paper

explorations of folding media

Visit to Kami Paper – Melbourne

| wonko

In-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.

8OSME – Melbourne, July 2024

| wonko

An unmissable opportunity presented itself where both OSME and Folding Australia conferences were to be hosted in Melbourne, Australia, one following the other. Having never attended an Origami conference (of any flavour) before, I jumped at the chance, but had little idea, really, what was ahead.

Diverse plenary lectures to start the days off

My wife and I got an Air BnB on Collins street for the week. Using the PT> train network, I travelled to and from Swinburne Uni for the international gatherings each day while Jo explored Melbourne Galleries and cafes.

I believed OSME stood for Origami, Science, Mathematics and Engineering – turns out the “E” was for Education, even though in this conference there were 2 Engineering strands … so, ok then. It seems the 8th iteration of this conference reflects origami/folding now so popular as an engineering concept.

A Myriad of parallel papers
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1140: Acorn Box

| wonko

Browsing through the latest JOAS Tanteidan Magazine, as one does, I came across a seemingly simple but delicious little pentagon box in the shape of an acorn designed by Tomoya Kariya:

Exploring the sequence, I figured I could shepherd some of my hand-made paper through it, and reasoned that banana paper would make a beautiful cap, lemongrass and cotton paper would contrast nicely for the kernel.

I turned to my stash and discovered I had some smaller offcuts, so set about making matching 6″ squares of the rough but beautiful paper.

Folding hand-made botanical fiber paper is really hard on the finger tips – the lemongrass paper is actively spikey, but, being strategic and deliberate when manipulating tough fibers that lay on creases, I was able to coax the paper to take shape.

I LOVE the result – the handmade paper is PERFECT for this fold, it enhances the organic shape and makes it feel like a precious relic.

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1137: Crane in a Box

| wonko

Cruising the channels on Origami Dan, I found a CP for a fold challenge I had missed, but decided to give it a whirl anyways:

Designed by Scott Okamura, this seemingly impossible fold featured a traditional Tsuru (crane) folded in the middle of a large page of duo paper – the surrounding paper is then formed into a box.

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1135: Steven Casey’s “Seamless Chessboard”

| wonko

Colour-change models are astonishing to me, designing models that use colour change are something special:

I have folded a number of different models like this, nothing quite like it however – what sets this model apart form any other is that each “tile” on the board is a seamless square.

Folding this from a SINGLE UNCUT square ends up being a bit of a brain-fuck. The paper was blue one side, white the other (actually cheap and nasty 70cm wrapping paper from my local dollar store). Distributing the “colour” is achieved, mostly, by bringing the sheet edges up through pleat bundles using a variety of techniques.

You can see the final location of the 4 corners of the original sheet in this development photo:

Planning/designing of a model like this is beyond me – pre-preparing the colour changes means that every bit of the paper has a job – either visible “tile”, spacer, flipper, mover etc to get the bits of colour to get where they need to go. Fold accuracy is the make or break of such designs – novices who use a “near enough is good enough” approach will not succeed here.

I was asked to test fold this, by Steven Casey, prior to publication. The diagrammed sequence is intense, starting with a 40×40 grid. Most of the folding is working on the wrong side, creating interacting pleat stacks that sit flat but that strategically manipulation pleat order. The run towards the “checkerboard” effect happens around the edges first, they they are migrated further towards the centre (although really only in a 4-unit strip around the periphery.

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Lang’s “Green Tree Frog”

| wonko

Good paper is such a blessing. I took a long-stored square of olive Vietnamese Dó paper and attempted to fold a “Temple Dragon” – got most of the way through and realised the paper was too small/thick to complete it. Rather than bin the model, I carefully unfolded it, ironed it flat and … the paper had a new life:

Folding paper can damage it – wood-fibre-based paper takes damage (I call it paper fatigue) because the folding process can break the fibres along the crease. SOME paper has strong, flexible fibres that bend but mostly do not break, and Dó paper (made from bark of the Rhamnoneuron balansae tree) is astonishingly resilient.

The colour reminded me of something, as a kid, I used to see all the time – green tree frogs. Naturally I returned to Robert Lang’s “Origami Design Secrets” and re-folded his Green Tree Frog – I no longer had in my stored folds a copy of this lovely model so figured it was time.

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1131: The Work of Fynn Jackson

| wonko

A long while ago, a new artist on the scene, Fynn Jackson, started releasing astonishing mask crease patterns on social media.

