THE PAPER
The Magazine of OrigamiUSA society
Issue # 83, 2003 / Volume 5 , Page 26

Origami Land
by Yuri & Katrin Shumakov

CD-ROMs/ PC and Macintosh Compatible.
Intermediate to Complex.

Imagine being stuck indoors for several days by a huge snowstorm with brand new exciting origami material! Lucky for me, I had just received Origami Land, the latest work of Yuri and Katrin Shumakov. Enchanted with the castle from Oriland, I began building this incredible model. The ingenuity of how every piece fits beautifully without any glue-even little lanterns that attach to the roofline - is just amazing. And, to live in the castle are the adorable ‘little people', all painstakingly diagrammed.

Originally, this collection of models from Oriland was to have been a book but as it rapidly was approaching 300 pages, the Shumakovs reconsidered, and in order to present such a volume of material, they decided on a new CD-ROM format. This format offers some wonderful interactive features. For example, as you hold the cursor over the index, a picture of each model pops up, in full color, of course. Each model has an indicated difficulty level and the paper requirements needed to complete it.

Every page prints out beautifully and you can even enlarge the diagrams. There are tabs at the top and bottom, which allow you to go to the section of the disk you choose. The Origami Land tab brings you to a picture of all the models. The cursor becomes a magic wand and wherever you point, a picture of that model appears with relevant date and a link to the diagrams. A picture of the model is also onscreen as you work.

My favorite models, once I finished the castle, are the street lantern, toy boats, and the clever flower garden. This compact little treasure has already found its way to many homes. It's a perfect gift to bring to a hospital or nursing home as it is so stable, holds the flowers without glue and is so portable, too. Of course, there is a whole section of flowers, stems, and leaves to complete this model.

In addition, included on this CD is a complete train set including the tracks, a car, trees, houses, and animals. In all there are over 30 models all of which are original creations of Katrin and Yuri. Visitors to the huge exhibition they mounted in Charlotte in 2002 will recognize many of the models that were on display there. Now diagrammed on the CD, they range from a simple one-piece leaf to multi-piece complex models.

All the models on the CD work with regular copy paper in letter or A4 size. Regular kami is good for some of the models too. There are lots of textual explanations as to size, and of course, clear directions to accompany the beautiful diagrams for which the Shumakovs are known.

Owners of other CDs by the Shumakov's will be thrilled with this new format, which, in the words of Ros Joyce, is “such fun to play with.” The CD is made to work with Windows but Mac users can load it onto their hard disk and play it from there.

I've always been a big supporter of Yuri and Katrin's work and if you choose this CD, I think you'll see why.

Reviewed by Rachel Katz (NY)

British Origami
The Magazine of British Origami Society,
Issue # 221, August 2003, Page 29