Website Review: Happy Folding! – Newspaper
Paper is one of the most essential items in our daily life, whether we are at home, at school or in the office. The uses of this versatile material are numerous. For example, for written and printed communication, packaging, decoration, writing, toilet paper, currency and a number of industrial and construction processes.
But we will not go into the details of the use of paper. Let’s stick to the fun part, paper crafting, a very broad field, but today we’re going to focus on the Japanese art of paper folding called origami and creating two or three dimensional figures from from www.origamiway.com and www.happyfolding.com — both sites deal with the same topics, but use different approaches.
To start with the first — Origamiway, the site is geared towards novices, those who are unfamiliar with, but are interested in the art of folding paper and creating a sculpture.
It sounds like a daunting task, but when you start folding the paper, you’ll immediately feel the urge to create sophisticated and beautiful designs.
The site is simple with a few random designs on the front page and various categories mentioned on its right panel.
These categories include stars, toys, books, planes, birds, animals, boxes, hearts, and more. By clicking on one of them, the strains of that specific category will open.
The good thing is that the creators of the site have mentioned the difficulty level under each item like easy, medium and hard. So when you open a design you will see the pictures, simple instructions and diagrams.
Origamiway is good for introducing you to the art of origami for the first time.
The other website on the same topic is Happyfolding. It’s a somewhat detailed site, with not only instructions via diagrams or pictures, but you’re also entertained with video tutorials.
You can select from sections previewed as large thumbnails on the homepage, such as “Videos”, “Diagrams”, “Photos”, “Origami Shops”, “Paper Journals”, “Origami Dictionary”, etc. Although the categories are self-explanatory and you can easily guess what they actually contain.
I find the ‘Paper reviews’ section quite unique. When you click on this section, you will see a list of paper types; clicking on any will open a page explaining that paper’s properties, thickness, texture, sizes, photogenic quality, strength, and paper tested by folding and making any design with pictures. At the bottom of the page, the test result is given. If you are interested in the quality of the paper and the test results, there are links from which you can order it.
While this site is definitely for those serious about origami, there are plenty of videos and diagrams for beginners through to experts. This site includes English translations of the Japanese instructions.
So what are you waiting for? You have two amazing origami sites sharing their fun and awesomeness with you!
Have fun folding at www.origamiway.com and www.happyfolding.com
Posted in Dawn, Young World, April 23, 2022