He later commercially released his designs and I purchased his crease pattern packs for masks 1-35, along with the more recently released noses 1-9.

I love Fynn’s work, and eventually will develop my own CPs of faces. There is so much expression in the score and fold bundle, so decided to expand my collection and try out a bundle of manilla card in the process. I contacted @Jacksonorigami and asked him about selling finished masks – he (to my surprise and delight) freely encourages folders to monetise their rendering of his designs, so long as we do not share the purchased CPs (so please DO NOT ASK) …. so I got to thinking about an upcoming Gallery shoppe associated with my papermaker friends PAQ – put 1 and 1 together and arrived at 6.

I set about folding 6 faces I had not tried before from Fynn’s rich collection of characters, each using different aspect ratios, techniques and all quite wonderful. I was encouraged (by some of the wonderful ladies in PAQ – I am looking at you Ann and Wendy!) to consider selling, and began thinking about displays that would make them work as purchaseables.

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Workshop with Dion Channer

| wonko

A Day With Dion Channer

On Sunday during the weekend the PAQ “All Stitched Up” exhibition opened in Gympie Regional Gallery a fortunate group of paper makers were able to spend the day at Dion Channer’s paper mill. Michelle, Vanessa, Wendy, Sue, Heather, Ann, Joolie, Marjorie and me, Peter were in for a treat with Dion and his partner Sue Purnell. Surrounded by the bush, among music rooms and yurts, pavilions and lakes, Dion’s mill was a large shed with a bespoke collection of gear and infused with the passion of a master papermaker.

Over a morning cup of tea, PAQ members talked with Dion about individual goals and hopes for process assistance, we learned about the available fibres and equipment we would learn to use during the day. Following a tour of his eclectic property, we retired to the mill and began with an orientation.

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1127: Bin Chicken

| wonko

The majestic “Bin Chicken” is, sadly, an aussie icon – those black-headed ibis emerge from the deepest, moistest corners of a ripe dumpster, dripping bin juice.

Yes, I KNOW that an Egret is not an IBIS (the beak is different and the body colouration is different… but… creative license). This is Jeong Jae Il’s “Egret” – a beautifully lifelike rendition of an altogether more polite bird. The diagrams, from “Potential Origami” suggest heavier paper, so I trotted out a lovely 58cm square of duo Yukogami to work this model.

The paper is stark white one side, jet black the other, heavily textured and light cardboard in thicknicty, but I thought I would fold until either it was finished or it failed. The only real struggle was thinning down the legs that end up being about 12-18 layers. In finishing, after dry-shaping, I slid a little white glue inbetween the layers then re-formed on my dry shaped form, compressed and found the paper dried solid – an added bonus was I did not need to add wire, she stood on her own!!

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“Hydrangea Quilt”

| wonko

I _may_ have mentioned I am a member of Papermakers and Artists of Queensland (PAQ). I was approached to contribute to a soon to be mounted gallery exhibition entitled “All Stitched Up”.

I had no intention of contributing because … I don’t stitch, and integral to each work needed to be stitching.

Stitch Artist Fee Garrett-Benson approached me and encouraged me to get involved, suggesting a collaboration. After some to and fro of ideas, a “quilt” made up of separate origami elements stitched together was settled upon.

I love Shuzo Fujimoto’s “Hydrangea”, so decided to echo the Crochet squares my Mum used to make into blankets and fold 12 squares (4×3) to suggest a quilt.

Dear friend Janet brought back many glorious papers from her trip to Japan recently, and I remembered a particularly stunning sheet of gold dry-brushed red Kozo which I figured would be perfect. I managed to cut 12 21cm squares from the sheet with nearly nothing left (which was pleasing) and set about folding hydrangea units.

Tentatively I handed them (and some Kraft maquettes) to Fee, we talked threads. Initially I thought gold thread until Fee showed me some luscious red silk thread that was nearly the same colour as the paper and the decision was easy.

After experimenting with typed of stitch and stitch placement on the Kraft maquettes, Fee decided on lovely loose loops to join the quilt units together.

The result is wonderful. I framed the quilt and the WIP experiments in Perspex sandwich frames (from Ikea) and am quite chuffed with the result.

The production fold and WIP bound for PAQ “All Stitched Up” exhibition, soon to be on display at the Gympie Regional Gallery 22 Feb – 23 Mar 2024.

