Joseph Wu

Like many people, Joseph Wu encountered origami as a child, and he has been folding paper since the age of three. Unlike most people, he continued practising his craft, and began creating original designs at the age of eleven. Joseph continues to be an active participant in the international origami community. He has attended conferences, taught classes, given lectures, and exhibited works in many parts of the world. His website has become the centre of origami activity on the Internet. He also administers the email discussion group on origami, facilitating communication between enthusiasts from over 35 countries.

Joseph's work is influenced by his many interests. His love of animals can be seen in the many animal models, each one carefully researched. The mythical creatures spring from his fascination with creativity and imagination, as well as a desire to understand the beliefs that drive human pursuits.

More recent works use a technique that has been named tension shaping, dry tension folding, or chaos folding. It is an attempt to use the natural tendency of paper to unfold as a way of creating curved forms without resorting to wet folding. It is not a new idea, but this is possibly the first time that tension shaping has been consciously used as a design technique.