VOG

WALL-E says “Hi”

| wonko

Digging through my stash, I found a large sheet of yellow Crumpled VOG paper. Remembering I had never done a presentation fold of Brian Chan’s “WALL-E”, I knew I had found the right model for the paper:

The original character – a (Disney) Pixar masterpiece is a lovely little character piece with one of the most expressive robots ever on film. The design is intense, eats paper like nothing else but results in features that are instantly recognisably “WALL-E”.

Squaring up the paper, I managed a 60cm square from the sheet, cleaving wisps of 3 sides and a strip off the bottom. The strip was later used to coat some armature wire to keep him in shape – the model has some lovely deep pleats that allow you to hide structural supports to give the model some longevity.

VOG paper is particularly great for super-complex models because it is really tough, takes creases well and the texture persists, even after extensive working.

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521: Robert Lang’s Yellowjacket

| wonko

Flipping through the book “Origami Masters – Bugs – How the Bug Wars Changed the Art Of Origami”, you cannot help but be frightened by this model:521Yellowjacket

Robert Lang, mathematician, engineer and origami design genius in this model pushes the envelope of what is possible with paper on a number of levels. The book gives general hints about a truly terrifying paper manipulation which I think, largely ignores the fact that paper will be used in the fabrication. Continue reading →

Paper

| wonko

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.