Himanshu Agrawal from Origami Mitra Club (www.origami-mitra.com) along with nine students from IIT-Bombay spent 12 hours folding one sheet of paper-35 feet x 35 feet - to create a 20 feet high origami giraffe which sets the world record for the Largest Origami Giraffe."Usually this design for a giraffe from origami master John Montroll takes about 10 minutes to fold," he said.
This was really slow process and there were many setbacks along the way, as the layers got unfolded. But ultimately it was very rewarding to complete and see it mounted on a bamboo structure.
This model has been designed by the American origamist Mr. John Montroll. It has been marked level 3 (complex) on a scale of 1 to 4 by the designer. Folding this Origami Giraffe requires almost 103 moves and 70 creases on the paper.
Himanshu Agrawal says, I have been doing Origami for the last 14 years. On Sunday, January 18, 2009 we started work around 7 am to get the paper ready for folding. Eventually we got a 35 ft. by 35 ft. paper ready by 4.30 pm when we started folding the actual model.
Folding with a large paper completely changes its properties; its tensile strength, flexibility, the ability to retain a crease and even to hold its own weight.
The tiniest move took the largest effort. Care had to be taken that the inner layers of the model don't unfold while turning or making a new crease. Even a small tear if gone unnoticed can magnify very quickly. These and many other considerations went into understanding the structure of the model and then overcoming these obstacles to finally achieve the desired model.
The folding went on till 11.30 pm, then we took a break to continue with the model on the next day. On Monday, January 19, 2008 we resumed the folding around 4.30 pm and completed the folding process by midnight. The total folding time was approximately 12 hours, from a square piece of paper to finished model, excluding the time for meal breaks. The result was a 20 feet high origami giraffe from head to legs.