Readers' comments
Here are some of the comments from readers of the origami section of this website. Some of these have been moderated or altered. I welcome all comments, whether positive or negative. My comments are the replies in italics. For older comments, click here.From Mike Wattsman
Hello Mr Fishgoth,
I have enjoyed constructing the many lovely origami models on your fine pages. It is nice to see someone draw pictures of the steps by hand rather than on a computer, as the models have more life about them.. sometimes a tad hard to follow though!.
I have in particular enjoyed the dinosaurs section. The Triceratops is a very elegant and lifelike model indeed (if we in fact can say such thinks about a beast we have never seen living!), and the Tyrannosaurus is a fearsome fellow to be sure.
However, I am distraught at your diagram for the Iguanodon. There appears to be a page missing, as several steps which would seem to construct the hind legs of the creature are not present. I have made a stab at what I guess to be the steps involved, however I would be grateful indeed if you could find the missing page and upload it to your website so I can compare my own rough estimations with your careful and precise folds. Also I cant seem to get the proportioins correct.. is this my poor folding or a few dodgy diagrams?
Yours sincerely,
David
Ugh - not sure what happened there! Steps 36 - 45 appear in the saurolophus diagrams - up until that stage, the models are the same.
The proportions arent great - I've improved a lot on the design several times in the last five years. Sadly, I've still to get the newer version diagrammed.
Hope this helps,
Stephen
PS: Mr Fishgoth isn't my real name
Hello Stephen,
Many thanks for your reply, the saurolophus instructions gave me the help I needed.
I now have many fine creatures, built from the designs on your site, and have dedicated a small corner of my office to displaying them. I have them on some green paper for grass with some tree's dotted about for scenery.
However, a friend of mine pointed out that my single piece of green paper for grass seemed a bit unimaginative. I was wondering if there is any way you know of to create more realistic grass from a piece of paper without cutting? I have made some attempts to fold tiny points from a sheet whilst retaining the flatness of the paper, but have come up short. I have also dug around a little on the internet but to no avail.
Any ideas? I would appreciate your thoughts.
Regards,
David
My best advice would be to thump your friend for being annoying. Failing that, look up 'origami sea urchin' on google - there are several ways of getting multiple points out of a sheet of paper.
Regards, Stephen
From: Dave Bociek
I just started out with paper folding & your site is cool!! I have 4 nephews from 4 to 12 that are all enjoying doing this. Thank you for putting up this site, I love it!! Dave
From: Deepgirl
Hello! I just want to congratulate you on your wonderful origami creations! Amazing! Just today I've received three packets of Origami paper from Hong Kong, so I'm folding and folding... and also getting insipration :) You must be a top artist!
I wish you good luck and a lot of creative ideas!
DeepGirl
From :Frank Franco
Doctor Steven,
I was watching with great interest after a bout of alcohol induced insomnia from a cold medicine, a television show on public broadcasting here in the states. This attractive oriental woman was ironing tinted cellophane candy wrappers. I don't know why but I found it amusing. She would run the wrappers through a curling iron then put them in the pages of a phone book and weigh them down. When the process was finished, she had them all piled up neatly and sorted by color. Some had foil backing applied to them, but most were clear. I read the small print on the bottle of nite time cold medicine and it said "may cause excitability and inability to fall asleep in some people" Apparently, I'm a "some people"!!!!! So I watched and prayed for the Sandman. If this show didn't bore me to sleep, nothing else could.
She was speaking Japanese and there were white subtitles that disappeared into the white of her blouse (bothersome under normal circumstances but down right torture in my state of sleep deprivation)....so I was clueless but the show was having the intended effect. I watched her frenzied hand movements, flipping, creasing, flipping, folding, unfolding, re folding, flipping, creasing these wrappers and it occurred to me to turn on the closed captioning..... a BRILLIANT idea. At the end of this long arduous time lapsed process, what she ended up with was beyond description. A replica of a dragonfly tiffany style lampshade. The camera panned in close up, the two dimensional folded papers were intertwined and dovetailed together, the foiled paper used as the "soldered lead" part of the lamp. I was Amazed. The camera then went on to show various other very intricate pieces. I wrote the word "Origami" before the show ended and my cold medicine and sheer boredom took effect.
The next morning I woke up feeling pretty well, the flu apparently had passed, but I was left with a headache. I found my way to the computer and researched the Origami word. I was happy to find multiple Origami sites and I stumbled across yours in the origami ring and was completely awed. I was relieved to find out that I didn't have to iron and flatten and glue foil to cello wrappers. I could use printer paper!!!! Your site by far was head and shoulders above the rest I've seen so far and I applaud your efforts.
