blah blah blah, about nothing in marticular – may contain traces of aaaarrrggghh
It is not every day that I get a model published, less frequently (like never for me) in the British Origami Society Journal but …
Ballerina Kit, an original designed for my little friend dancing Kit made it into the June 2013 edition
What a lovely (if slightly late) birthday present indeed.
I have been agonising for ages (years in fact) as to the best way of personalising my models, so it is obvious that I folded them.
I toyed with the idea of a Japanese stamp/cartouche/character but realised pretty soon that even I had no idea what the symbols meant. I wanted something small enough to be added to a finished model, that looked like it belongs, that is something about me.
The essence of the idea is that PDub bends paper, so set about designing that, the resultant stamps (I could not decide on which one I liked the best so had both made) are lovely. They are tiny – the resultant impressions measure 12mm x 7mm, will be discrete but there enough I think.
Above is my POINTING FINGER, to give you an idea of scale
Managing ink, getting a good impression etc are all things I look forward to playing with (and look forward to the time when the blue test ink they used goes away) but I think they are terrific. I cannot wait to decide where on my existing models the “PDub seal of approval” will go.
I have, of late, been exploring different papers and decided some nice paper was in order. Needing to get out of the house for a while (unfortunately from the cool aircon to the blistering heatwave), I bussed into the city then walked to an art supplies shop in The Valley called “Oxylades” but am always on the lookout for other local suppliers – sadly there seems little demand for it here so far.
They have an interesting collection of art papers – some beautiful light weight textured papers that would be amazing to work with – most much heavier than 180GSM, most lovely but brittle art papers suitable for painting and drawing on. They have a large collection of hand-made mulberry but it is card stock and would not take folds well.
I headed to their racks of specialist papers and drooled at the Unryu tissues they stock – suck lovely things, fibres visible, thin and strong – decided on a black/grey and a lime green. I also bought a sheet of “natural fibre” paper made from banana and flax – very beautiful and lumpy but should prove interesting.
On arriving home, a parcel from The Origami Shop had been delivered and was baking on our front porch. retreating to the cooler interiors, I broke into the package to discover my VOG (paper made popular by the Vietnamese Origami Group – VOG, you see) paper had arrived.
Huge sheets (folded into quarters for transport) of textured, colourful gloriousness – cannot wait to fold that let me tell you.
I also purchased a couple more “envelopeners” – fantastic little accurate crease splitters – you fold paper then run this little gadget along the crease and the sheet is split precisely on the crease, no more scissors – yay.
Fab day, all be it hot and a long walk, but worth it. I now have a fair selection of specialist papers – you really can tell the difference when working with good paper but I still really like brown Kraft paper also to prototype/practise complex folds on as it is strong, thin and cheap as chips – I wish I could say the same for the papers I acquired today.
A tool in many origamist’s toolbox is a goopy substance called “Methyl Cellulose” (MC) – it is a chemical that is used as a size (keeps paper crisp/stiff), gelling agent (it is the stuff that makes KY Jelly so slimy – no kids, that is NOT a new aeroplane flavour) and there is even a food grade MC used in cooking (although I think only the Japanese truly like the slimy textures it produces).
I have had enormous difficulty finding this stuff – Oxylades (a local art shop) ordered some stuff, turned out to be Ethyl Cellulose which is not PH neutral and will, eventually discolour and degrade, taking whatever is coated with it.
Digging through my cupboards, as you do, I chanced upon a tub of powdered adhesive goop that we used to use to make finger paint for the kids when they were little tackers. A tiny amount dissolved in warm water makes the most delightful goopy gel-like liquid (that we used to add powdered pigment to to make the best finger paint in the world).
Educational Colours “Mix-A-Paste”, it seems, is Methyl Cellulose – we had some in the house for over 20 years and I did not realise – *Face Palm*
Origamists use it to re-stiffen paper, laminate it with other paper (double tissue is something I must now try), pose models and so on and it was not really until the last 2 models I folded that I realised the appearance of the model would be improved if it did NOT splay open – a common problem with very dense folds and domestic (non tissue-foil) papers.
