Origami World Marathon 2020
The first Origami World Marathon was an 2-day long origami event filled with fun and folding. This event took place on Zoom, completely online! Taking place over the course of 48 hours, 48 expert origami artists proceeded to teach how to make 48 different beautiful and interesting models of their own creation! Ranging from origami animals to plants to geometric models, the origami world marathon provided a wide range of choices of origami models to pick from. I chose to fold a bunch of different models, and all of them had different and unique results!
Classes I attended
Sunflower
The sunflower model, designed by Yara Yagi, was a beautiful origami sunflower folded from a hexagon. It was made by making a triangle grid in a hexagon-shaped paper, making some new creases using the triangle grid, and finally collapsing the grid into a sunflower! The collapsing part was especially fun for me, and I really loved the finished sunflower. I enjoyed this model so much I decided to make another one out of gold foil paper, to see if the foil would let me curl the petals better. It definitely worked! The petals did curl better with the foil paper, which added some style to the model. Both of my attempts at this model were super fun, and I really loved the results.
Nymphaea
The Nymphaea, designed by Meenakshi Mukerji, was another beautiful origami flower. The Nymphaea is a type of lily, so this model is an origami lily. The lily pad was octagonal, so the resulting flower had 8 leaves. I loved the color change between the flower and the lily pad, so it really looked like an actual flower sitting on the leaf! The collapsing of this model and the opening of the petals was also very pleasing to fold. This model is best folded from paper that is a floral color on one side, and green on the other, but it also looked very nice folded from a simple piece of white and green kami. The floral and natural aspects of this model really added to the finished product, making it a beautiful model to fold and behold!
Gray Whale
The Gray Whale, designed by Kade Chan, was an amazing origami whale. The folding and shaping of this model resulted in a 3D whale that could stand by itself, and looked like it was jumping out of the water! The smooth curves on the finished whale made it look very lifelike. This actually folded very well out of regular kami. I was expecting to have to use a special type of origami paper to achieve the curves of the whale, but folding with a regular piece of kami ended up giving a result as good as I could have ever hoped for. I have never folded a three-dimensional origami sea animal before, and this was an amazing first.
Chain Link Cube
The Chain Link Cube, designed by David Brill, was the most fun and simple model I folded in the entire marathon. The cube was folded from two very simple units, that were very simple and quick to make. Both were made from a 1:2 sheet of paper. Although it was so simple, the finished chain link cube looked super cool, like the cube had two interlocking parts.
During this class, we also learned a different way we could use the chain link units. The units could be assembled into an actual chain, that extended for as long as you wanted! I made a 16-unit chain. This chain was very fun and simple to assemble. I really enjoyed this model, and will definitely keep adding on to the chain.
Pyramid Santa Claus
The Pyramid Santa Claus, designed by Román Diaz, was a cute but expressive model. I loved how geometric yet fun this model was! The simple hat, beard, mustache, and tiny little nose add some expression to the Santa. It sure is a fun little origami piece to have around at Christmas! This model can also be made into an ornament for your Christmas tree. In the picture above, I have attached a string to the origami Santa Claus, making it a fun little origami ornament. This piece can also stand on it’s own, so it can be displayed by itself, instead of being an ornament. Overall, I really loved folding this model, and loved how there’s different ways it can be used and displayed.
Carriage House Butterfly
The Carriage House Butterfly, designed by Michael Lafosse, was a beautiful and intricate origami butterfly. The symmetry of the model and the creative patterns on the wings give the butterfly character. Something really cool about this butterfly is how the white curves on the upper wings of the butterfly were made. By figuring out the grain of the paper, and orienting it in a certain way when starting to fold the model, you ensure that these curves will be very easy to make. Folding curves against the grain of the paper lets the paper spread out, adding a nice organic touch to the butterfly. I also decided to fold this model with blue patterned paper, and I absolutely adore the result! The blue-themed floral paper goes with the theme of the butterfly. This model was the best origami butterfly I have ever made, and I would surely make it again, experimenting with different paper types and sizes!
I really enjoyed the first Origami World Marathon, and being able to learn from origami creators from all over the world!
