Origami Anywhere

“Origami Anywhere” by Nick Robinson is a fun book of origami patterns which focus on using paper recycled from everyday use.

I learned origami as a young child when visiting my friend's house. Her grandmother could only speak Japanese but she loved teaching origami to both her granddaughter and to me. We would work on a project and, when finished, we were rewarded with a cup of tea and a homemade almond cookie. I loved the two afternoons a week I spent at Jean's house.

I have only recently picked this hobby back up. I find that spending the time folding paper is very meditative and soothing. Because I am rusty, I decided to pick up some books, including this one.

The book includes a mix of traditional patterns and modern ones by a number of designers, including the author. The designs are fairly small, as they focus on recycled paper. They range from useful (like a pill box) to many decorative designs. I especially liked the fox and the koala bear.

Each final project is shown initially as a photograph. The instructions are illustrations which show folding lines, etc. The book gives the basic instructions which are necessary in order to make the folds needed to finish the designs. This was interesting for me as I had initially learned by watching someone else and not by following a printed pattern. It took a learning curve for me to make this jump but having done so, it is now easy for me to follow a book.

I enjoyed the book and will make a number of designs from it. I recommend it, especially for beginners, as the instructions are clear and the materials are free when you find papers around the house that you can recycle to use.

I received a copy of this book from Dover Publications via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

It is really a great book to learn origami. The pages are colourful. The instructions are really easy that I found it easy to do so. My 4-years old nephew even liked that so much that we were out of newspapers in the end. Any person can create those beautifully shaped paperworks.

A fun book, next time I get a menu from the Chinese I'll be doing one of those folds and then posting it back through their letterbox :-D

I just had to try out this book. I love origami, as does my boyfriend. And I asked my boyfriend if he wanted to help me test out this book. But before we get to the whole: Does it all work? Do the instructions really match? I will first tell some basic stuff.

The book starts off with a fun introduction that is sure to lure in some people, after that we get the basic stuff that you can find in all Origami books (well, they should have it). Basically what you will read about in the first few pages is how certain folds work, what certain symbols will mean when you see them on the instructions. For us it is just a warm-up, we already know those symbols, but we still read it through, to make sure that what we have learned from other books is still correct with this one.

The book is all about recycling, finding stuff around your house to fold and use for this origami book. Not everything that is mentioned in the book is an article that I can find in my house. For instance those metro/tram tickets, we just don't have them (we have one hard-plastic pass named OV-Chipkaart for our public transport), so we are going to try that figure with another kind of paper. So far quite a few of these we used normal origami papers, so we could at least try to make the shapes.

Now we get to the various shapes and stuff. We haven't tried out everything (there is just too much), but we picked out various shapes and tried them out. My boyfriend had quite a lot of fun folding stuff, and I mostly watched, or helped him out, or asked him what he thought about the pattern/if it worked out/was it difficult/etc.
For instance the newspaper slipper? Well... apparently our newspapers are just a bit thicker, so that slipper thing? While it was nice, it wasn't easy to make and it didn't really look like it was meant to be a slipper. Or the bellflower shape, it was a bit tiny. We even thought it might not work at first, but it worked out in the end, and my oh my, it looked super adorable! I am almost thinking of making something fun with a ton of these tiny little flowers.
We really had fun trying out the shapes and we had a great evening filled with folding papers. We tried the easy ones, harder ones, medium ones, just to see if they were doable, if they were fun.

All in all, this was a great and fun book, and I would highly recommend it to everyone. Be warned, your evening will just fly away when you start with this book!

There are some interesting designs in here and I love that they use any type of paper that they can find, including paper plates.

I've always wanted to try origami but felt that I'd have to purchase special paper, and I was sure that would be expensive. When I saw this book, I knew I had to try it. You do not need to buy paper for these crafts; the supplies can be found by using recycled things like business cards, junk mail, tickets, candy wrappers and yes even tea bag tags!

The book begins with an easy-to-understand introduction showing the different folds. After that, there are very clear instructions for each piece of art that you make.

There are many books on the market showing how to turn your trash into something else. I can't say that I've ever had an interest in that before; however, I think this book would be a lot of fun for the entire family. I highly recommend it.

The initial chapters introduce the reader to origami and the symbols used through to book to guide anyone attempting to fold their own copies of the twenty nine origami models described. For each design clearly illustrated step by step instructions are given along with a photograph of the finished model. This book is the first origami one that I’ve read suggesting the models should be made from recycled materials.

This is a superb book with lots of different designs to have a go at making. The instructions are easily followed and there are a wide range of different designs. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in having a go at origami as it is relatively easy to follow and uses recycled materials rather than expensive origami papers. On top of all that it is great fun - so go on, have a go!

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley too, for letting me read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Origami Anywhere is a great introductory book to origami. Using recycled materials allows kids and adults the opportunity to see creative ways to use the things around them! My own kids have been disappointed by books that require special paper to get the results shown. They loved this book! I'll also be using this book in my classroom for early finishers.

The art of Origami is something I have always loved and something I do often to keep my hands occupied! I work at a theme park and often find myself folding maps in the down times! I love this idea and can not wait to use this in arts and crafts!

Great guide with a wide variety of origami ideas. From the more common origami templates of a frog to dachshunds, wizards and 3D hearts, there is something for everyone. I wouldn't recommend this book for the origami beginner as some steps are a little unclear without having the introductory symbol information in front of you.

Some nice quick and easy folding patterns, but probably not for beginners. Had some difficulty folding projects that used newspaper inserts if mine wasn't exactly the same size / shape, but the instructions are well written.

Great book that helps you lean Origami. I've always admired someone that can take a piece of paper and turn it into something beautiful.

This was a great book for those wanting to learn origami. Great pictures and directions. This would be a great addition to any library or personal reading collection

Well, it was great and very different. It is the only book I read in both leagues, but I plan to read more book to really sense the difference since back then my English was weak. Some A\aspecs were easier to visualise in the Arabic version more, but there were parts in the original version that were missing in the translated one. However, the author's brilliance really shined in the original ( English ) one.

Author offers 29 origami projects (from simpler like Arrowheads to more difficult like 3D Heart) with quite detailed descriptions, pictures and photos. I find the book useful for those thinking about environment and/or creative as he invites us to recycle the everyday paper stuff, so you don´t have to buy any special material to be able to create the origami patterns!
I´d recommend the book for adults (don´t let yourself to get discouraged when the projects seem a bit difficult, if you are a beginner) and for older kids (above 10).

This was cute, but reminded me that I am actually terrible at origami.
that being said it is a great book if you want some short paper projects.

Great ideas that encourage creativity. However, the eVersion didn't seem to include the symbols described in the front of the book--rendering the book unusable (sorry). We own many Dover Publications including other origami books, which clearly provide labeled diagrams. Those the instructions clearly described the folds, they are difficult to picture without arrows and indications lines. Perhaps these are in the hard copy of the book. Nevertheless, 3 stars for good ideas.

Very fun book! The directions were easy to follow even for elementary students. Provided a variety of projects I haven't seen before!