Content & Layout: Mini Origami Book

Vladimir Nabokov believed that there is "a kind of delicate meeting place between imagination and knowledge, a point, arrived at by diminishing large things and enlarging small ones, that is intrinsically artistic " (Speak, Memory, 167).

Considering the small scale of this mini origami book, try thinking about Nabokov's quote when you create content for it. An artist's book can be seen as a container for what you know or think you know in conjunction with what your imagination brings to you. Large topics can be made personal, or given a face. Small moments can be given weight, particularly through deep emotion. Can you give a tiny book heft by way of the topic?

To design a mini origami book to print out, you can follow the layout, below. The dotted lines are so you can see how it will eventually fold. All you really need to know is which way to face the images or text and in which order. You may wish to print an image or pattern on the reverse since that side becomes the cover.

To print two of these books on one piece of paper, use squares that are 4" (10 cm) or 5" (13 cm). The miniature book is one quarter the size of the paper. Metric equivalents are approximate.

4" (10 cm) paper = 1" book (2.5 cm)
5" (12 cm) paper = 1 1/4" book (3 cm)
8" (20 cm) paper = 2" book (5 cm)
11" (28 cm) paper = 2 3/4" book (7 cm)

For the tutorial on making the book, please see previous post, "Mini Origami Book."
With some easy folding, this book takes no time at all.

"I do not believe in time. I like to fold my magic carpet, after use, in such a way as to superimpose one part of the pattern upon another."

(Speak, Memory, 139)

Note: This post is inspired by a class I am taking this semester with Dr. Geoffrey Green, an English class called, "Nabokov and Hitchcock."