The Paper Folder

One of my favorite random abilities to use at work or in any other situation with a spare sheet of paper is to make the hopping origami frog that I learned back in elementary school.  For some reason the folds stuck in my mind since I learned it the first time and it never seems to disappoint a bunch of bored people.  This type of origami that can do things like hop around is referred to as action origami.

Most of us are probably familiar with at least one form of action origami, particularly the category called action toys.  This includes the hopping frog, crane with flapping wings, and the fortune teller.  The fortune teller is the quick toy that can be made consisting of four different sections and corresponding flaps that can be turned over to reveal a fortune.  I’m not sure how long this were popular, but while I was in school pretty much everyone had one of these and used it to dispense what I’m sure were very accurate fortunes.

Some of the more complex action models are built more to impress by the sheer complexity of the folding technique than to be used as action toys.  These include models by famous paper folders like Robert J. Lang and Jeremy Shafer.  Some of the examples on Wikipedia are people playing different instruments – for example, when you pull on a specific place on the model a bow will be moved across the face of a cello -  and a pocket knife that has moveable tools to fold out.  If you haven’t had a chance to see some of these I would definitely recommend doing a search; they are pretty amazing.

The last category of action origami that I have read about is the more complex models like flashers.  These are models that fold up very small, but can be expanded quickly.  One amazing examples is of a fold called the Miura fold has been used in commercial applications like space satellites.  Some of these models have benefited from the computer models used to create complex folds.  They allow the paper folder to create incredibly complex models from a single piece of paper, such as insects like I mentioned in my first post.

If you’re looking for a piece of action origami to try, I would definitely recommend giving the hopping frog a try.  I am definitely not a master paper folder by any means so I think just about anyone could fold it successfully.  If you do give it a shot, good luck and don’t forget to check out the more complex action models for some inspiration.

Photo Source: kekremsi