What is origami?

Take a square sheet of paper, fold it this way and that to shape it into a bird or a box or one of hundreds of other designs. That’s origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.

That sounds pretty simple, but many origami shapes take dozens of steps all created without using glue or making any cuts. The artist folds and shapes the paper with moves like valleys, mountains, pleats, and reverse folds. Most origami art is quite small, but some origami artists can make life-size — or even larger than life-size — sculptures.

Origami has links to math and science, too. Computer and math programs can help solve design problems for origami artists. And the folding techniques used in origami have helped engineers figure out how to design air bags. Air bags must inflate quickly without breaking and they need to be folded into a very small space.