My annual origami display at Holland Park Library was installed this morning:
Included is a broad range of origami styles from a huge and diverse collection of designers, folded from a varied collection of papers.
I am trying to get better at not crowding the display cabinets – sometimes less is more to allow individual models to shine – let me know how I went.
If you visited, I would love your impressions, comments and suggestions for future displays.
Get directions here
Wrapping up an editing spot on a forthcoming new book, I decided to fold Tu Kaiming’s design for a Flying Western Dragon:
It is rare to see a dragon posed mid-flight, and I like the approach taken here.
Oddly, it is usually westerners that think dragons need wings to fly – but they bring a dynamism that it is difficult to achieve without them. I also like the styling (ribs and other details) – the ribs remind me of the Xenomorph I just finished also – a nice detail. The head is simple, horns suggested – a nice balance of form and function.
Using a 50cm square of rust-coloured Satogami (my first sheet from a paper pack I got from Origami-shop.com) the base creases are easy but the model escalates pretty quickly to become a tight bundle. The Satogami took the contortions and flex tension pretty well (even during a dense “turn this part inside out as a complex reverse-fold sink). Satogami is a heavy paper with an interesting subtle texture – I must use it some more.
It is clear that Origami is currently experiencing a Renaissance – so many new designs emerging from everywhere, it is also wonderful that we are getting to see new designs from all over the world.
Continue readingI have long been drawn to the particular thrill of Science-Fiction based horror – few franchises do it like Alien:
This Xenomorph, designed by Kade Chan (you too can have a go at folding it here) was folded from a 60cm square of Crumpled VOG paper – a rare find in my stash, near last remnant of a purchase some 10 years ago when you could still buy VOG paper.
My previous fold of this model was in crispy Kraft in 2013, and I had always meant to return to it and fold a presentation fold. With the release of “Alien Romulus” in cinemas, I figured the chest burster was about ready to pop.
Continue readingI first folded these little critters, designed by Robert J Lang, using a square cut from an A3 printer paper sheet back in 2011 as part of my original 365 project:
Remarkably, even with that terrible paper, all the features of the critter were present however not very refined.
Australians call these “Slaters”, but they also go under the name “wood lice” because these little isopods are found in decaying vegetation – which is why I decided they should be folded from Mango Leaf paper. It makes this fold a bit “meta” in that the critter is folded from mulberry paper that contains leaf litter.
The fold sequence is exacting, forming trapezoidal molecules for each of the 14 legs, along with antennae and a rather beautiful segmented shell. This model appears in a few of Robert’s books, I folded this one from “Origami Insects 2” – a rather splendid volume from Origami House in Japan. bought from Origami-shop (even though, strictly speaking, it is not an INSECT….).
I decided to fold two so we could see one open and one curling up into a little armoured ball – they do this when in danger.
Continue readingCounter culture I love little zippy cars:
Our current car is old, but a lovely tiny Mitsubishi Colt (that looks a LOT like this model), and … eventually … we will need to replace it but, annoyingly Mitsubishi only make HUGE battleships now – not everyone wants a battleship!!!
Continue readingThe life of a male praying mantis is not all beer and skittles – inattentive and less nimble males often become a post coital snack for their partners in a brutal twist on “the circle of life”:
This is a pair of Satoshi Kamiya’s Praying Mantis, and this may well be my longest fold (in total elapsed time) to date. Two and a half years ago (the year before I had retired), I sat down with a crispy 55cm square of Kraft paper and began folding the maquette for this model (the brown one). I was stressed, it ate up an afternoon and calmed my racing brain but I got tired, lost my place and then mental fog set in and I could not for the life of me work out how to do the next step (making the little barbs on the inside of the front legs).
Determined to return to it the next day, I tucked the model into the open book I had in my book stand, put it away and … ignored it for 2.5 years. I am not sure my book “Works of Satoshi Kamiya 3” appreciated being splayed open for all that time and is now, finally, resting closed with the rest of my Origami library.
I finally had the “perfect” mantis paper – pre-coated green Unryushi tissue from Kami paper store, purchased a month or so ago when we were in Melbourne. I cut a perfect 50cm square from this deliciously thin and crisp paper and began folding. I was fired up to return to the partially finished but stalled fold and give it another go – how hard could that be?
I folded the green up to where I had stopped with the brown, then realised the next step was actually pretty simple (just not clearly diagrammed – representing such complex 3d manipulation in a series of line drawings is really hard, I know), so was able to take both the maquette and green production fold all the way to the end of an astonishing 271 step sequence.
