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Models
Credit to John Montroll for designing most of these, credit to me for making them perfectly! ALL of them are from a square of paper, no cuts. The paper is rarely larger than 6"x6". You can read more about them at the bottom of the page. All of the pictures on here are clickable for zoomed in views.

Zebra This is the best example of a special iso-area folding technique designed by one of the Japanese greats, Toshikazu Kawasaki. John Montroll took this great pleating technology and designed the Zebra, one of the greatest examples of paperfolding there is. It is a white model, but the tip of the tail is black, the nose is black, and the ears have a black stripe. Genius. (Iso-area is a fancy word for using both colors of the paper for the model)
Skunk A great two color model. I am not sure why you would use colors other than black/white, but who cares! Skunks are great. Thousands of people have tried their hand at making an origami skunk, few of them with success. Montrolls skunk, however, is the absolute champion of skunks. It is normally a flat model, but I kind of puffed it out and stretched it around to make it stand up and it turned out looking great. I especially love the detail on the head.
Penguin This was a rather awkward model, it was perfect in color and shape, except I thought this design was lacking a lot in how natural the penguin looked. The head automatically stares straight up, and it is almost impossible to make it stand up. I spent more time trying to make it look good and stand up than I did making it! It behaved just long enough for this picture, then went to its home on a co-workers monitor. It had little eyes, but you can't really see them.
Lobster This has always been my favorite model. It was the largest stepping stone of my folding career. I tried for years as a child to make it, and never got close. The first one I finished looked like crap, but was undoubtedly the first model that ever made me truly happy. I have since mastered Montrolls lobster model inside and out, the one pictured here has all sorts of modifications, the eyes, and most prominently a method for making the tail much longer than the original. These only take around an hour to make, and never stop amazing people.
Racoon I have only made this once, and gave it away shortly after. It is another great example of iso-area folding taken to the extreme. The tail was unimaginably complex to make, and must have been pure torture trying to invent. The black nose and the perfect black marks on the face make this a truly accurate model.
Grasshopper My second favorite, after the Lobster. This is an extremely difficult model to make perfectly. The wings and tail are nearly impossible to make correctly porportioned. This picture is a very good job, but I have done better. The great thing about this is: it was made with 4"x4" foil paper, which is very small for such a complex model, and foil paper is very easy to tear.
Cow! I made this for a friend of mine as a custom order. I forget why, but he really likes cows. It is yet another excellent demonstration of Montrolls mastery of iso-area technique. The thumbnail doesn't do it justice, both sides have different and irregular spots.
Seashell This is a priceless and unforgettable model designed by Toshikazu Kawasaki. He has made several different shells using his spiral technique, but this is my favorite. I broke out the really cool paper in order to do this model justice.
Rose Again by Toshikazu Kawasaki, he must really be a hit with the ladies. He just doesn't stop inventing spectacular things to do with paper. Rather than invent a great model, he invents a great style, which all others follow. Iso-area folding, the spiral from the shell, and now this chambered rose. I could stare at this picture all day, the petals all gently spiral in towards the center.
Fox An excellent example of Montrolls attention to detail. Look at the face on the larger images, it has perfect eyes, ears and even a nose. This was the first model I know of his that made eyes in this way, and he (as well as myself!) have used it often. Same goes with the hind legs, the way they bend back. Perfect for Dogs, Horses, and such.
Horse Montroll created something called the 'Dog Base' from which almost every dog and horse is created. I forget what made me create this model, but I suddenly remembered how cool the dog base was after years of never making it, and created this one entirely from memory. I made many of the finishing touches like the cool mane and the face, but the credit goes to John Montroll.
Stegosaurus Commonly referred to as his most complex model, this Stegosaurus is a perfect example of just how perfect his attention to detail is. Even 4 tiny little spikes on the tail!
Crab What more can I say? It is perfect.
Hermit Crab This is the greatest use of two color paper I have ever seen. I assure you, this is one piece of paper, orange on one side, silver foil backed on the other. Two whole objects are created, one from each half of the paper. A Hermit crab with 6 legs, two eyes, a mouth, and long antennae are attached to a beautiful orange shell.
Mink Not exactly hard to create, but this mink always captured my attention because of how perfect all the angles are. Everything here is some normal geometric angle derived from a four sided square, but the end result is so strikingly... natural, especially the head.
3 Toed Frog A neat little corner folding trick by Montroll makes this frog have three toes on each foot! The normal version of this without toes isn't that difficult, with toes it becomes a challenge. Making one with 4 inches of foil isn't recommended for the feint of heart.

