AROUND HOME : Origami

ANYONE WHO HAS ever folded a piece of paper into an airplane knows the pleasure of origami: transforming a flat, thin piece of paper into a three-dimensional form.

Scholars believe that origami may have originated in China, where paper was invented, but the best-known practitioners today are in Japan; using special origami papers (white on one side, colored on the other), origami experts can make whales (complete with water spouting out the top), dinosaurs, flowers, mother duck and ducklings, rabbits, boxes--anything. The shapes are used to decorate gifts for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and New Year’s Day.

In America, origami’s popularity is often limited to elementary school projects for children and elaborate napkin folding for adults. These napery contortions have been popular since the 16th and 17th centuries, when Europeans who could afford it gave huge banquets distinguished by endless, elaborate food and not quite endless, but no less complicated, napkins. Pope Gregory XIII held one such bash that had a folded-napkin centerpiece in the shape of a castle.

One of origami’s most appealing aspects is its simplicity: no tools, no glue, no time-consuming finishing. It’s just paper and person; a diligent beginner with a stack of paper can easily work from books. “The Art of Origami,” by Samuel Randlett, and “Origami,” by Hideaki Sakata are recommended.

Classes are occasionally offered at Joslyn Center of the Arts in Torrance, Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes and Cabrillo Marine Museum in San Pedro. Quick & Easy Origami, a kit with paper and instructions, is available at Waldenbooks, B. Dalton and at the gift shop of the Japanese Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Supplies and books are sold also at Kinokuniya Book Store, Bunka-Do Store and Amerasia Bookstore, all in Little Tokyo, downtown Los Angeles.