I found myself challenged and intrigued to attempt some beginner projects and found it quite relaxing and I got such a sense of accomplishment with each new project I found. I even invested in a bone folder and self healing mat and roller cutting set. While it will take me years of practice to learn, I am hooked. I find myself practicing folds while on the phone, watching tv, or avoiding doing work. My current project is a kinetic mobile origami sea critters to be placed behind my aquarium and lit from below. And in my spare time I'm making Christmas tree ornaments. I include them in children's birthday cards or use them as gift decorations and name tags.
Keep up the good work and I will continue to check back and to recommend your site to others.
Thanks Again,
Frank Franco
From :Kateliza Nguyen
Hi, I visited your website. It is great. Thank you very much for all the info, diagrams, and pictures.
While practicing some of the folds, I noticed that you mentioned Tsurifune, the several cranes fold. I am very interested in that. Do you know if there is any book in English that shows how to do it?
Again, thank you for all the work that you've done.
Thank you for your comments. Sorry, I dont know of such a book.
From: James Dobson
Hi,Stephen,
I'm not sure but I may have met you at a York Convention and happily made rabbits with you. It was the first model I had found that was simple and elegant, and I seem to have made a great many rabbits since ,and taught it to children and adults (more than any other model ;and I voted it among my best five models in Mick Guy's recent magazine survey ).
I've just found your pig which I've not folded yet, and intend to offer various origami pigs to add to a "Chinese New Year of the Pig" display next Jan./Feb. in Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Library. I'll let you know what happens.
Best folding wishes, 'bye for now, James Dobson B.O.S. 3073
From :Kelsey Griffin
Hay I am Kelsey and found your website a couple of days ago I am 12 and am really keen on origami, yesterday I made a crane out of a minties' lollie wrapper. Right now it seems that I can only make paper cranes. My friend came over and saw your web site and got into it aswell. She is really good she made the tatsu in 20 minutes and asked me if I could e-mail you and ask if you could design a model of a monkey for her, if you can, can you send it to this e-mail address, she can't remember her password!! So if you can get back to me it would be much appreciated. From Kelsey (And Ashleigh)
PS: If you can design it, it would not be use for resale or commercial
Hi,
Robin Glynn has designed an origami monkey. If you look for it on google, you should be able to find the diagrams.
From :Carol S
Just a short note to commend you on your enjoyable web site. I spent the better part of an evening just enjoying your work and the others you have featured. Wish my hand were that talented. Keep up the good work. My talents lie in sewing and other crafts. Just as rewarding but not as tedious.
Thank you.
Carol S
From: Dan Domenech
Hey Sephen,
My name is Dan Domenech. I am currently on the 10th anniversary world tour of the Broadway musical RENT. We are out here with the Asian popstar/acress Karen Mok. I have been into Origami since I was in elementary school and have always had fun making fun little things for friends and family. I made a T-rex for Karen Mok and she asked if I knew how to make an Dragon (since she is from Hong Kong). I made her the classic Zing Dragon. She loved it so I was looking for a good eastern dragon model online and the best one that I found was your black and red model of a Tatsu. I figured an eastern dragon would be more fitting being that she IS from HK. I know that there is no diagram for this after looking through your site and realized also that if it's not online, not to ask for a diagram on how to make it. You said that it was made of bird bases though. Is there a way you could possible explain your procedure so I could make this for her as an end of tour gift as this is something I'm sure she would enjoy. If it's too much to ask then no worries. Just figured I'd give it a shot. Great work on your site by the by. Sooner or later I'm hoping to get into the more intricate models that I could keep around.
Thanks again. Hope to hear from you soon. '
Ugh - very difficult to explain. May I recommend you visit either www.origami.as or www.origami.com and look up Joseph Wu's Eastern Dragon - this is fully diagrammed, and looks a bit better than mine ;-)
From :Andrw Huang
question: for your chess set, are you ever gonna diagram the white pieces?
and are the bases squared or triangular, cuz i cna't tell from the pictures
i like your design of the chess set by the way, but i'm not gonna fold it cuz i'm against using more than one piece of paper for each piece (origami purist 0.o) so i'm designing my own, lol using a frog base..............
Thanks for the mail. It is unlikely that they will ever get diagrammed. They are over 5 years old and I cant remember quite how they were folded. They are very similar to the black pieces, with a few changes only.
Good luck with your version!
From :mike pledger
brilliant site, really cleary layed out easy to follow instructions, some amazing original pieces:
never touched on any origami before and now my desk is littered with little paper animals
now for the real issue - you have GOT to show us instructions for magical trevor and the badgers...well u havent got to.....but pretty pleeeaase
plus i lay down to u a challenge.....can u make a chris the ninja pirate....or in light of her recent passing...DONKEY!!! (R.I.P. 2005)
keep up the good work
mike pledger (UK)
From :Jeff Goins
hi I love your website its touht me alot
bye
Er, bye.