Origami Mountain & Valley Folds
Understanding origami mountain and valley folds is very useful whilst following origami diagrams or tutorials. The term mountain and valley are quite easy to remember as they represent the mountain tops (peaks) and the valley (dips) of the paper.
You will find valley fold and mountain fold lines on all origami diagrams and some on origami photo tutorials.
They are there to make it easier to understand. Most of the time, mountain fold lines are there to remind you which creases need to be folded backwards. Or they are there simply to save time for the diagrammer, so they need not create an extra ‘turn the paper over’ step.
If you think of a simple landscape, with tall mountains, it’s easy to imagine the paper is that landscape. The tips of the mountains are the tips of the paper and the valleys of the paper are the dips.
1. Here is a sheet of paper with a mountain fold in the middle, on the left and right are valley folds.
2. Valley Fold. A Valley fold is symbolised by a plain black dashed line. To make a valley fold, take on edge of the paper and fold it to the opposite edge and unfold.
3. This is the completed valley fold.
4. Mountain Fold. The mountain fold is symbolised by a red line with alternating dashes and dots. To make a mountain fold, you will need to turn the paper over to the other side and fold it in half.
5. After turning the paper back over, here is the completed mountain fold.
Your Origami Mountain & Valley Folds is Complete!
Now you have learnt what origami mountain and valley folds refer to, why not move on to learning some origami base folds? Click here.
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