Out of the blue, I was approached by Snake Publishing, of Switzerland to write a book. Unusually, they wanted a book featuring exclusively my own work! I’ve not written such a collection since the “Ori Bible” (and that contained a few by other folders) so was attracted to the idea straight away. Origami was a new topic for them and they talked about published a series of volumes featuring various “Origami Masters”. Although they had no track record, trust has to begin somewhere, so I signed a contract with them and began work on “Intriguing Origami”.

With a back catalogue of many 100s of designs, you’d think it would be easy to pick a few, but I wanted them to present a coherent view of my approach to design and to feature models that were unpublished. I also find as I develop artistically, designs that rang my bell 15 or more years ago no longer have that “spark” or may represent a style I no longer follow (like complex designs!).

Eventually, I produced a short list and began diagramming. Very often, a book is necessarily a series of compromise, publishers usually require X models to fit within Y pages. Refreshingly, Snake told me to use as many pages as I liked and if it needed more than the anticipated page count, they would simply add more! They also promised to use plenty of white space in the layout & design, a feature often neglected in origami books. I also recorded a (silent) video for each model, which will be on youtube with a QR code inside the book.

So, the first two editions; French (fascinant) and Italian (intrigant) have arrived, with a deal under way for an English language edition. I always unwrap such parcels with a deal of trepidation, since a glossy package may contain a less than attractive content. However, I couldn’t have been more thrilled with what I found. Top quality in every respect, with entire pages devoted to photos of a single model (shock! horror!). It even smells nice.

Update: the book is also available in American, with the erroneous and somewhat misleading title of “Beginning Origami Kit“. My protests fell upon deaf ears.