The Origami Forum

I know I'm no-where near to being as good as 90% of you, but I have these pictures of some of my latest models and I need you to help me find some models that could maybe help me improve, or stretch my abilities. I need some models close to those skill levels of my models below.

A Flower I made today from an Intermediate Diagram

A Dragon I made awhile ago, I tweaked it ever so slightly though, like the tail and the wings

This is the Last picture of another dragon that was harder than the one before, but I liked the other one better
So, any suggestions of diagrams that would be just a tad harder or more than these?

What origami books do you have?
If you list what you've got then people might be able to suggest what books you would benefit from buying next.

The thing is...I have no books...
These are ones I've learned from a computer.

It looks like you can do at least the lower intermediate models. I would look at the intermediate models here:
http://dev.origami.com/diagram.cfm
There are over 200, and you're probably ready to do most of them right now. I'm sure you'd learn a lot going through many of them.

Especially as you become more advanced, learning to fold from CPs would be good to look into. There is an abundance of CPs online and that is a great source for new (free) models to fold and new techniques to learn.

Thanks, I'll do the intermediate ones on Dev.origami but CPs; how do you do them?

Just trying to fold whichever model (a simple one, or even an ancient dragon) will help you improve, it isn't necessary to finish it. Also don't understimate the improving effect of trying to fold a model you couldn't do before, even if "before" is 5 minutes ago, each try you learn a lot about the model and folding process without realizing.

For CPs, check out the Sticky: viewtopic.php?t=2131

And here are some simple ones that even I can do
viewtopic.php?t=5278&highlight=cube

These are good practice to start with.

And look at:
viewtopic.php?t=4642&highlight=cat
(But I can't do these, yet ...)

Also, check out your local library for Origami books, maybe ask about interlibrary loans, and look at local College libraries.

- Hank Simon

Books are much more helpful than the internet.

My favorite book when learning origami was John Montroll's Origami for the Enthusiast. The models progress in difficulty (and coolness!) as you get better.

Thanks Everyone! I'm already Improving!

A few more Internet resources:

http://www.pem.org/origami/ Also click on "Fold More Models"

http://www.happyfolding.com/instructions

- Hank Simon

Another internet resource.
Beginner's Guide to Crease Patterns: http://spinflipper.com/origami/cp/toc.html
I found this quite helpful when first trying to fold from CPs.

Crease patterns are fun! They bring that feeling of a challenge, the process of figuring out something by yourself through trial and error. Even the simplest ones! And the more crease patterns I fold, the more easily I recognize certain patterns in the crease patterns It's much more interesting than folding by step by step origami instructions IMO.

One book that I learned from amazingly well was Peter Engels's Origami from Angelfish to Zen, it has some simple, intermediate, and complex models, so that you don't need to buy a new book every time you want to progress in difficulty . It is a great book, and I strongly recommend it to you.

Genuine Origami by Jun Maekawa has some excellent designs, and lots of ideas and theories to boot. I've got a lot out of this book.

Eric Joisels rat is one I'd suggest trying:

http://www.happyfolding.com/files/Joisel-Rat.pdf