The design is genius, and relatively efficient – interestingly there are triangle sections of paper folded away into the middle legs that is the only “waste”. Via a torturous process of isolating, crenellating and thinning the entire morphology of a lethal stick insect emerges from the tangle.
As an apex predator, the praying mantis is the perfect killing machine. Large swiveling eyes, sensitive antennae on a fully articulated head, complete with chomping mouth parts. Perfectly proportioned and armored thorax sporting 2 sets of thin legs and a pair of lethal clamp-like razor fists. Wings and a lovely plump pleated abdomen finish the features of this astonishingly complete insect – all from an UNCUT square of paper – just wow.
Continue readingI am often given 6″ origami paper by well-intentioned friends who know I do origami and assume 6″ paper is useful to me. I have lots of it – and I mostly use it to fold kusudama:
I had a pile of duo Tuttle watermelon/lime duo paper, so resolved to treat it to make it more interesting. I bought some acrylic inks a while back, and a mouth airbrush, so decided to tone the pages while learning how the airbrush works – a fun experiment.
I chose to spatter the watermelon side with white ink, and the lime side got yellow and black spatters. The effect is quite lovely and delicate – it compliments the geometry of the model really well.
I had seen a youtube tutorial of Kovács Vincéné’s “Nova” kusudama, and I thought the geometry really interesting. Like many spikey balls, 30 units in 5/3 clusters makes a nice little structure.
Continue readingOne of many goals, long term, is for me to make and fold my own paper. By “make paper” I mean collect, process and form sheets from pulp. I clarify because one school of thought around “making paper” is laminating or treating existing sheets – I do that also, but yeah, there is a distinction.
I attended a workshop out back of Gympie with Dion Chandler, using my newly acquired mold and deckle, and pulled (get the lingo 😛 ) A3 sheets – by the end I got pretty consistent at it but need more practice.
I ended up making A3, A4 and a smaller “letter” size”, love the deckle edges and the structure of the sheets. I have also Methyl Cellulosed some and, so long as I apply the MC to the paper (and not the glass I am sticking it to) then the sheets come away crisp and sturdily hold folds crisply as well.
That workshop we were pulling from a vat that started mostly with cotton pulp, and gradually had recycled kozo (mulberry) to it – quite a resilient mix. the resultant sheets are precious and wonderful.
Continue readingIt is a well known fact that Australians MADE up the illogical collection of animal parts we then called a Platypus:
Ducks bill, fur, poisonous spines, webbed feet, lays eggs, feeds young milk, lives under water … LOL … then only people silly enough to believe this are tourists, right?
One of many benefits of networking at an origami conference is that you get to mix in the real world with talented designers – if you are lucky they share their designs with you.
Continue readingThe original and ONLY authorised copy of this post, authored by Wonko, appears on http://www.wonko.info/365origami/
One of the many advantages of being on the editing team for an origami book is that you get to see models before they make it into the wild. This Toucan, designed by Jiahui Li (Syn) appeared in the book “Comic Origami 2 – Feathered Friends” among a plethora of other fun folds:
I had a much used 40cm square of Origami-Shop Shadow Thai paper that I used and re-used (after ironing flat) to do test folds. I quartered it to make 4 20cm squares and set about finding folds for it.
Continue readingHaving folded Steven Casey’s 8×8 40 grid seamless chessboard and singularly failing to fold Marc Kirschembaum’s 40 grid because of crease-creep inaccuracies, I was approached by Daniel Brown and asked if I was interested in his chessboards – naturally I jumped at the chance. “Seamless” chessboards are deliciously more complicated because it required each square to be represented by an un-broken surface (as opposed to being able to be comprised of bits and pieces of layers – a much easier path):
I say CHESSBOARDS because Daniel has developed a series of coloured/white alternate seamless models of LOTS of sizes, and the skills necessary to migrate edge paper towards the centre to effect colour changes is a thing that needs some work and, often, particular “widgets” (or self-contained localised fold structures).
I started with the 4×4, rather efficiently designed on a 9×9 grid ( 0.444 efficiency). I had a piece of blue-white kami, so gave it a whirl. Even dimensions require different approaches for adjacent corners as they are different colours – the same colour corner exists on the diagonal.
