Origami for Beginners

This afternoon as I was manipulating paper I wanted to concentrate on trying to create floral shapes. However I found that when doing so using the techniques taught to me by Richard Sweeney I wasn't using much 'repetition'. I decided to look at probably the most well recognised paper manipulation method, origami.

Looking at images of origami pieces it is obvious that these is an incredible amount of ' and accuracy to create the extremely intricate shapes. Here are some pieces which relate to my work, and which I would love to be able to create!

Although this shape looks very simple, and believe me I though it did, I found it almost impossible to create due to the twists and shapes put in, using a video website to watch how to create it I was astonished to the amount of squares used to create such a organic and curvy shape (a 8 x 8 grid is created first!)

This beautiful and very repetitive piece lets the mind wonder and leaves so much scope on the things that can be done with paper manipulation. So far I haven't included colour in my work due to the Richard Sweeney workshops but it is definitely something I would like to look into after seeing some of these origami pieces.

Although flowers such as this look quite simple to recreate when given the right instructions, after attempting them myself I now understand how complex, and for want of a better word, 'fiddly' these pieces are to create as you will see in my simple attempts below.

Using a video website I followed video instructions to create the two simple pieces below with great difficulty. Working with a media I am not used to brings new challenges but I find I learn much quicker as there is so much to take in...

Above: My attempt at a simple Lotus Flower. It used simple geometric lines and basic folds, and although it uses a very linear form it creates a simple representation of a flower.

Attempt 1, this was my first ever experience with origami where I created a simple tulip figure. I am not keen on the use of the stem as I don't feel this is a very repetitive feature, but I was exploring the principle more than anything.

Lets hope I can revisit origami and try to create something a bit more advanced!