Customer Reviews

Marvelous Modular Origami

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Meenakshi's web-site has been a hot spot for those of us who are hooked on making these intracate decorative balls for years and her new book does not disappoint! Very clear diagrams, helpful directions, multiple ways of forming the units to make different flowers appear, and the vast majority are not recycled from other books. For the bored begginer in origami on up!

Warning! This is an addictive hobby. Fortunately tiny sheets of square paper are inexpensive.......

I got this book after browsing through the author's well-known website for modular origami. It's a very nice book explaining how to make great looking modular balls. The diagrams are very clear and well described with pictures showing how the modular unit should look like in each step. Being just over an year old in the origami world, I got stumped a couple of times but seeing the diagram of the next step helped me figure out the fold. All I needed was a little bit of practice and a bit more patience. For beginners like me, it's a good practice to make one unit using a printer paper and understand all the steps. Also, I recommend reading the 'Homogeneous Color Tiling' section of the book if one is using multiple colors for making a model.

I believe even a beginner, after getting a bit familiar with the basic origami diagrams, can fold the models in the book as there are no complex folds involved. I highly recommend this book. And if you are into polyhedra and floral models, it is a must.

In so many ways, origami is the perfect activity for young children. Using only simple movements that even young ones can master at a high enough level, students can create beautiful things. The pot is made even sweeter by the fact that the cost of the raw materials is so low. By practicing first using printer paper, the students can hone their skills before moving on to the development of the finished product.
This book contains some of the best and most functional origami patterns ever developed. The end results are spectacular and the directions are very easy to follow. I am on good terms with the education department at Mount Mercy College and will be showing them this book when classes start this fall.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.

This book is definitely not for beginners, but the art work you can create from paper is beautiful! The illustrations and instructions are easy to follow and the photography georgeous. It's a great book for all those origami creators...

Meenakshi has done a great job of explaining in a step-by-step manner how to create many simple to not-so-simple figures in Origami. Being a complete beginner, it has greatly helped me. I am sure the more advanced users will get much more from this book.

I'm working out of this book right now. The projects (that's what I call each of resulting polyhedra) are really based on three basic models: sonobes (units folded slightly differently), floral ball (1:2 and 2:3 paper), and dodecahedra (different patterns on the faces, some with cutting; all use 30 units). So once you've folded the basic unit, all you have to figure out is the assembly. There are charts given to help visualize the platonic and archimedean faces; a sonobe table that summarizes the unit crease pattern for each solid; sonobe assembly guides; a table for making rectangles from squares; and a treatise on the mathematics of folding and design complete with exercises for the reader (the ancient college student in me just stood up and ran out of the room). I am struggling with the assembly for the floral ball right now; maybe using stiffer paper would help (actually, using stiffer paper when folding polyhedra is almost essential, at least for me). Oh, and don't forget the lists of suggested reading and websites at the back. All in all, yes, this book should be included in your kusudama/polyhedra origami library (along with Tomoko Fuse, Rona Gurkewitz and Bennett Arnstein, Kunihiko Kasahara, Kawasaki, and Robert Lang). Fold on!

It's a nice book about modular origami, but not so original. I've found some of its diagrams in other books or over the Internet, but here they're detailed and made easy to accomplish. Where the book is original, it's because minimal changes over past work of others. Nonetheless, it's a good compilation, worth buying if you are new to modular origami.
What is a real flaw is that the pics on the book aren't that good. Some are poorly shot. And others have average quality, but the models are badly assembled, greatly because most of the models deal with both sides colored paper, and the author build'em with single side colored ones. That spoils part of the beauty of the origamis.
The good news are that in the coda of the book you can find some mathematical descriptions of paperfolding theory, and some color schemes on how to assemble the polyhedra contained in this book. An overall good book. For the beginner.

Plunged into the book and started with the Cosmos Ball on pages 18-19.
Spectacular in solid colored paper.
Planning to fold this modular again with dramatically printed recycled paper....and then on to the rest of this fascinating book.

Looking forward to Marvelous Modular Origami 2 !!

Louise Yale
Czarina of Origami
Redwood Valley, California

Este libro representa una estupenda muestra del ingenio y buen hacer de la autora, que ya nos había adelantado en su maravillosa página Web. Modelos sencillos de plegar y muy espectaculares.

This is the second book of the same author that I bought. It is a deception. The printing quality is very bad, the format of the book is not useful and the most important thing: The diagrams are not well done and the explanation is not clear. In general most of the model are adptation from others model but not very clear. Truly is a very bad book!