Up until now, I have been creasing, then while the creases were sharp spraying the models with a clear, matt, lacquer – this at least prevents the folds from unfurling due to humidity but does little to tidy many layers and dense seams.
The last time I tried a bird similar – the Great Egret – when I say similar, the legs and neck/head were similar – very dense, lots of wrangling resulting in limp, broken joints and an un-poseable mess in the end. The model was relegated to the bin as it almost entirely failed to stand up or stay together. I suspect I could have “saved” the model with MC.
I will let it dry, see how it turns out – I dislike models that do not look after themselves – ie need assistance to stay together, I steer clear of models that are generally not possible with all but specialist papers – the foil cored tissue foil is something I have yet to use – lots of models work only if the folds you place stay folded.
I had a need, my brain was fried but I had to keep busy sooo…
I was given some lovely Yuzen squares (15cm) and, because the papers well all different, so colourful I decided to try to fold, from memory the Jackstone – unsure if my fat clumsy fingers could manage the fold so tiny.
I managed a dozen of them before the cramps and RSI flared up again. The resultant 6 pointed stars are so lovely, I threaded them on gold thread and gifted them to friends to put on their christmas tree (I do hope they like them).
When my hands settle down I might make some more – mind you it helps to have good paper.
I have been toying with the idea of membership of BOS (British Origami Society) and JOS (Japanese Origami Society) for ages now and then along came “Fathers Day”:
The kids shouted membership so now I guess it gets official.
Membership is important, I just wish I could join an Australian Society but sadly, there is none. Membership brings official magazines (JOAS Taintedan is mostly in Japanese which makes things difficult) and news from like-minded folders which is a good thing.
My next level-up as a folding geek is to attend conventions I guess – one day perhaps
I first noticed this lovely little fold nestled amongst the masterpiece that is Eric Joisel’s Musicians, and decided that i must try to work out how to make it:
Now the “purists” amongst you will recognise this as a “Concertina”, but that is splitting hairs, given a “Bandonéon” is square, this is clearly hexagonal, but I digress.
Presenting a tantalising hand-drawn crease pattern idea on his memorial website, I decided to try and work out a method for this fold.
Unlike the original, my design is based on a 32 x 20 grid, making an extra gather in the bellows section (which is not a bad thing) and a simpler join along the long seam (which, sadly, I still needed to use double-sided tape to close).
The geometry of this model is really nice – the bellows almost fold themselves when the creases are laid in – I experimented with the seam in and thought it looked better with the strappy seams out in the bellows.
fashioning handles at the end happens quite naturally if you have been neat, and folding it without any extra creases is possible if you concentrate, making the presentation fold very tidy indeed.
I have folded many of these, they are lovely and, now I have a handle on the scaling factors and geometry there is a knack to making them that is quite easy to pick up.
On the same hand-drawn crease pattern, there is another that supposedly makes a saxophone – might give that a whirl as I seem to be in a musical instrument frame of mind at the moment. very happy with this one however, and need to move on from it.
April 2, a special day that Jo and I celebrate our Wedding anniversary:
So I thought a schmaltzy, sentimental origami card was in order, so fashioned an origami “valentine” designed by Robert Lang (from “Origami Design Secrets”, a fantastic book). I had not tried this model and wondered how it was possible to sculpt both arrow and heart from the one square of paper – lovely design. I then added a pair of interlocking rings designed by Jeremy Schafer and voila.
Some shiny cardstock, a printed parchment inner with verse and greeting and it is done.
Much to celebrate, some of that celebration will be done overseas. Win Win.
I was determined to test whether my first fold of this nightmarish, but charming, fold was merely a fluke or not, so I set about folding it from a 3×5 cut from an A1 sheet.
The geometry for this model is amazing, and the challenge is to only put in the folds that are necessary to achieve the collapse – an interesting challenge indeed as construction lines, preliminary constructions and fold-flow ons are difficult to control with such large format paper.
I love the result, given this paper was thinner than the original #365 fold, the features and structure are much more considered and I think he has a lot more character in his face and pose.
This is one of my favourite folds from last year, and now I know it was not a fluke, I can fold it with confidence when I need to.
He is now on proud (temporary) display in the Library, with a suitable verse before him.
