A Year In Review: Every Origami Book I Read in 2024

I’m always buying origami books in my ongoing quest to learn everything I can about the art. So in celebration of the new year, I thought I’d talk about every origami book I folded something from in 2024. For each book, I’ll share my opinion about it, some insights I gained from it, and a model or two that I enjoyed folding.

 

Origami Aquarium, Makoto Yamaguchi

 


When I see this book, it always calls to mind a quote from Robert Lang and John Montroll’s Origami Sea Life: “One of the most remarkable things about origami is the speed at which the art is evolving. Ten years ago, many of the designs in this book would have been unthinkable. Ten years from now, who knows what might be possible?” It’s been twenty years instead of ten, but I can confidently answer that question: a lot. The difference between the sea creature designs in that earlier book and this new one is absolutely astounding. The details are more specific. The shaping is more intricate. The colors are exploited better. Pretty much every possible improvement that could be made has been made. Part of this is because it’s a compilation: Yamaguchi has collected the best sea creature designs from around the world and put them in one book, as opposed to Origami Sea Life where two folders had to do all the work. But also, origami has just come so far since then, and improvements in technique have led to much more expressive and detailed art. I love pretty much every design in the book, but here’s a picture of my favorite one, a Venus Comb Murex by Satoshi Kamiya (it’s always him, isn’t it?):

 

Stealth Aircraft Origami, Jayson Merrill

 


This one shouldn’t technically be on the list because I folded things out of it all the way back in 2022. But I didn’t really appreciate it to its fullest until now, so I’m talking about it anyway. Merrill is the undisputed king of paper aircraft: his models look like actual airplanes while still flying as well as the playground models. This book takes it up a notch by making origami renditions of real stealth fighters, all of which are fully capable of flight. Originally I was interested in exactly one model, the SR-71 Blackbird (one of my personal favorite airplanes). I ignored the book for about a year after that, but I came back to it and I realized that the rest of them were good models too. Having folded every model in his previous book Origami Aircraft, it’s fascinating to see his design process evolve. Merrill’s airplanes are structured kind of like paper darts, with a lot of thick layers in the nose, and he accomplishes much even within the limited structures he has available to him. Several of the models are based on John Montroll’s Five-Sided Square, which adds new flaps in different orientations and even more layers to the thick parts. There are issues with the book, mainly with the poor quality of some of the diagrams. (More than one was straight-up impossible to complete as written and required modifications to the whole folding sequence to get it to work.) But if you have the skill to work around those, or if I get that origami diagram correcting service up and running, check it out for sure. Here’s a rendition of my favorite model, the Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter:

 



Origami Symphony No. 5, John Montroll

 


I’m going to be honest here; I bought this book for one model and it’s the Sunken Rhombic Dodecahedron. I don’t mean to denigrate the rest of the models–they are excellent as per Montroll’s usual standards–but none of them quite speak to my soul the way this 48-sided polyhedron does. I’ve known about this model since I was six years old, when its crease pattern showed up in Origami Polyhedra Design. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, but there were no diagrams for it, and none ever appeared until many years later when I found out about this book. So I instantly folded it, and it was exactly what I dreamed it would always be. It’s a bit unfair; the other models are clever and they’re worth writing about. But I’ll share a picture of the Sunken Rhombic Dodecahedron, because I have to:

 


 

Origami Symphony No. 7, John Montroll

 


My thoughts on this one are mostly the same as Symphony 5 except there’s no sunken rhombic dodecahedron, so goodbye nostalgia filter. John Montroll is a funny beast in that I appreciate his skill at designing despite not being a huge fan of his models. Montroll designs for children, which isn’t a bad thing; I’m just not the target audience anymore. The one exception is the polyhedra (also present in this book), which don’t feel like children’s models, but rather pure exercises in mathematics that can be appreciated by people of any age. Which then raises the question: why are polyhedra in these Origami Symphony books at all? Maybe he grew up just like me, a kid who loved math, and he writes polyhedra designs in case someone just like him is out there in the world. I will say that I found this model, the Stacked Monkeys, to be quite funny:

 

 

 

Origami Cats and Dogs Premium, Makoto Yamaguchi

 