Continue readingIt is exhausting to have to continually deal with a host/domain name server to have unlawful scraped copies of my posts being re-published (with minor, illogical edits) as part of a large but unattributed collection of clickbait masquerading as a content aggregator. openAI24 dot com…
I feel powerless to act as the site has no working “contact us” or grievance process, no one you can email to winge at other than admins upstream of the website.
The best I can do for MY content is to get it blocked at a DNS level, resulting in a “forbidden” message when you try to jump to the actual article. Sadly this does not effect the gallery “preview” of each article. Although it is completely OBVIOUS that all original authors of all content on this site are in the same position, apparently “takedowns” can only be issued by the original author…
It seems the same site is casually ripping off content from Leyla Torres’ ‘Origami Spirit”, Helen Hiebert’s studio and many more. Even though many of us have complained and issued “take down” notices, the site continues to harvest from my site (even though I have now blocked 7 posts at time of this post).
Anyone being similarly ripped off – contact me, the take down process is fairly simple, I am happy to take you through it.
Please feel free to complain to abuse@namecheap.com – they are the host AND name server for this pile of illegal copyright infringement, and the ONLY body actually contactable to do anything about this nightmare
It would be truly humorous if they harvested this post also – they seem indiscriminate THEIVES so who knows, we might be heading for a meta singularity some time soon.
In the perfect storm that was Melbourne, mid-July both 8OSME and Folding Australia happened, one after the other…in the same place.
Folding Australia was a weekend filled with model galleries, folding lessons, special presentations, games (like giant folding and other collaborative challenges), wonderfully talented people and fold-enthusiasts I was privileged to be among.
I had never been to an origami conference prior to this adventure, and therefore had no idea what to expect, I had previously been to loads of educational tech conferences (my now retired teacher speciality), so was open to be surrounded by like-minded people.
Continue readingIn-between 8OSME and Folding Australia conferences, there was a free-day. Jo and I decided to explore some of the suburban street art, go to Lume patisserie and “accidentally” visit a couple of paper shops.
Kami paper in Melbourne is like nothing I have ever seen – such a variety of papers in the one place, prices pretty reasonable and HUGE sheets (when I buy paper from local Brisbane places like Oxylades, it seems they are selling half-sheets for the same price).
Around the walls were drawers, you are encouraged to open the drawers and feel the paper – it is overwhelming for a paper nerd. I took my time, explored the vast range of different types, origins, fibres and inclusions.
Selecting a range of colours, thicknesses and textures, the shop assistant then pulled the sheets, packed them into a travel-safe post tube that fit in our suitcase – happy days
I ended up with 10 new sheets, all of which I want to fold right now… mostly mulberry, but their range of Lokta, Chiyogami and other luscious papers are sooo tempting. I could spend a LOT in this shop.
Interestingly, they also sell pre-coated Unryushi (it is already crisped up with MC), so very beautiful – I will finally re-attempt Kamiya’s Mantis with a crisp lovely sheet of greey pre-coated Unryu … so excited.
Paper nerds, you must make a pilgrimage here. Alternatively it seems like their shipping is pretty reasonable on large orders, and you can request they ROLL rather than fold prior to shipping – getting un-folded sheets in the post is a rare privilege.
Happy paper nerd.
Coupled to 8OSME, RMIT Design Hub is currently hosting an exhibition of important origami works called “Future Folds”. The opening event featured a panel discussion with Tomoko Fuse and Robert J Lang.
Panel discussions can be wonderful if the alchemy is right – the right combination of guests and questions. I am not sure we got a stellar set of questions posed, but it was encouraging to hear the guests speak of their obvious love of origami, and interesting to hear about their differing approaches to the artform.
We then proceeded to the gallery space to view a number of precious “holy grail” origami objects. Presented as the centerpiece was a large scale installation of Tomoko Fuse’s “OROCHI” (or large snake) – beautiful organic tube sculptures that seemed to have a life of their own.
Around the walls of the gallery were astonishing things, many of which I have only ever seen in documentaries and books – Tomohiro Tachi’s “Rabbit” for example. This was posited proof that using “Origamiser”, you can construct a crease pattern to replicate ANY 3d object using folds only. An amazing demonstration that would have been a nightmare to actually fold, but entirely possible to do so.
We saw some lovely examples of Jun Mitani’s curved fold works (some I have the CP of but have never successfully folded) and some original tree-maker inspired circle-packed designs for bugs and lobster from Robert Lang.
Present also were some lovely spiral forms and tessellations by Tomoko Fuse and an assortment of other precious folded things.
It is rare for such works to make it to Australia, and I was so glad to have been able to see them.
