Basic History of Oragami :Historians cannot agree on the true origin of the art of origami. Most believe the Chinese invented origami after discovering how to make paper during the Han Dynasty. Later, the Buddhist Monks transferred the knowledge to the people of Japan, who perfected the art and take most of the credit for its extensive applications and uses today. The name oragami in Japanese language means "ori", to fold, and "gami", paper.
In the beginning, only the royal class could afford to practice oragami as a form of entertainment and luxury gift gifting. As paper making costs dropped, the popularity and applications of oragami grew exponentially. In 1797, the first oragami folding instruction book titled, How to Fold 1,000 Cranes, further increased the awareness of oragami to the masses. The book delivers the message that if someone can fold 1000 paper cranes, she will be granted a wish from a crane, a Japanese mystical beast. Soon after, more oragami techniques were published to meet the ever growing demand.
In modern culture, the NBC hit show, Heroes episode Six Months Ago, shows Hiro Nakamura stopping time, so he can fold 1000 cranes as a demonstration of his power and presumably makes a wish to save Charlie's life. |
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1. Use thin colorful paper. You can use any square piece of thin paper. Oragami specialty shops sell thin paper that is colored on one side and white on the other.
Other sources of paper suitable for oragami would be :
- Gift Wrapping Paper
- Thin wallpaper samples
- Colored photography paper
- Notebook paper
- Or even paper bags
2. Make creases as straight and crisp as possible. One haphazard fold or crease may throw off the whole look of the sculpture.
3. Learn the basic forms first.Most oragami instructions start with instructioning you to make one of the basic forms, then proceed with the specialty instructions.
4. Never hesitate to start over. If your angles and creases or not exact, you may throw off the entire look of your oragami creation.
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Incorporating oragami patterns with vasculary science, researchers at Oxford University, U.K. revolutionized how surgery on the heart is performed. In the past, many surgeons performed open heart surgery, but could not suggest the highly invasive procedure to the elderly or severely weakened patients. As a solution to this problem, researchers invented a soft surgery procedure using their knowledge of oragami.
The artificial heart valve is folded until it is reduced to 1/6th its size using the oragami pattern, waterbomb base. Then the surgeons thread it through the femoral artery until it reaches its destination and opens up much like an umbrella when it reaches its destination.
During March of 1995, Japanese researchers revolutionized the field of space exploration by using oragami folding techniques to neatly fold a solar panel into an easily transportable parallegram. After the space rocket, called Space Flight Unit (SFU), reached its destination in space, the parallegram unfolded into a solar sail. The researchers named the oragami folding technique, Miura-ori, which was invented by esteemed Tokyo University professor, Koryo Miura.
We are reminded of how oragami helps scientific discovery every time we sit behind the wheel of a car. The automobile airbag concept would not be a reality if scientists did not incorporate a oragami in order to properly fold the air bag. The air bag must be specific criteria, so that it not only fits in a different panels of a vehicle, but then inflates at a predefined rate and pressure. The science of folding air bags continues as we invent new safety features protecting passengers from fatal collisions. |
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