In Japan, origami has been around for hundreds of years and its use ranges from a religious to a traditional everyday activity. This hand work is an excellent and useful hobby, since you can make wonderful gifts for any occasion, whether it is Christmas or someone's birthday. You can also decorate your Christmas tree with little origami things that is a great alternative to purchased Christmas tree decorations.
The applications of origami are many, while the designs can be simple and complicated, taking more than an hour to fold; therefore, origami is a very absorbing and concentrative hand work and as it is the process of making or creating, origami things produce a healing effect on your nerves.
There are also studies in use of origami in hand rehabilitation after hand injuries of different degrees. In fact, hand injuries comprise the most common injury, resulting in lost days of work and the importance of hands in an everyday life. The process of rehabilitation is quiet long and can be even painful. The doctors agree that many physical exercises are effective in restoring a hand function, and origami as a hand work contains exercises that bring about a positive influence.
Moreover, origami is not as boring as making the same exercises for a certain period of time, but an absorbing and creative activity. It brings the physical healing and every origami folder knows the satisfaction of completing a model.
As for origami and mathematics, this subject is also of much interest for origami lovers and researchers. The connection of origami and geometry is obvious, since a folded model is a geometric figure and a piece of art simultaneously. There are several theorems and axioms, revealing the geometry of the origami art with a general conclusion that the act of folding the paper mathematically can be understood in terms of a geometrical construction. For instance, if you unfold any origami object and add up the angle measurements of every other angle around a point, the sum will be one hundred and eighty. In fact, there is much information about mathematics and origami in books and papers, even an international conference, called The International Meeting of Origami Science and Technology, is held on the subject. There is no surprise yet that many origami folders are mathematicians, physicians and other scientists.
If you still hesitate about the facts, only experience making origami flowers or other things you want and you will see how intricate and captivating this hand work is. The books Origami Flowers (there are two books of thirty two pages each) are available for purchase on-line (http://store.origamido.com/origamiflowers.html) and are perfect for both beginners and mature folders.
With the books you will be able to fold such models as bamboos, cherry blossom, daisies, lilies, lotuses, magnolias and much more. The books include basic folding techniques and instructions, ninety eight sheets of folding paper of diverse colors and patterns, simple projects and more complicated designs. Probably, having read the books and tried several models, you will get an inspiration for designs and styles that are more whimsical and sophisticated.