I first came across origami as a small child of about 7 or 8 years old when a relative gave my eldest brother a book on origami for Christmas. The book was "The Best of Origami" by Samuel Randlett now, sadly, out of print.
I was fascinated by the little animals my brother made but, being the youngest of 4 children, I was not allowed to have a go myself. "You're too young! You'll just waste the paper!" I was told.
After about 6 months my eldest brother became bored and/or disenchanted with origami and the book was abandoned. I "liberated" the book and proceeded to devour the contents with the single-minded obsession that only an 8-year old can muster. I folded everything in it and even went on to invent a few things myself. I can recall creating an owl and a butterfly but, sadly, cannot remember how to do them now.
By the time I was about 12 I began to get a bit bored with origami, having been unable to find any other books on the subject nor any other people with which to share my enthusiasm.
For the next 20 or so years the only origami I folded was an occasional flapping bird, frog or waterbomb.
Then, one day, I was fooling around with bus ticket, on a bus in Edinburgh. After 10 minutes or so, I looked at what I had folded and realised that there, in my hand, was the business end of a scorpion! I was quite taken aback by this and searched around for another ticket and, after a short while, produced the pincer end of the scorpion. While I was admiring my handiwork the ticket inspector boarded the bus and insisted on examining everyones' tickets! It's true! (A fine example of Sod's Law in action) After carefully re-folding the scorpion I returned home and undid it while drawing the steps.
There was no looking back after that. I started folding with a vengeance. And over the next 2 years, still without having a book or met anyone else with this obsession, I produced a number of original models. Then I finally found a book with the address of the BOS in the back, I joined and, with a certain amount of trepidation, I went to my first convention - York, spring 1998, and took my creations with me.
The rest, as they say, is history. I have created loads of stuff and am slowly trying to diagram it all. I regularly do commercial commissions for companies and workshops to the unitiated.
I have written two books:
- Volume 1 - Animals, Birds & Cards
Now available as an e-book for download
- Volume 2 - Simplifying Complexity
If you wish to purchase one or both please send me an e-mail at the address below and We can work something out.
I live in the UK and can often be found at
British Origami Conventions.
And I can be contacted at the address below:
