10 Unbelievable Origami and Papercraft Sculptures

Posted by Chris Greenhough on Friday, April 16, 2010 at 6:00 am.

If your origami skills are limited to a paper plane or a rudimentary box, I’m going to advise getting some practice before trying these on for size:

1. “Ryujin 3.5″ by Satoshi Kamiya. Kamiya is widely acknowledged as one of the most advanced origami masters in the world, having begun origami as a two-year-old. This stunning, elaborate dragon is one of his more famous designs, and take upto one month to fold.

2. Hawaii-based origami artist Won Park is also known as the “money folder,” a reference to his medium: United States One Dollar Bills. While his designs may not be as elaborate as Kamiya’s, his life-like shapes, such as this koi, exude charm and detail.

3. “Castle on the Ocean” by Wataru Itou, and wow just freaking look at this. This jaw-dropping castle and theme park took four years for Itou to craft, and even features dozens of lights to illuminate the scene.

4. Star Wars AT-AT Walker (artist is unknown, but check out this site for more of his/her Star Wars work).

5. “Icosahedron” by Richard Sweeney. British papercraft artist Sweeney specializes in reproducing geometric shapes that frankly make my head hurt just looking at them. Rather than folds, there are sweeping curves and arcs aplenty.

6. “Origami Swan” by deviantart user “BopBob“. This gorgeous creation took two weeks to fold and build.

7. Papercraft artist Ingrid Siliakus based this stunning papercraft palace on a real building in Madrid. Most of her work focuses on either architecture, or mind-bogglingly abstract shapes and designs. It’s worth going here to check out her portfolio.

8. “Snail” by Eric Joisel. This piece by French origami master Joisel came from one sheet of wet-folded rectangular paper.

9. “Link” by “Haywan.” This 831-piece model of the hero of the Zelda series required 206 pieces of card (and god knows how many ink cartridges). Read more about it here.