Review: Origami Anywhere: Why Throw It Out When You Can Fold It Up? by Nick Robinson

SUMMARY FROM NETGALLEY.COM:

"One man's trash is another man's treasure" was never truer! With this remarkable book, you can recycle throwaways into origami art. Twenty-nine well-illustrated projects explain how to make an autumn leaf from a lotto ticket, a 3-D heart from aluminum foil, a flower from a tea bag wrapper, and other unusual keepsakes and charming gifts.
Each item includes a brief introduction with suggestions for the paper's color and texture, and every step of the numbered instructions features simple text accompanied by a clear diagram. You'll discover how to transform brown wrapping paper into a fox, a supermarket receipt into a dachshund, and other ordinary bits of paper into an arrowhead, jumping frog, pill box, rocking cradle, koala, and other treasures.

MY TAKE:
I've always been interested in origami, so I love reading origami books, especially those that have something new about them.

In Origami Anywhere: Why Throw It Out When You Can Fold It Up?, readers are encouraged to use papers that are available around the house or their office space to produce the origami art in the book.

One of the things that sometimes discourages me from doing origami is having to use new or specialized paper, which I either have to cut from the paper I currently have or I have to buy origami paper packs. That's why I was thrilled that this book uses recycled paper. I don't have to spend any money on materials and the paper can have another use aside from being a receipt, etc.

At the start of each project, it's noted what kind of paper is best for that particular origami art. For example, some use business cards, others receipts, and a couple more use newspapers.

The projects range from beginner to advanced levels of difficulty, so there's something for everyone. The types of projects also vary from cute things or those that you don't see in a lot of origami books, like roast chicken, to practical things, like slippers and boxes. There was one particular decoration I saw that was too complicated for me to feel up to doing, but looked absolutely beautiful (saltsraumen octahedron).

Overall, I think this is an awesome book, and it's perfect for people who love origami and recycle at the same time.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dover Publications for the e-copy.

THE GOOD:

1. You make use of recycled paper.
2. You get to use a mix of rectangular paper and square paper.
3. It includes both decorations and practical projects.

THE BAD:

1. I would have loved more designs that use rectangular paper so I don't have to cut or modify paper to make it square-shaped. 

READ IT IF:

1. You like origami but you don't like having to buy origami paper packs.
2. You like recycling.
3. You like arts and crafts. 

RATING:


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