The 2007 design challenge was to fold an entire plant from an uncut square. There are many origami plants (you can see several in my own gallery), but nearly all origami plants are either composite, i.e., from multiple sheets of paper, or only partial plants (like a leaf, or blossom). The challenge this year was to fold an entire plant—from a single uncut square.
And the artists rose to the challenge. We had the largest number of submissions yet—31 in all—from the Americas, Europe, and Japan, folding flowers of all types. I was struck by both the variety and beauty of many of the entries: quite unlike anything in the traditional origami repertoire. A key factor in many of the entries was the use of handmade or altered paper (e.g., spliced, backcoated, or precolored paper). But all of the figures you see are still folded from a single uncut square.
All photographs are by Susan Dugan and are used with permission.
