The website of paperfolding designer and author David Mitchell
 
 
  For my 11th birthday, my parents gave me a copy of Robert Harbin's seminal 'Secrets of Origami'. I quickly became enchanted.

Along with reading, origami became my fallback activity whenever I was unwell, which was frequently during my teenage years, but, fortunately, much less often after that.

     
In 1986, during another long period of illness, I discovered that I had the ability to create my own original designs, particularly using the modular technique. In 1987, at long last, I joined the British Origami Society, and, over the next few years, Wayne Brown, Paul Jackson, David Brill, Nick Robinson, David Petty and Joan Homewood, in particular, encouraged me with advice, information and appreciation.

During this period I was also introduced to the work of the American magician and paperfolder Robert E Neale, who I regard as my origami Sensei, but am also delighted to have as a friend. He has been kind enough to say that we 'share a mind'. We certainly share a love of simplicity, elegance, innovation and thinking outside the box.

In 1997 I approached Gerald Jenkins of Tarquin about publishing a book of designs for modular polyhedra. The result was 'Mathematical Origami' which is still in print and still selling well. Since then I have spent 10 years working as a professional origami author, illustrator, designer and presenter and have been privileged to have been invited as a guest teacher to the conventions of the Centro Diffusione Origami in Florence, OrigamiUSA in New York, Origami Deutschland in Dresden and most recently of the Asociacion Espanola de Papiroflexia in Valencia.

At present, in 2008, origami is on the back burner as I pursue yet another change of career. But I still fold, and design, whenever I can.

 

 
Site contents © David Mitchell 2008 and may not be reproduced without permission.