My Dragon Obviously, my favorite. Pleated wings, a horn, flat tail, it has all that is required. A perfect Dragon. I designed it many years ago, bored out of my mind in High School. I was originally trying to design a Brontosaurus (I had earlier made a few other dinosaurs). There were these two long, annoying flaps along the side that I kept trying to find different ways to tuck under it and hide them. It was then I realized I could stretch them out and make wings! Amazingly enough, given a flat sheet of paper, my first attempt at dragon wings was perfect. Very little has changed from my original design. I thought it was the best Dragon out there until I saw Satoshi Kamiyas "Divine Dragon" in the book Origamido. I was completely blown away. I don't mind the number two slot. I hated the poor quality of the first pictures of my dragon, so I made a new one and took much higher quality pictures of it. A couple minor things have changed, most importantly, the head looks much better. Here is a better picture of my wing design. Also, here is a picture of a "concept test" dragon head I recently made. I found a way to safely divide up the tip of the horn, which not only lets me have two separate horns, I twist them up so they appear more realistic. I also added nostrils. I included a few pictures of this dragon as it was being made. (If you are good at origami and use those pictures to reverse engineer it, I am coming after you!) I also recently designed my first iso-area animal, which is an inverted dragon that actually starts inside-out (white) and ends up two colors, the belly, neck and bottom of the tail come out white (under scales) while the top comes out the normal color. The end result looks similar, but they are made completely different.
6 Legged Lizard This is the kind of thing that happens when you mix beer and origami. I had set out to make an Iguana, since I had never seen a good one. Things got a little wierd, and I ended up with 6 legs. Altogether not too bad, though. I keep it around because it is funny.
Vampire Bird This thing is downright insane. I started with a piece of paper and just started folding. I named the monstrosity I created 'Vampire Bird' after a Wesley Willis song. It has all the requirements of a really cool looking eagle, except all the pieces are in the wrong places. Legs on its back, backwards wings, really funny to look at.
Triple Crane I studied a book about the Rokoan Style for my inspiration here. Rokoan Style is the art of making several cranes all connected at the wing from one piece of paper. This particular model I designed as a gift when some Japanese neighbors moved in. It is a red/white sheet of paper with dimensions of 4x1, but I made three cranes out of the middle, and left a half on each end, it came out as a base for the model. Truly beautiful, and probably the most elegant thing I have ever designed.

My miniature models (My style)

Small Rose The Rose is actually a very very difficult model to make. You basically make tons of folds on one flat piece of paper, then carefully crumple it up, it all just comes together. The pink rose above was made with 12"x12" paper, and it was rough, but this one was made with 4" paper. I made it, and gave it away the next day as a gift.
Tiny T-Rex Here is a very small and very detailed Tyrannosaurus model I made from (I think) 1"x1" gold foil paper. It came out perfect, and barely larger than a penny.
Tiny Lobster My absolute favorite of all my tiny creations, the lobster requires huge sheets of paper. To learn it, most people start out with 12"x12" or even larger. This one was created from a stickey note!! I am not sure on the exact dimensions of a sticky note, I believe it is 2.5"x2.5". For such small paper, stickynotes are quite thick, plus there is that sticky strip! This makes it very unmanageable. Quite a challenge.
3 Cranes I made this to demonstrate the Rokoan Style to a friend of mine learning Origami. I made her some before and after pictures, which you can see here. With the paper cut just right, you then carefully make the cranes. If all goes well, the corners are still attached!
13 Cranes This is a demonstration of Rokoan Style mastery. I actually made it many many years ago, at the peak of my skill (when I had enough time to kill!). It is 13 cranes all made from one piece of paper, all of the wings connected by paper. The original paper was 9"x9", so the small cranes are all barely bigger than one inch. Looking at this now, years later, I do not understand how I made them all without a single accidental rip. It took me all day I believe. I am glad I pinned it into a glassbox frame, otherwise it surely would have been destroyed. I still have it!

This is a foreward, but I figure 99% of the people coming to this page just want to see the pictures, so here it is at the end. If you want to send me mail, feel free.

I have been doing Origami for over 10 years, probably something like 12 or 13 years if I had to pin down a date. With this page I will explain a little bit about the art, its characteristics, and show some examples of beautiful design, as well as some of my own creations. To me, origami is not just any paper art. Making a kite is not origami, regardless of how much paper you use. Also, you must start with a square. A paper airplane is not origami. There can be no cuts, unless you are cutting the square into smaller squares. Anything else is cheap.

There are several "schools" of origami, as far as I am concerned. I have named them.

