The Origami Forum

Multi-Sheet Representational Origami

This month's challenge topic comes out of the idea of 'impure' origami. Many origamists are strong believers in origami purity (one square, no cuts, no glue, no tape, etc.), but I am not. If you want to cut, glue, tape or paint your paper, go for it. That is, go for it if it has a purpose in enhancing the quality of the finished origami work. Cutting for the sake of cutting is pointless. This said, for the sake of this challenge, cutting will be disallowed. DISCLAIMER: Though I am not philosophically against cutting, I feel that it conflicts with the concept of this challenge. The goal is to explore the possibilities of folding with multiple sheets of paper, not the possibilities of cutting.

Because of the widespread belief that origami should be 'pure', it seems that the options offered by 'impure' origami are not being explored much.. I have seen some incredibly beautiful, elaborate origami sculptures made possible only by the fact that they used many sheets of paper. For example:



Not many people are doing this (myself included)! The purpose of this challenge is to encourage you (and me) to explore some of the new options offered by using many sheets of paper in a single subject and, hopefully, produce some interesting and beautiful results.

Without further ado,

The Rules:

-Your entry must be your own original design.

-Your entry must be representational. That is, it cannot be abstract (like polyhedra, tessellations, etc.).

-Your entry must be a single entity/subject-no scenes containing multiple separate figures (i.e. 2 knights charging at each other would not be allowed, but a man with a falcon standing on his arm would).

-Your entry must be made up of at least 2 separate sheets of paper, but it is highly encouraged to use more than that.

-Each sheet of paper used must not have any slits pre-cut into it and must be shaped like either a regular polygon, any rectangle, or a 45-45-90 right triangle (half of a square).

-No cutting allowed on any of the sheets of paper used.

-You may submit as many entries as you want, but they must all have been folded (and preferably, designed) this month.

Judging Criteria
This is a section that, to my knowledge, has never been included in an origami challenge. I include this to give this month's judge some idea of what I envisioned with this challenge, as well as to help folders with decisions on their entries. Ultimately, these are just guidelines, and the final say is in the hands of this month's judge.

This month's judge is the winner of last month's challenge: Black~Terror


-While many sheets of paper are required, pointless use of more sheets of paper will not gain you anything. In fact, it may harm your chances, as needless complexity does not necessarily add artistic merit.

-That said, one of the main reasons to use many sheets of paper is to allow more complexity in an origami design. Elaborate complexity is encouraged, but use such complexity wisely in the composition of your entry.

-Good photography is a part of the judging, as well. If your entry is photographed poorly, this may affect your chances of winning. This includes blurriness, poor color balance, bad lighting, a poorly chosen background for the photo, or a bad camera angle that does not adequately showcase your design.


Sorry if this feels like a tome-I wanted to be thorough. Have fun, and get designing!

Hmm. Does this mean that Papercraft (google if you haven't heard of it) would be accepted?

I assume you mean pepakura. It would be accepted as long as you did not use cuts or unacceptably-shaped paper.

Jonnycakes wrote:-Each sheet of paper used must not have any slits pre-cut into it and must be shaped like either a regular polygon, any rectangle, or a 45-45-90 right triangle (half of a square).

-No cutting allowed on any of the sheets of paper used.

This is kinda what I meant with my "mega-multi piece" thing.

Would glue be acceptable? And if so, does the pieces hawe to be able to look into each other,
or can glue be used to attach them to each other?

There are no restrictions on glue usage. I suppose you could do something from papier-mâché if you really wanted, but the point of the challenge is to explore origami techniques. Using many sheets in representational origami is a fairly unexplored topic-that is what this challenge is about. Besides, going in the direction of other papercraft rather than origami may bring in to question whether your entry would even be considered origami. Papier-mâché, for example, is not origami.

nooooo! this is gonna be tricky. i've NEVER done a modular before. :/

I don't think too many people here have. Don't worry, I think it will be a fairly level playing field.

joshuaorigami wrote:nooooo! this is gonna be tricky. i've NEVER done a modular before. :/

It's not modular, he said non representational multi piece, which means compound origami. Modular means identical modules put together , with each module being used equally. Jonbon means something like issei's t-Rex skeleton.

yeah, i do know that, i just meant i've never done anything along those lines... multi sheet and stuff. i wern't quite clear about that though...
But i'll still give it a shot.

would a set of samurai-armour, -helmet and chest be within the rules?

Of course!

joshuaorigami wrote:nooooo! this is gonna be tricky. i've NEVER done a modular before. :/

Josh never done a modular? Wow thats strange.

this should be good fun i'm going to work along the lines of my goomba

For me multi-piece is not really a challenge because I am used to working to get everything in one piece. Using many pieces makes it easier, not more challenging. Therefore this month I shall probably fold something using many colors because that is the main thing that cannot be folded with one sheet.

If you feel that way, you aren't thinking along the right line. There are TONS of things that are very difficult or not feasible to fold from one sheet, regardless of the colors involved. It is challenging not because it is technically challenging from a design standpoint, but because it gets you to think of the possibilities of using multiple sheets in a new way for creative benefit. This is not something origamists in general are used to thinking about, because we so often use one sheet.