( Wired ) -- In theory , Origami is simple : Take a sheet of paper , follow the dotted lines and without the use of scissors or glue , you 've got a paper crane . It stands to reason that if you 're good at following instructions , you 're good at origami . And that 's trueâ€ ” anyone can fold their way to a simple paper crane . But truly grasping the geometric complexities of that crane ? That 's actually pretty brainy stuff . Nerdy Thanksgiving . Origami is arguably more math than art , so it makes sense then that MIT would have a thriving origami scene . Every Sunday , a group of around 20 to 30 people gather on campus to experiment with paper folding techniques . Most recently , the group folded a series of turkeys , cornucopias , pine cones and vegetables to create a gorgeously nerdy Thanksgiving tableau . Read more : Wildly detailed drawings that combine math and butterflies . If you 're not a math person , it might seem incomprehensible to fashion a turkey out of a single piece of paper , but for Yongquan Lu and his fellow OrigaMIT members , it 's an entertaining challenge . Lu , a sophomore mathematics major at MIT , is the incoming president of of OrigaMIT , and has been practicing paper folding since high school . `` I really love how systematic origami is , '' he says . `` It 's the perfect combination of math and art . '' The math behind the art . Every origami model you see relies on a blueprintâ€ ” a series of pre-determined creases that will guide the folder through the process . In the beginning , precise , careful folding can get you pretty far , but if you want to start riffing on designs or creating your own , you have to have more than an elementary grasp on some basic mathematical principles . `` I got more involved in investigating the connections between math and geometry behind it , '' he says . `` These days a lot of the stuff I fold is a lot more geometric , more tessellations . '' For the Thanksgiving scene , Lu contributed the cornucopia basket , which he nonchalantly describes as a `` pretty well-known conical , flat tessellation pattern . '' Read more : Mind-blowing portraits made of test tubes and pushpins . Most of the students at MIT approach paper folding with a highly-technical slant . It 's not uncommon for the group to have a lengthy discussion about reverse-engineering each of the diagram 's folds or talk about polyhedral shapes and hexagonal symmetry . `` We 'll ask ourselves , 'Ok , where does this step come from , why does a designer choose to do it like this ? Or I wonder if I started with these proportions , what would happen ? '' Lu explains . `` That really comes out of the engineering background of a lot of our members . '' No need for whizz skills . Lu is quick to clarify that though OrigaMIT probably tends to be slightly more math-centric than your typical origami club , you do n't need to possess A Beautiful Mind-caliber math skills to join in . Sure , the peacock-like turkey took more than three hours to fold , but if you look around , there are tons of simple yet beautiful contributions like the vegetables , leaves and pine cones . `` We wanted to show that there are models of varying complexities . Sometimes people get intimidated because they think we 're folding all of these complex models , '' he says . `` But actually everyone can get involvedâ€ ” it 's not something that 's exclusive and insular in any way . '' Read more from WIRED : . Powerful Photos Go Deep Inside America 's Fracking Boom . How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love . The Most Amazing Images NASA Took of Earth From Space . A Teeny House Filled With Clever , Space-Saving Contraptions . 11 Must-Watch New Netflix Movies to Stream in 2014 . Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $ 1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT ! Click here ! Copyright 2011 Wired.com .
A group of art students created an origami club to explore the boundaries of paper folding . The club explores the geometrical nature of origami to create complicated shapes . They recently created an elaborate ##ly inspired tableau .