Dianne wrote: "One square no cuts no glue seems to be the traditional definition of Origami someone decided upon at some point in time. I have not read no tools...but always made the assumption no tools were to be used."
As far as I know, those "rules" were applied some time in the mid-twentieth century. Remember, in Japan Origami, Kirigami and kusadama are all aspects of the same art form. And the further you go back to the origins of origami, the more the lines blurred. I had heard many people extend those rules above to include the words "one square piece of paper". So...modulars are not origami? If I start from a rectangle it is not origami? If I use a bone folder, that is a tool. In my head, origami involves creating the end result by folding one or more pieces of paper. Cutting paper to shape to start does not change that - so you can do origami from rectangles, triangles etc. If there are INTERNAL cuts, then it is Kirigami by definition. If you are sewing the pieces together it is Kusadama. But is you have to use glue to hold something together, that is still origami, just like wet folding using a mixture of Methylcellulose and white glue to change a flat folded model into a beautiful paper sculpture does not make it some other art form. An amusing note - I actually had an artist who was actively working with that mixture on a model tell me that if you have to glue a modular model together it is not origami. I laughed out loud and pointed out that he was covering his model with glue to make it hold a shape. He said "That is different! This is just shaping!". The great thing is that the origami community as a whole has been inclusive instead of exclusive. Instead of saying "That is not origami", they said "That is a new type of origami"...at least within reason. Bottom line is - if 25 years ago people had bowed to a set of arbitrary rules we would not have all these wonderful new species of origami. That is the way to think of it - origami is the family, modular/tessellations/traditionals, etc are genus and within those are different species (i.e. different styles of tessellations). Just like in biology, when a new thing comes along, you see if it fits a known species, and if it does not you pick a family or genus and simply declare "We have discovered a new species! The red-footed, duck billed Curlicue". John Scully
