Origami is Japanese art of folding paper. The word origami is made up of two Japanese words: ori, meaning to fold, and kami, meaning paper. Now, Origami has become very much popular and is spread to North America, Europe and other places around the world.

Usually, origami paper comes in a set of different colored thin squared papers and can be easily folded, but sometimes they also can be rectangular shaped paper. Origami can also be made from wrapping paper, old magazines, candy wrappers, wallpaper and others. The art is performed only by folding paper. There is no cutting or gluing done strictly.

Basic Origami Folds.

Valley Fold
Fold the paper toward oneself. Arrow shows where to fold the piece of paper to. (Symbol: dashed line)

Mountain Fold.
Fold the paper away from oneself. (Symbol: alternate dashed and dotted line)

Petal Fold.
Lifts a point and bring bring it up so that the edges lie together

Rabbit Ear Fold
Prefold the three valley folds and then fold the two sides down to the baseline. Fold the top to one side and make mountain fold.

Squash Fold.
Prefold along the valley and mountain fold. Then open it, fold one layer of paper along the valley fold and flatten the model using the mountain fold.

(Inside) Reverse Fold
Prefold sheets of paper in both directions and then open the model and bring the top point down so that mountain fold becomes a valley fold edge.

Outside Reverse Fold.
Similar to the inside reverse fold, but layers of the paper have to be wrapped around outside the point.