The Culture Behind the Art

The Culture Behind the Art 

The origami art was originated from japan .The word "origami" comes from the Japanese language. "Ori" means folded and "kami" means paper. "Used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques" (Shaffer 11).  Origami is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture.  Origami folders often use the Japanese word refers to designs which use cuts.

Folding pieces of paper was a valuable gift used in japan. "When origami was first practiced, however, it was a craft only for the elite. Japanese monks folded origami figures for religious purposes. Origami was also used in various formal ceremonies"(Shaffer 12).ceremonial paper folding were important, these models would act as a certificate of authenticity. As paper became more affordable, common people began making origami figures as gifts or creating folded cards and envelope. 

Can origami still carry that deeper and cultural meaning or was it lost due to its wide population throughout the whole world?

Shaffer, Jeremy. “Origami to Astonish and Amuse.” Amazon.com, 6 July 2001, www.amazon.com/Origami-Astonish-Amuse-Jeremy-Shafer

Does origami benefit your mental health?

Can folding a piece of paper benefit your mental health?

When most people think origami they usually think of origami as a fun activity to do when your bored, but what they don't know it that doing origami has many benefits. Origami provides both mental and physical  with exercise. Origami helps develop hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and mental concentration. The author Jeremy Shaffer says that the first stage of origami is to decide what to fold, one must come up with idea that practical and realize the importance of concentration, dedication, and creativity (20).  The paper craft of origami has so much thought and  process behind the making and directly stimulate your brain.

Paper folding challenges me to higher level as I follow instructions, learning new skills and activities."More difficult than coming up with the new ideas is actually folding them. Although this requires awareness, a lot of designing ability comes through experimentation and experience following diagrams"(Shaffer 15).  the author explaining that every fold has a perplex meaning and shows your ability of learning new skills. paper-folding allows me to create basic shapes such as squares, rectangles, and triangles.

Do you agree with Shaffer point of views on origami?

Shaffer, Jeremy. “Origami to Astonish and Amuse.” Amazon.com, 6 July 2001, www.amazon.com/Origami-Astonish-Amuse-Jeremy-Shafer

Solving a 4x4 Rubik's Cube

In this post I will be talking about the 4x4 Rubik's Cube and how to solve this cube. Once again, like the 2x2 Rubik's Cube, if you have already mastered and understood the 2x2 cube, learning how to solve this cube will be a lot easier. Harris agrees with this idea, "If you are a complete novice to cubing, you may be able to follow the solution described in this section, but you will find it hard going compared with those who have experience already with the standard Rubik's Cube" (Harris 100.)

This may seem overwhelming at first especially due to the fact that; the 4x4 Rubik's cube has an astonishing 7.4 quattuordecillion possible positions with only one of those being the solved position(Harris 100). Due to this fact and also it having a 2x2 center instead of a 1x1 center, these are both reasons why people could get overwhelmed by the cube. However, if you use your knowledge of the 3x3 cube and the algorithms and tricks you learned for that cube, learning and understanding the 4x4 cube will be much easier.

Once you finally learn however, you will be amazed with what you have accomplished. Also, and added bonus is this cube will help(along with the other 2), with learning how to solve even more complicated cubes such as the 5x5 Rubik's Cube.

Question: Have you every heard of and/or tried solving a 4x4 Rubik's Cube? If so how difficult was it, and how much did your knowledge of the 3x3 help you with solving it?

Harris, Dan. Speedsolving the Cube: Easy-to-follow, Step-by-step Instructions for Many Popular 3-D Puzzles. New York: Sterling Pub., 2008. Print.