Taking things one fold at a time

The origami club at the U of G helps students bust their stress with the help of the traditional Japanese art of paper folding

AADYA KAPOOR

Origami was first started in the 17th century. It is one of the oldest Japanese traditional artforms and is now famous all around the world. It is an intricate art of paper folding that can be done by people of all ages. Over the years, origami has also gained recognition to be a very useful stress buster and has many positive effects on one’s mental health.

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Origami helps one relax and calm down, strengthens our brain and improves our focus as this art of paper folding makes one pay attention to the detail. Keeping this in mind, Danielle Halasz, Elizabeth Chiu and Spencer Hang, students at the University of Guelph started the Origami folding club for the students in 2021.

Ever since then they have been holding biweekly meetings and slowly but steadily the student turnout for their club has increased from ten to fifteen students last fall to about a hundred students during O week this fall.

Halasz, Chiu and Hang told us about how they all got into the art of Origami. Halasz is a fourth-year student at the university, she told us that she used to teach origami at a health centre voluntarily where she saw how origami can actually make people happy. This inspired her to start the origami club at the university. Now she is the president of the club.

They also shared how doing origami helps all of them get into the zone of creativity and simultaneously it acts like a stress reliever for themselves and the students who become a part of the club.

They shared how the turnout of the students was not very much during the beginning of the club, but as people started talking about the club, they grew and now they have students who come to the sessions regularly and enjoy their time folding origami.

Origami is an art which has different ranges of complexity, and some things are really difficult to fold. However, the club strives to be considerate for all of their novice members and they handpick all the origami patterns that they will be sharing in the bi-weekly sessions.

Chiu, the instructor for the Origami Club, said she ensures that the origami patterns that are being taught in the class are easy to follow yet very interesting. To find easy origami that everyone can follow, she usually creates a list of patterns that she would want to do with everyone. She then puts them in a hierarchy of easy to difficult. and decides to share and teach those patterns which are either easy or intermediate level. The club also uses a document camera which helps them show all the steps of the patterns easily on a big screen and helps everyone keep up.

The best thing about the club is that anyone can join in, with or without any experience with origami and can learn the art of paper folding along with relieving stress.

Step-by-step guides are provided for those who attend a folding sessions with the Origami Club. CREDIT: AADYA KAPOOR

How to make a Lotus flower

Step 1 - Take the square paper and make half-folds on both sides and then unfold each half-fold. Folnd the square paper into half diagonally on both sides and unfold them again. These 4 folds are to create creases on the square paper.

Step 2 - Hold a corner of the square paper and fold it inside, joining the corner with the centre of the square paper. Similarly, fold the rest of the 3 corners of the square paper.

Step 3 - Fold in all 4 corners of the current pattern once again.

Step 4 - Without unfolding any of the previous folds, carefully flip the current paper pattern to the other side.

Step 5 - Hold the corners and fold them inside towards the centre of the pattern like we did in the previous steps. Step 7 - Hold any one of the corners and fold out 2/3 of the paper outwards. Similarly, fold out the rest of the corners.

Step 8 - Keeping the folds of the previous step intact, carefully flip the current paper pattern to the other side.

Step 9 - Notice that there are 2 squares, one on the top and one on the bottom. Hold a corner of the top square and fold it towards the centre.

Step 10 - Similarly, fold in all 4 corners of the top square towards the centre of the pattern.

Step 11 - Now carefully flip the current pattern and unfold one of the bottom layers.

Step 12 - Fold out the bottom layer to the front nicely and neatly. One by one, fold-out all 4 layers from the bottom and towards the front to complete the origami lotus.