A sequel of sorts to Origami Aquarium, this book sees Yamaguchi turn his eyes from sea to land as he showcases a whole host of pet designs. Like the previous book, the emphasis is on detail and form, with the models having more descriptive qualities than merely “cat” or “dog”. Interestingly, the two species do this in very different ways. The dogs exploit a wide variety of color changes; many have two-toned fur that requires duo paper. This makes them a bit more technically difficult than the cats as well (the Dalmatian is a notable example). What the cats lack in color variation, however, they make up for in their dynamic poses and expressions. Nearly every cat has a distinct attitude, whether lying down, being picked up by the scruff, or eating a fish. The scope of the book is nowhere near as wide as Origami Aquarium, but that ends up being a strength rather than a weakness. By focusing the book, Yamaguchi and co. are able to draw greater depth out of the material presented to them. Here’s a model of a Persian cat by Kyohei Katsuta that I was quite fond of:

 



The Complete Book of Origami, Robert Lang

 


Robert Lang’s first origami book is both so much unlike Robert Lang and so much like Robert Lang that it’s kind of hilarious. On the unlike side, we find the older style of diagrams, completely dissociated from the written steps, and the use of mostly conventional bases, landmarks, and angles. On the like side, though, there’s an obsessive, mathematical precision that could only come from a physicist and a Paganini-esque virtuosity running through the entire last third of the book. Sometimes Lang makes things difficult purely for the sake of making them difficult (dividing an angle in sevenths, really?) and it ends up being a hindrance to the folder that doesn’t benefit the model all that much. There are also a lot of rectangles with strange proportions that require folders to cut their own paper, which is always a bit of a hassle. But it is a good introduction to his style and hints at the technical leaps and bounds he would make in the future. For beginning folders, there are plenty of easier models to be found; I’d recommend this right alongside Origami in Action as an ideal first Robert Lang book. Here’s a very cute Elephant, with hints of Fumiaki Kawahata in it:

 

 

 

Secrets of Origami, Robert Harbin

 


Now we’re really getting into the old stuff. This is another compilation book, with models by a lot of different folders from the 1960s. And from the rectangles to the cutting to the chaotic layout of the diagrams, its age really shows. This isn’t to say it’s bad, necessarily: the folds are rather simple and conform to a different set of norms than a modern folder might be used to, which probably isn’t for everybody. I choose to see it more like a history book. The value of the book isn’t the models so much as the chance to peek into a different world, where people’s view of origami was so different compared to what it is today. It’s such an interesting thing to look at the great diversity of styles represented in the folding of the 60’s and see how it anticipates the folding of today. As for the actual models, they’re kind of a mixed bag, especially the ones that require cuts. There are some real gems, though, particularly the models by Ligia Montoya and Neal Elias, which hold up well even by today’s standards. Here’s a picture of Elias’s Bird Bath:

 



Origami Inside-Out, John Montroll

 


I can’t believe I hadn’t found this book earlier. Origami Inside-Out is one of John Montroll’s earlier books, and unlike his Symphony releases, his technical skills are on full display. Montroll in this book really aims for realism, with impressive two-colored versions of several birds and mammals. Sacrificing no details for simplicity, several of the models reach over 90 steps and end up surprisingly small compared to the original sheet. Most Montroll models can be folded from kami—some of the few exceptions are found here. His style is similar to African Animals in Origami, published two years prior, and some of those designs (like the zebra and giraffe) would fit right at home in this book. It is clear that he wanted to expand on some of the color effects he achieved and take them to the next level, which he certainly does. Much like the Symphonies, he actually breaks the book into several sections, some for animals and some for geometric designs, including a bunch of polyhedra. Ironically, these are probably the weakest part of the book, which makes sense; he was just getting started with polyhedra at this point in his career and he would go on to make them in much more interesting ways. (I guess he redistributed his skill points or something?) But anyway, if you want some interesting and challenging origami from the 90’s that feels surprisingly ahead of its time, this is absolutely the book for you. My favorite model is probably the Holstein Cow, which is pictured here:

 



Well, that’s another year gone, and a whole lot more reading ahead of me in 2025. See you soon!

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