Lunar

| wonko

Fueled up and having an extra sheet of tissue from the shirts I bought yesterday, I set about being more deliberate in my crumpling.

First up I scrunched the sheet up tightly and randomly, then flattened it – I regret not doing this on the previous square field crumple as it helps refine the end texture I found.

Next, I chose random bits of crockery of different radii, placed them in an aesthetic grouping and then gently eased the paper around the different circumferences (to mark the circles is all). I then removed the china, flipped the sheet and set about HARD creasing the circles.

Next, I gathered all the sharp circle creases together, encouraging the remaining tissue back, away from my gathered edges. I did the same for the smaller circles and brought them together with the large circle edges, then hard crumpled everything (like seriously squished it) back away from the circle edges.

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Square Field Crumple

| wonko

I bought some new shirts yesterday – interleaved inside was some lovely white tissue. I folded it into 3rds, then half to get a square, then half, then half and kept going until I had a small, multi-layered square about 8cm on the side.

Next I crumpled that so the centre of the square was a point. It was tough as there were so many layers. I then opened the last halving, reinforced the valley between, inverted one of the points (as one was up, the other down), and re-crumpled the points.

Repeating this technique, opening a layer, reinforcing the valleys in-between each point, inverting half so they all pointed the same way and re-crumpling, allowing the crumples to become more random as they thinned out.

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1122: Pearl Anniversary

| wonko

30 years ago, the Papermakers & Artists of Queensland (POQ) first formed – in July it was their PEARL anniversary.

As a diverse collective of artists (that allowed me to become a member) we were asked to respond to the notion of “Pearl” to assemble an exhibit of artworks to mark this occasion.

My thoughts, naturally, turned to folding and I was reminded of an organic 3D form I last explored for “The Offering” inspired by the work by legend Paul Jackson.

The idea was simple – using one set of slightly overlapping pleats in one direction, that are then corrugated in the perpendicular direction, you can “tease” dimensionality by “cheating” the overlap with a delicate pull.

Taking a square of trusty Kraft paper, I mocked up a Maquette, pleating and corrugating around a central line, then “MacGyvered” a hinge using simple box-pleating techniques, as I had the notion it should be a “book” of sorts. The hinge mechanism had a natural gutter that allowed me to bind pages securely inside also.

For the production fold, I chose metallicized pearlescent “Terryfoil”, I cut 2x 25cm squares and pleated and corrugated, carefully, then spread the pleats until it achieved the desired curvaceousness.

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1121: Santa/Satan

| wonko

Comes the time of year when we tell little kids that a morbidly obese stranger in a red suit breaks into their house (by coming down a chimney or other entry point if there is no chimney), eats some random snack, feeds a portion of that snack to a reindeer (who has a birthmark on it’s nose) and then leaves presents, regardless of whether you have been an entitled little shit all year, or a saint:

As a parent I was complicit in this lie until my kids (fairly early on) cottoned on to the fact that this whole thing was so very unlikely, and merely a mechanism for justifying a mound of presents under the xmas tree.

I wanted to try out the new paper pack of Satogami I got from Origami-shop and this festive fold seemed like the perfect opportunity given the latest Tanteidan magazine (which contains it’s diagrams) arrived this week also.

Duo Satogami is quite thick. I bought a paper pack of 58cm squares, mixed colours and love the vibrancy of the red/white, and also love the texture of the paper. I _want_ to report that pre-creasing Satogami was easy … but … I really struggled to my the reference folds and to fold accurately because of the thickness and texture. The paper reverses fairly poorly also (meaning I had to correct lots of folds for accuracy as I went to ensure alignment of layers and edges during more complex moves.

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1118: Riccardo Foschi’s “Human Bust”

| wonko

I virtually attended OWM4 (Origami World Marathon 4) recently – one of the classes I attended in the wee hours of the morning was a workshop run by Riccardo Foschi:

Riccardo has a recognisable style and his models are a delight to fold (you will find lots of them in this blog). This stylised human bust has such a serene expression on their face, I knew I wanted to try it.

My fold live in the workshop was ok, but re-visiting it when I had some more time (and better understood the fold) resulted in a nicer overall model.

I had recently purchased some “Shadow Thai” paper from Origami-shop.com and thought it would be a good fit for this model.

I chose a grey/smoke blue sheet (black on the reverse, it is a duo paper) and figured because it is a little thicker that it would help with the statuesque quality of the design.

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