Cornell Origami: It's All in the Folds

Roses and lilies in full bloom; bears, frogs and various birds relaxing, taking in their surroundings, standing still as I walked past. I did not fully comprehend the incredible variety of forms a single piece of paper could take until I walked into the Willard Straight Art Gallery last week for a visit with Cornell’s Origami Club.

“It’s paper,” said Andrew Yongvanich ’09. “Being able to fold it into such elaborate figures is amazing.”

Yongvanich was introduced to the Origami Club by his roommate, Nat Naviroj ’09, who is the president and one of the co-founders of the club. According to Naviroj, he and May Zaw ’07 founded the club about three years ago. They wanted to make people more aware of the Japanese paper-folding art form known as origami, and they wanted to teach fellow students the physical techniques of the art form as well.

He explained that the club started off as more of a lecture, primarily because meetings were held in a lecture hall. Now, working in the Willard Straight Art Gallery, which is conducive to intimate cooperation, the club looks more like a group working together on a project than lecture-style, one-way communication.

Naviroj, now the sole instructor in the group, loves to fold with the club’s regulars as well as anybody else interested in learning about origami. He teaches anything, from the most basic models that take five or 10 minutes, to the more complicated ones that can take hours or more. When I walked into the Art Gallery that night, not only did I see a small portion of the origami that club members have produced, but I saw a handful of books as well. Books give instructions to all different skill levels of origami pieces. These books allow people to hone their skills on their own, without the aide of Naviroj or another experienced folder.

Origami Club is more than its Thursday night meetings. The club has provided entertainment for events at Big Red Barn, the Johnson Art Museum and other places on campus. Additionally, the club sells origami flowers through its company, EverParadise, on the club’s website www.everparadise.com [1].

Naviroj’s favorite part of the club, however, is the teaching. He loves to share the art of Japanese paper folding with others, especially those who are new to origami. During my evening as a member of the Origami Club, I learned how to make a lily (which, despite its label as one of the simplest origami models, required another piece of paper after my first attempt was ruined beyond repair) and a crane. The crane gave me considerably less trouble than the lily (less trouble, not no trouble).

The members in attendance at a typical meeting of Cornell’s Origami Club are comprised mostly of first timers, and less so of club regulars. In fact, even as I was working on my lily, a trio of passersby stopped in to check out some of the club’s creations. One of them even inquired about when and where regular meetings are, promising to return next week. This is understandable: a beastly dragon, complete with scales, limbs and joints, made completely from one square piece of paper, is likely to turn heads and bring in a few stragglers.

While catching the eyes of a few Straight-goers is good for the club, Naviroj has his eyes on a bit more of a surge in the club’s population. He expressed to me an interest in advertising more and bringing in more regulars. While he enjoys teaching the newbies, he would also like to see better consistency from meeting to meeting.

One thing that the president of Cornell’s Origami Club emphasized during my time with the club last week was a sense he has about people’s feelings toward origami. He stressed that he thinks people misunderstand just how much is possible when it comes to folding paper. So much is possible, and the paper can take so many different forms, people need to see it for themselves.

“You don’t know what it could come out to be like,” he explained. “You can make a dragon out of paper.”

To aspiring folders, Naviroj suggests that people start off easy. Also, he advises that they be patient and steady with their folds.

“Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself.”