You find wisdom and counsel is the most unexpected of places, people can be wise beyond their years and offer you more support and encourage than they realise.
I was asked to fold an owl, simultaneously, for two completely different purposes. (1) A good mate wanted to give an Owl to someone who had helped him out with some well chosen words of wisdom. (2) During the World Origami Days event organised by MiniNeo, I was challenged to fold an Owl by Sebastien Limet. Continue reading
I have been on the lookout for a nice giraffe for a number of reasons, but stumbled across Hideo Komatsu’s in a JOAS Tanteidan:
This was a fun model to fold – it twists and turns and for most of the journey looks NOTHING like a giraffe.
I was leafing through my latest Tanteidan Magazing (Japan Origami Society journal) and came across a layer management exercise by Hideo Komatsu:
Having bought a pack of 2-colour (different colour front and back) paper, some green/brown, I was looking for something to try it out on.
This is slightly complicated, but ends up looking a little like a little snake curling back on itself a couple of times – layer management and colour changes mean the snake and it’s background are fairly distinct.
Hideo has many other models, I like the strong style, heavy abstraction and interesting sheet management evident in his work (having a few in the 365+ collection already) – I must track down more of his work.
You know that feeling when you plan (and see quite clearly in your head) something and then it turns out exactly like you envisaged it? This is one of those moments:
I had a model fail on a large sheet of lithography paper and considered binning the resultant crumpled mess, but remembered an origami technique pioneered by Paul Jackson in 1972 called “crumpling”. You take a piece of paper (I carefully unfolded the model fail) and systematically crumple it, unfold it, re-crumple in a different place and direction, unfold and repeat. The result is a deliciously textured and malleable sheet that can then be formed, when dampened slightly, into lovely organic shapes.
I had this idea of a gnarled tree (modelled on a bonsai I have had since before my 23yo son was born) and so set about fashioning one, twisted and poorly pruned though it is. I then wet it, and bound it with a little twine while it dried.
Atop this lovely tree is the most lovely owl by Hideo Komatsu – I have held off folding this because he is designed to be perched (as in he does not stand on flat surface but rather sits astride some horizontal thing. 1+1=a million. I love this, it is still making me smile and I know the perfect thing for him – sorry, NO auction for this one.
It is so rare that an idea so perfectly matches the expression of that idea but this is one such occasion. I have learnt so much about myself and paper over the course of this year that this model seems fitting as the project winds up.
