Throughout junior and senior year of college, I would get these really delicious mooncake-like snacks from Costco called “Egg Yolk Pies.” The outside was flaky and crispy, and inside was a salty egg yolk surrounded by a sweet filling. They came packaged in tin boxes that stacked neatly on top of eachother, which I found perfect for storing origami. Instead of cluttering my desk and floor with origami, I just stuffed everything–the good, the bad, the incomplete–into egg yolk pie boxes, which I stacked in a corner of my room.

These boxes are a testament to how much origami I folded in the last two years (and how many egg yolk pies I've consumed).

After moving out, these boxes moved with me to my parents’ house. They take up quite a lot of space, so I needed to go through them and decide what to keep and what to throw away. As I did, I came across many folds and many memories. I’ll share some of the interesting ones with you.

Origami has temporarily colonized my room.

Interesting Folds and Their Stories

Some Big Stuff

Some stuff I folded with large paper.

Akira Yoshizawa's Cicada, Dai Watanabe's Sailfish, Seiji Nishikawa's Sea Turtle, Satoshi Kamiya's Crab

Cranes

Random cranes folded from kami and post-it-notes. The green ones were made as a demo of neat vs unneat folding for the Origami DeCal, an origami course that I created and taught at UC Berkeley.

Traditional Cranes

Shaped Cranes by Co-instructors

Some overshaped cranes folded by my co-instructors as demos for class. The pink dragon is particularly nice, folded by Theo Lysek.

Overshaped Cranes

Lafosse Butterflies

Some Michael Lafosse Butterflies that I folded in preparation for a colab between Cal Origami and Outlet!, an art club at Berkeley.

Lafosse Butterflies

KNL Dragons

Two KNL dragons. The blue one was folded as a demo for two of my non-folding friends.

KNL Dragons
KNL Dragons with friends

Modulars Folded by Cal Origami

Some modulars folded me and others at a weekly Cal Origami meeting.

Sonobe Balls and Stellated Octohedrons

Miscellaneous

Some stuff that weren’t interesting enough to get their own photo, so they band together (with the power of friendship!).

Kawasaki Roses, Robert Lang Valentine, Blossom Heart (Traditional?), Ninja Star (Traditional), Snowflake (Unknown designer), Jo Nakashima Dragon.

Crabs

Some experiments I folded while trying to design a crab.

Crabs, designed by me!

Ostriches

Some Ostrich experiments I folded while trying to come up with a demo for Origami DeCal.

Ostriches, based off Plant's origami design course.

Theo’s Outer Wilds Anglerfish

Theo, the current head instructor of the Origami DeCal, designed an origami version of the Anglerfish from Outer Wilds. This is my fold of his design from when he taught it at origami club. It’s hard to tell, but at the time of folding, I shaped the lure into a face.

Theo Lysek's Anglerfish (it is very crushed...)
Outer Wilds Anglerfish

Albert’s Septopus

Albert, the current president of Cal Origami, designed a Septopus (a seven legged octopus).

Albert Tran's Septopus. I don't think I was the one who folded this. Maybe Albert folded it and snuck it into my archives?
A big septopus, folded by me.

Stay Tuned for More!

I have around 25 more photos sitting in my camera roll… So, expect a part 2, and maybe a part 3. Okay, bye!