked on YouTube much for origami instructions, but I stumbled upon one that was really cool so I thought to introduce it here.  It's a cube that turns into a rose (and vice versa).

It's an unit origami which requires folding 6 pieces total (3 for petals and 3 for leaves).  I'm actually not a big fan of unit origami because I get tired of folding the same way over and over, but 6 pieces aren't too bad.  There is one folding step that is a little tricky (squash-folding along some creases part).  You'll see which step I'm talking about when you watch the video.  Most likely, you will have to fold as you watch the video and then pause after every step.

I just purchased some new packages of origami papers at Art Media, and I found them perfect for this rose cube because each piece of paper is the same color on both sides.  There were 2 sizes of package: 6x6 for about $10 and 4x4 for about $6.  Each package has 500 sheets and 10 colors.  I was surprised when I found these because they are made in Germany!  I had never seen origami papers that are not made in Japan before.  These German origami papers have different texture from Japanese ones, but they fold just fine.




Good luck making this and Have fun!

It has been a few weeks since I picked up Origami Dress-Up Paper Dolls book.  I've already made a few dolls for myself and also helped some of my students make theirs with this book.  Since the book was imported from Japan, I paid a little more than how much I would've paid if I waited to buy it in Japan, but for me money was worth spent.  This book turned out to be just as good as the Amazon Japan review, or even better!  I love origami and I love fashion, so this is right up my alley.

First of all, the designs of the dolls are absolutely adorable.  Here is a doll that I made using a left over paper from Origami Mushrooms for the dress.  I think she turned out pretty cool!

I find that some origami instruction books are hard to follow, but not this one.  The book is very well written.  The level of difficulty is about semi-beginner to intermediate.  The girls at my school who made these dolls have done origami with me in the past, and they are between 2nd and 5th graders.  With my help, it took each of them about two hours to finish making a doll with a whole outfit.  Each doll is made out of 10 or more pieces of paper, with all the body parts, clothing and shoes combined.  They loved it and stayed focused on the project for the whole two hours.

A large variety of clothing, accessories, and hairstyles are introduced in the book.  Even though some pieces of clothing or body parts require different sizes of paper, he explains exactly how to cut a regular size origami paper into each required size so there is no need to purchase different sizes of paper.  He also encourages you to use wrapping paper and such, and explains how to cut one into a perfect square that you need (which is by using the cardboard that comes with an origami package, FYI).


Here is a "Mini-Me" I made.  Black hair, a print skirt, and boots... That's totally me.  I had so much fun choosing paper for this outfit that made me realize this book might even help me stop my obsession for buying clothes!

When I was little, one of the most favorite things to play with was dress-up paper dolls, which kind of explains why I love playing dress-up.  If you have met me in person you probably have noticed me with a weird skirt one day or another.  I have a collection of skirts... and I know they are all weird...  I love fun, novelty prints not only for skirts but also for origami papers.  And I have a collection of pretty print origami papers also.

So you can imagine how I got excited when I found an instruction book on how to make dress-up paper dolls in origami.  The book is called 折り紙きせかえ人形, written by Makoto Yamaguchi, a renown origami artist in Japan.  Many of his books are translated into English, but unfortunately not this one.  When it comes to origami instructions, though you can usually understand it just from diagrams so it doesn't really matter even if it is written in a language that you don't know.  Most origami paper packages are from Japan and come with instructions written in Japanese, but my American students still use those.

Last week I ordered this book at Kinokuniya Bookstore which is inside of Uwajimaya in Beaverton and am still waiting to receive it.  It is very well reviewed on Amazon Japan.  Oh I can't wait to get it!  I will review it on this blog later. 

I recently watched a documentary called Between The Folds, after hearing about it from multiple people.  It is more amazing than words can say about these origamists in this documentary.  They are true geniuses.  I realized that many people who are so captivated by origami are people with superior "left-brains," like physicists, scientists, mathematicians, engineers. 

No, not me.  I'm not like them at all.  I've done fair share of math and science courses in school like everybody else.  I did maybe average to better-than-average on those subjects.  But they were never really my favorite.  I'm definitely not a "left-brainer."  Am I an "right-brainer" then?  Not especially.  I loved drawing when I was little, but I eventually got discouraged to follow my path to creativity along the way by my no-nonsense entrepreneur parents and my 6th grade teacher.  So I had long given up on the idea of becoming an artist.  I actually chose to study mostly social sciences in college. 

How did I end up teaching origami then?  I could explain this in length, but in a nutshell, I was led by some wonderful people.  They are my college professors, my past and present employers and students, who inspired me to follow my path to the art of teaching origami.  I had been teaching for a few years before I finally realized origami is really what I wanted to teach. 

I haven't really able to create complicated models completely from scratch and turn them into diagrams.  I have created a few simple models of my own but that is about it.  But I love making origami models from instruction books and adding my own twists by turning them into dioramas, cards, framed pieces, and other decorations.  I love experimenting with different colors, patterns, textures, and sizes of papers and combining with other art forms.

And of course, I love to teach origami.  The moment when I finish teaching an origami model to a group of students - everyone is appreciating what they just made, with a sense of pride and accomplishment - is priceless.  So I always work hard to try to achieve that.  I believe that teaching origami is the art itself and what I'm blissed to do.  Over the past years I have gotten so many children completely hooked on origami, and some have taken the art form to a whole different level.  Maybe someday, I hope that they will grow up to become likes of those genius origamists in the film;)