Unit Origami

The Story
It all began with a gift. One of my brothers gave me a book, Unit Origami. "Thank you. I think I'll just look at the pictures." No need to start folding paper. Yah, sure. Eventually, I was persuaded to "just try a few." Then I fell in love with one unit in particular. Next thing I knew, I was cutting my own paper squares and had become a connoisseur of printed pages -- magazines, high-end catalogs, etc.

The photo above shows part of my collection; I've given away hundreds more. I'm not sure what I enjoy more, gathering the paper, cutting it into squares, folding it, or deciding how to mix and match the colors and textures.

The Basic Unit
And then, there are all the different shapes (see Feb 2) you can make from this one wonderful unit! This example of the basic unit was made from a magazine ad with a photo of a child's face; note the mouth and eye. The odd thing is, I just checked the book to find the name of "my" unit. It's the Double Pocket (p.84), but not quite. Somewhere along the way I adapted the instructions so that the colors and images on each unit are less fragmented.