Well it is official, as many origami auction payments as I think are likely to come in are, well … in.
The grand total:
That is pretty awesome, right?
That meant that today I paid $452 to each of Medicines Sans Frontiers and Red Cross.
Thank you thank you thank you to ALL of you who got involved with the 365 auction and bought my twisted bits of paper – you all helped support causes I think do a lot of good in our world.
All over red rover – time to move on.
Ladies and Gentleffolk, if I may be so bold as to introduce to you Mr Langton Willow III:
…so I bought a lovely book about an Origamist I worship, Eric Joisel, and was scanning pages prior to an in-depth read and came accross what seemed like an impossibility – a dwarf in a box. There were some photos of a couple of versions of the finished model and some sketches of crease patterns that might have been used to make it and nothing else …
So I decided to give it a whirl. The crease patterns gave no clues on what were mountain and valley folds (fairly important if you are going to make the model) so I sort of “guessed” most, and added a bunch of lines that would make the folding easier later, so I thought. I chose a large format paper – 1.2m x 0.6m, and in brown paper – thank goodness as even laying in the creases (a 2.5 hour job) put massive strain on a number of key points.
When it came to the collapse I must admit to being nervous – odd in retrospect but I had pre-announced to the social notwerks that I was attempting it and that was a mistake because psychologically that meant I could not fail in my attempt.
Studying the illustrations carefully, it became clear that when Joisel had his first try, there were odd gusset pleats on the OUTSIDE of the box that the dwarf sits in, I figured with some deft folding I could remove them and tuck that paper inside the box.
I must admit to grinning ear to ear when I worked out how I could do that tidily. This model was a fascinating exercise in not rushing to set a crease. After getting up, making another cup of tea, doing something else, coming back, leaving it a while then returning to it etc. I found a tidy method of tucking away what seemed like acres of paper inside the box to leave … well .. the box.
Conceptually we have split a dwarf – the head/arms and the legs/feet are split apart and the paper for a box is inserted between – the only difficult is ensuring a box-like remnant that lets you also tuck the dwarf-bits inside.
Oddly, the proportions of the dwarf necessitate lanky legs and a gaunt head, but that is in-keeping with the overall feeling of the model. It is like the dwarf is trying to get out of the box – what he was doing in there in the first place is a mystery, but there you go.
I have to admit to being very proud of achieving this model – the result is delightful, there is an astonishing amount of paper tucked away to reveal a lanky dwarf with real character. I have no idea what I will do with this chap – it was originally going to be something I tried for shits and giggles, fully expecting to fail but the grinning has not stopped. I have “cheated” by using a few paper clips to keep the box corners together but I think Joisel would forgive me that.
You _may_ remember I folded a TRex Skeleton a while back, and I am pleased to say he finally has a new home:
As part of a science display, outside a science lab, he is now resplendant, mounted on a dowel with fishing wire (go team), he looks mean and hungry.
The display contains some info about the dino, and some fossils etc and I hope it provides interest for the punters.
So I have this idea for a tableau … “I owe, I owe, so work is where I go…” where we are in an alternative animated future and it is populated by an ALTERNATIVE seven dwarves.
They could be Jumpy, Deafy, Dizzey, Hickey, Wheezy, Baldy, Gabby, Nifty, Sniffy, Swift, Lazy, Puffy, Stuffy, Tubby, Shorty and Burpy – I will CROWDSOURCE the seven best names.
They must NOT be Doc, Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, Happy, Bashful or Grumpy.
Each successful “other” dwarf will be made and suitable attired with a SYMBOL or ARTEFACT that suits them soo….. how can YOU help?
I need YOUR help to decide what are reasonable names for the 7 not so nice, polite nor socially acceptable dwarves – name and characteristics please. The BEST 7 will be made.
Comments to blog please.
Now I must confess that 365 has changed me, made me more creative and allowing me to see the beauty in the everyday.
I decided to look for something that would be a more permanent reminder of the amazing year that was 2011. Continue reading
In wondering what to do with the imagery collected over the past 365 ish days, I took sage advice and spun it into a movie – just over 13 minutes long which nicely displays ALL folds, in order
…enjoy
