“Aeroplane, boat, fan... People think that is what origami is all about,” laughs Roopika Sood, an educator and origami artist. There’s of course much more to that, as I discover in her snug home at Harrington Road, which doubles up as her working area. The space is alive with her art — a pleated lamp, green and red Christmas trees, festive décor, vibrant utility boxes, a moving flexagon (an example of kinetic origami).

Holding up a yellow sheet with an intricate pattern in the middle she says, “This is called tessellation. It is one sheet of paper with repetitive tiling patterns. You can’t afford to go wrong with the creases. It’s a gruelling process and took me six hours.” Roopika stumbled across origami seven years ago. The introductory session was supposed to be for an hour. “But I did it at a stretch for six hours. When I got back I wasn’t tired,” she says.

A Sonobe Cube is the first thing that Roopika learnt to make. And that’s the first thing she teaches beginners in her class. Sometimes people who attend her classes say they know how this art form works and create a fan (the ones we made back in school) as a quick demo. That’s when she fascinates them by adding a little fold and twist to the fan and turning it into a lantern or another charming piece of décor.

The artist has been teaching for the last seven years. “I was a teacher in Rishi Valley School (Chittoor district). Origami started as a weekend club there. But after the class was oversubscribed, it eventually became part of art and craft activity,” says Roopika, who started out as an English teacher but after a point, realised she was overlooking English corrections and all her focus was on this craft.....Read more

Source web page: The hindu