Sadly, Francis passed away on June 29th 2018 after a long battle with cancer.

Here is a video made to show Francis how much we loved him, under the guise of "happy birthday" messages..

This is the website of Francis Ow Mun Yin,  from Singapore.

He is a member of:

• British Origami Society [BOS]
• Nippon Origami Association [NOA]
• Origami Societiet Nederland [OSN]
• St. Petersburg Origami Centre [Russia]
• Magyar Origami [Hungary]

and an Activity Instructor [Origami] of the People's Association

About Francis:

"My journey in Origami began when I was a kid...before starting schooling. The one person whom I greatly admire till this day is Robert Harbin. I was just a kid when I watched his TV programmes. He may not be the greatest of folders but it was through him and his book, "Paper Magic" that I learnt more about Origami. I also admire Akira Yoshizawa... more as an artist than an origamist. This is because to me, Origami is something which should be shared...Yes, Yoshizawa did share his works by publishing his origami... but tell me how many of us can reproduce his works? Not many, because there is a certain "touch" which only he can reproduce.

This leads me to Geometrical Origami. Here, every fold has to be precise...no guess works. All the folds are straight line from one point to another. Any other person can reproduce the same copy...that is if he/she follow the diagrams step by step. This is where Prof. Yoshihide Momotani and Prof. Shuzo Fujimoto brand of origami are based on. These 2 professors play a great role in my encounter with origami.

From Geometrical Origami comes Modular Origami...actually these two works hand in hand. Today, we have a lot of Modular folders and I think it is not necessary for me to list out everyone. What I like about Modular is because most of the Modules are quite simple. Actually the more simple it is the better....anyone can fold the modules....but the real challenge is in the assembly. I like modules which are derived from Traditional bases and Traditional models. There are just so many beautiful Modular Origami that one can get out from the Traditional Crane. Momotani has lots of these. He made flowers, Dragons, Centipedes and many other subjects in modular form just by assembling the Tsuru.

From Geometrical and Modular, one can actually branch out into different classes. Some go for Tessellations, Repeated patterns, Sonobe, Boxes, Polyhedra, and Intersecting Polyhedra etc. etc. I guess I branched out to Heart Models. Actually, the shape of the Origami heart is a geometrical shape. At first when I made an Origami heart, my friends laugh and say that there are just too many straight lines, how can you call it a heart? But I guess today the Origami Heart is well accepted.

Oh.. there is another branch which I am doing, "Strip Origami"...This is just simple weaving with papers ...not to be confused with something which requires the removing of clothings. If you view my Flickr Photostream, I have a set which is called "Woven Stars". I have woven the stars with 5 points to the present 21 points...I can go on but there must be a stop for me... I do not have any diagrams for all those Woven Stars. Only figures to tell me the length of the paper strip to use. Some of the angles are quite obvious but for most of those stars, a fixed angle is required. I worked this out by trial and error and I have rough sketches to show how to make the templates for those angles. Those stars are easy to make but difficult to put in diagrams.

As for books, I really cannot recommend any particular book because different people have different tastes. For a start, I would recommend Eric Kenneway's, "Complete Origami". This book features almost everything one can expect from Origami. The other book is "The Origami Bible" by Nick Robinson. This book contains a lot of simple stuff which anyone can fold. These 2 books should be good enough for any begineer. There are just too many good books today. I really cannot say which is the 10 best - the other 8 will depend on each individual tastes."

Remember his motto:

Peace and Harmony through Origami!

Francis has made his booklet "More Origami Hearts 4U" available to the world, free of charge! This is a further collection of origami “Heart” designs created by Francis plus “Heart Box” created by Edwin Corrie. This collection is a PDF which may be downloaded only from here.

You are free to teach any of the models without permission, but any other use (including display of individual diagrams) must be agreed with Francis’ legal agent in these matters, Nick Robinson.