Customer Reviews

Secrets of Origami: The Japanese Art of Paper Folding (Dover Origami Papercraft)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Rejoice, origami lovers of the world: Harbin's "Secrets of Origami" is back on the shelves. One of the first of my 40+ origami books, the old, battered, early 70s hardcover still holds a place of honor on my shelf. This is one of the best origami books EVER published. For the beginner, it opens the door to a wonderful array of simple to complex models, for the advanced folder, it provides a survey of the best Western folding from that formative period of 1960s. Fred Rohm, Adolfo Cerceda, Ligia Montoya - these are names that must NEVER fade from the annals of origami. Buy this book. Use this book. Treasure this book. Very few like this have been printed before or since.

The book which launch my interest in origami in the late 60s. If not for the discovery of this book, my interest in origami would have been lost.

The models are still very fresh even for the origamist of today. There is a very good range from traditional models, simple models to the intermediate stage. An excellent first introduction to origami.

It contains works of experts who are not around today. Among my favourites are those by Ligia Montoya. Simple but extremely effective.

Nowadays origami experts tend to concentrate on details making folding the models extremely difficult for a beginner. I prefer to concentrate on representing the subject just right with just the sufficient details to differentiate the model and avoiding the complexity of folding it.

There are also models with sufficient difficulty to challenge the slightly more experienced.

A must for all enthusiasts.

Of the dozen books on origami in my library, this is my favorate. This is the book that I used to learn to fold. The intro. section on bases is wonderfully presented. I still have my copy of this book from 20+ years ago. Though tattered and torn, I still pull the book out and create new forms. I like the background information on the artists who created the forms and I enjoyed the variety of challenges from easy to complex. My favorate form in the book is the bat...I also made a wonderful mobile of some of the various bird creations in the book.

An old familiar favourite.

My first contact with origami. The book which introduced me to origami and I have been folding since (nearly 30 years). The book contains many models from the early days of origami. It is consists of many excellent models and often much easier to fold than the current technical accurate models. This book is also good for comparing the various techniques used then and use now.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn origami. An excellent point. I know as this was my starting point too.

My Great-Aunt introduced me to many things - astronomy, biology, and origami. This was in her personal library and when I'd visit we would always pull it out and make at least one of the figures in the book. She had already managed to do nearly every figure but she was patient and I would try my best to keep up. When she died, I looked for the book but it had mysteriously disappeared. I saw that it was back in print and I snatched a copy up right away. This is the best folding book that I have ever run across. It has models that range from the very simple to the VERY difficult. You can fold out of this book for a lifetime and never fail to learn something or see something new. A great book... grab it while you can and fold your heart out!

This was my first origami book when I began paperfolding in elementary school. The library would only let me have it for two weeks at a time, so I would have to recheck it out again and again. I grew up with this book from junior high to high school and on and on. I was never able to find the 1971 edition after I left my hometown. Not even at the Yale University library which only had one of Robert Harbin's books. I'm delighted that this book is back in print. To me it is the consummate Origami review. It contains work and biographies from many of the pioneers of origami in Japan, the US, and Europe, and Latin America. My personal favorite is the two children on a seesaw. Enjoy this book!

This was my very first origami book. I got it when I was about nine, and still have it more than two decades later. It is very well-loved, and completely falling apart. And still one of my favorites.

It contains a great variety of models by a number of different artists. Complexity ranges from very simple through expert. Some of the illustrations are less than perfectly clear (I never was able to fold the Llama, for instance), and the models by now are dated.

Regardless of that, this is still one of my favorite Origami books--partly because of the memories it brings back, but mostly because it is a wonderful survey of many artists and models.

This collection is well worth reprinting. It contains more than 100 of the best models of an earlier generation--including Florence Temko, Ligia Montoya, John Nordquist, Neal Elias, Fred Rohm, Robert Neale, and of course, Robert Harbin. Some of my favorite folds are the seal balancing a ball (yes, one piece of paper!), action gargoyle, flapping parakeet, action peacock, bookcase, & Queen Anne Table. The book includes classic & unusual projects, & difficulty ranges from beginning to high intermediate. The diagrams are old-fashioned, and some are a little hard to interpret. Harbin includes biographical information on the paperfolders

This ia must-have for origami enthusists, so much so that even though my hard bound copy is probably buried somewhere in my house, I bought the paper bound copy anyway. It is organized by the folding designer, including many famous names in origami. I started with this book many years ago and find myself returning to it again and again.

It seems that at some point every kid becomes intrigued with origami. Folding a piece of paper to create something resurrects (as often as you like) the exciting sensation of opening a gift that is all for you. This book came into our house when I was ten years old and I spent many delightful hours entertaining myself poring over its pages. More than thirty years later, I asked my parents what had happened to the book, and they didn't know. I became obsessed with finding it because there was one model which I had not quite mastered-- "It's Magic!" But, my parents' copy of the book was gone. Happily, it can be found in very limited supply here and there online. If you can find a one, snatch it up. Harbin is the grandfather of origami written instruction in America. This book is his "piece de resistance", where he put everything together and set the bar for others to follow. Watch out for subtle errors which may cause confusion. Also, don't confuse this earlier edition (1971) with the later one (1993).