Dover Publications 174 pages softback 16*22cms isbn : 0-486-44212-8

This is a translation of “El Lado Oscuro de la Papiroflexia” (Salvatella 2000), although given the paucity of text throughout the diagrams, the translator had precious little to do! You get a wide range of fantasy critturs, such as a troll, griffin, satyr, Medusa, Sphinx, unicorn and many more, 25 in all. Most fit into the high-intermediate or complex area, so you need a fair degree of ability to complete them and even then, it’s sometimes hard to produce an attractive version. As with many designs of this ilk, tissue foil allows you to produce neater results with somewhat less finesse.

The designs of Iniesta have more character to my eyes (or fingers), especially the “dragon with wizard” and “witch”, but if you like complex fantasy designs, you’re bound to enjoy folding most of these. The introducatory text is brief, but interesting, as we learn how Netto and Iniesta discovered fi rst origami, then that they shared a common interest in fantasy creatures. Netto offers this thought; “If you get inspiration (to create) then I advise you to close the book, it won’t move from there, and follow your muse where it takes you”. Sound advice.

I do have one big problem with the book though, and it’s one shared by many such reprints, that of print quality. The diagrams are condensed, often with 16 (complex) steps per page and the manner in which they have been scanned and printed has left the shading much darker than it should be, and of indifferent quality. You can clearly see the mottled effect where tif images have been shrunk down.

It’s a real shame, since it would be a trivial task for the designers to lighten the images so the detail was clearer. However, the type of folder who would buy this book can work around this (providing they have good eyesight and a reading lamp) so perhaps I shouldn’t carp – it’s a lot of folding for a tenner.