Traditional origami, usually associated with Japanese paperfolders, where "less is more" is the motto. Admittedly, many masterpieces have come from this art. Some of my favorite traditional folders are Akira Yoshizawa, Kunihiko Kasahara, and Toshie Takahama. They can make amazingly accurate and lifelike animals that are extremely easy to fold. Usually, the difference between an amateur traditional piece and a masters work are minute creases and folds to make the simple structure more lifelike or appear animated. Traditional models are usually folded with around 12 steps and never use any difficult structures. It is not uncommon for a traditional crab or octopus to only have 2 or 4 legs. Mr. Yoshizawa, a legend in Japan and the admitted Grandmaster of origami can take a blank, flat section of paper and make an animated human or animal face out of it, with just creases and pinches. He lives and works in a humidity controlled house and has cataloged thousands upon thousands of animals and people. Rumor has it every animal is perfectly represented within his huge hoard of models. The goal for many of the worlds origami masters is to ask entry into his house, and be admitted.

Unit origami is seen equally in all cultures. It relies heavily on mathematics and 3D modeling to create all sorts of 3D objects. Every manner of three dimensional construct has been made with unit origami, and the results are usually amazing. It gets its name from the fact that it takes several pieces of one identical unit that when combined create a three dimensional form. Some forms require 3, 4, or 6 units, and some models have been constructed with over 1,000 identical units. Tomoko Fuse is far and away my favorite unit origami master. Unit origami also incorporates boxes and containers, which Fuse also specializes in.

Complex origami is usually associated with Americans, but there are many "new school" Japanese folders that have picked up this style and done amazing things with it. Complex origami has only one goal: to make the perfect representation of whatever object (usually an animal) you are trying to create. For this reason, many complex origami models take extremely long periods of time to create (much less design!) and they almost always have very difficult steps during the construction. If folder from this school sets out to make an animal, say a crab, it is going to be pefect. It is going to have 8 legs, two claws (with pinchers), two antennae, two eyes, and a perfectly formed shell. Anything short of this is not acceptable to the artist. For this reason, complex models usually have hundreds of steps, and sometimes require very large and thin sheets of paper. Some of my favorite complex folders are John Montroll, Peter Engel, Toshikazu Kawasaki, and Robert Lang. All three of them have their own styles, too. John Montroll is, in my opinion, the greatest American folder ever to live. He has made thousands of models, not a single one of them lacking any leg, eye, ear, tail, tentacle, or claw. Peter Engel is a mathematics professor by trade, and one day sort of snapped and started analyzing what happens to paper when folded. He has made many excellent models, and even better, written many things about how he plans and designs models. Robert Lang has made many great models, and is one of the few (the only?) who I do not frown on for using non-square paper. But on the flipside, many of the models he has designed using rectangular paper, I have seen Montroll do just as good or better with a simple square.

I definitely come from the Complex school, like nearly all American folders from 1980 on up. As for technique, I have definitely mastered the complex style. There is nothing left to fold that I cannot fold. This was always my goal, and now that I am here I am extremely disappointed. I find myself able to fold anything no matter how difficult, but unable to create anything more complicated than simple fish and birds. I see the paper, I see the folds, I understand where it goes and what it does, I just lack the creativity to plan it correctly. This is aided by the fact that being a perfectionist, I am never happy with what I do unless it is completely perfect. Having made perfect crabs and lobsters and turtles for so many years, when I set out to make a squid or something, unless it is perfectly porportioned and has all of its tentacles, eyes, and whatnot, I label it a failure. I find myself constantly pushing the envelope not to do better, but smaller. If I get a model down perfectly using 6" paper, I then try it with 3". My most beautiful works have all been tiny little creations. This is offset by the fact that I am 6'4 and have huge hands, as you can see in the tiny lobster pictures.

I have good results from just grabbing a piece of paper and folding, for example the dragon on this page is 100% mine, made up while trying to design something else entirely. I designed a Basset Hound which was 100% dead on perfect, ears and everything, but I only made one and to date I have no idea where it is. I used to store my favorite things in little white cardboard jewelry boxes, the kind with the foam on top and bottom. They sat up in the loft of my house for years, and when I moved I noticed 90% of the boxes were now empty. I really do not know what happened to them. Looted by admiring friends and visitors, I suppose. I do not mind, having made literally tens of thousands of cool origami critters in my life, I have about 5, and those were made recently. Everything I make I give away. Once created, it has been conquered, and there is no reason for me to keep it around as proof to myself. Most of the models on my page are not designed by me. In fact, around 80% of them are designed by John Montroll, who as you probably remember, is my favorite. Near the bottom are some of my creations, most of which are insane. I hope you enjoy viewing my work as much as I enjoy creating it.