Origami: from roses to heart operations at CDW

May 21, 2015Jessica Nangle Clerkenwell, Clerkenwell Design Week, Events0

Origami is a difficult skill to master. Many take years to conquer the craft. Folding paper in several ways to make everything from dragons to flowers can, if done correctly, look impressive; and its popularity is going from strength to strength.

Demonstrating origami at the workshop. Credit: Jessica Nangle

Fedrigoni, an Italian paper-making company, is embracing springtime by giving master classes in spring-inspired origami making with Sam Tsang for Clerkenwell Design Week. Anyone can make their own paper memento.

But there is a serious side to the fun.

Tsang took time from paper folding with keen volunteers to demonstrate how origami is now becoming involved in the medical engineering world. The paper folding strategies are now a source of inspiration for developing medical stents for heart operations.

“Origami has become a science,” Tsang said.

So yes, impressive as making a dragon with one sheet of paper may be, origami clearly has a valuable role to play.

But for the smiling flower makers at the Design Festival, it was all about crafting a rose from nothing. It was not exactly the Chelsea Flower Show but there was no mistaking the look of achievement on their faces.