Reddit reviews Origami to Astonish and Amuse

I think I started with the traditional bases and started thinking what else could use that arrangement of flaps. Also I was really persistent. The first things I came up with were nothing special but I kept on it because I wanted to get better.

Robert Lang's writings on origami design are great but can be a little overwhelming if you're just starting out. One of the books that I remember really liking as a beginner (and still today) is Origami to Astonish and Amuse by Jeremy Shafer. The author talks about how he went about designing things, and he shows how you can take an existing model or base and modify it to something completely new. I would definitely recommend picking it up if you can.

Here's a pic. Or Support the Author!. It really is one of my favorite books and very worth it.

Genuine Origami by Jun Maekawa (http://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Origami-Mathematically-Based-Models-Complex/dp/4889962514) is a pretty good book to learn about the more technical side of origami. Jun Maekawa goes into depth about how he developed a lot of the models and what techniques/theories are applied in the models. He also selected models for the book which are illustrative of specific design features. I found a lot of the models in this book to be fairly difficult but with enough patience I was able to fold most models.

Personally I'm also a fan of Origami to Astonish and Amuse by Jeremy Schafer (http://www.amazon.com/Origami-Astonish-Amuse-Jeremy-Shafer/dp/0312254040) which isn't quite as technically in depth as Maekawa's book. However Schafer does go into depth about how he developed the various models as well though. The models can also be quite funny and I'm fairly sure 14-year-old me would have thoroughly enjoyed this book. The models in this book can range in difficulty from fairly easy to tediously difficult.

I think either book would make a good present and they're also reasonably priced on amazon.