Category: Origami

This week it’s been really hot, in the upper 90’s. Yesterday we had a barbecue with family and friends, which was great fun, but by the end I was pretty beat from the heat. Today I’m sitting in the A.C., hoping the temperature will get below 90 before it gets dark, so I can at least go out and skate. Any kind of outdoor work is right out.

Last weekend was the Origami USA convention. This year was an especially good time. I had six new models in my exhibit this year, and feel like my work is getting to a level where it’s among the best out there. I finally perfected my Five Banded Armadillo and my American Turkey, and folded one of each out of a 19” square of Marble Wyndstone paper, which now available in States again. They came out awesome. The only problem with the Turkey is that it’s a color-change model and Wyndstone is the same on both sides. So I’m going to fold another, and am thinking of ways do the color either by painting the paper on one side or laminating a layer of tissue.

I also folded a Fox from a 12” sheet of scrapbook paper, which worked pretty nicely. Also I had three new tessellations: a Penrose Tessellation, a Penflower Tessellation, and a Pent-Pent Fractal. The Pent-Pent is not a true tessellation because it won’t tile the plane without distortion. It would however, tile a quasi-spherical surface and make an interesting 60-sided polyhedron composed of all pentagons. Ah well, put that in the future file. I rounded out the exhibit with some of my best models from previous years. Got a lot of good comments, and lots of people asking me to teach my models.

I taught two classes, one of intermediate animals and one of complex animals. Each was five recently diagrammed models for the book that I wanted people to test fold. It went quite well. The models are very foldable and I got great feedback as far as minor typos and drawing mistakes, and a couple fold sequences that need clarification.

I bought a lot of new origami paper this year, because I’m looking to re-fold every model for my book to take photographs. This year the Source was selling Wyndstone in 50 x 70 cm sheets so I bought a lot of that in different colors, plus a few large sheets of semi-sparkly paper, one of which will be used to fold my Zeppelin. I’ve decided I’m thru with thin paper. It totally doesn’t work with my design style. I tried to fold my Armadillo of some Origamido-style paper, and it wouldn’t hold together.

Of course seeing people is the most fun part of the convention. Many of my usual friends were there. Lots of good eating out and hanging out folding and talking. John M. is in the middle of several new books including one of Stars, one of simple dinosaurs, and one of (intermediate to complex) mammals, and one of horses. Each set of models is excellent and fascinating in its own way. The dinosaurs in particular show a high level of refinement, well beyond your typical beginner fare.

There seems to be a lot of interest in publishing this year. I met my publisher Jon face to face after months of exchanging emails. He seems like a very nice guy, and I have a good feeling about doing the book with him, which is important. He gets origami as an art form, and knows a lot more about books and book publishing than I do. On Monday I was invited to participate on a panel about publishing. Other panelist included John Montroll, Robert Lang, and Yamaguchi, so I was flattered to be in such esteemed company. It was an interesting panel too.

So all in all a great convention. You can see my photo gallery of the exhibit here.

Today I taught an Origami Special Session at the museum. I actually taught two, a morning session and an afternoon one. The subject was animals, and it was all new diagrams from my book-in-progress that needed test folding. The list included my Moose, U.F.O., Inchworm, Fox, Walrus, Elephant Seal, and Frog. In the morning it was supposed to be intermediate models and in the afternoon complex, but I let everyone fold whatever they wanted. In the morning class there was a very sweet and bright girl named Elliot, about eight or nine years old, who went straight for the Dragon (100 steps!) and did a great job.

The others in my morning class were at a more intermediate level, and were challenged to fold the Fox and Walrus. They didn’t always read the diagrams and didn’t know (for example) what a Stretched Bird Base is. Still, I want the book to appeal to folders at this level (there are a lot more of them), and hopefully help bring them up to a higher level of folding. After all I learned to fold by working my way thru books. So I’m looking to see where I might need to make things clearer, or redraw a single step as several steps. I’m also thinking of adding a section at the end of the book for explaining some of the more complex combo folds that recur in my models. Things like slide-squash, sink-squash, and double reverse folds. Maybe even a quick tour of the classic bases. I suppose I could also do a bit on 30 degree geometry, and a section on sculpting and finishing a model. Or I could work these in to the intros to the various chapters.

At lunchtime a went for a walk around the neighborhood and thru Central Park. It was the first really nice day we had in a while, so the park was crowded. The museum too. The whole city had an atmosphere of everyone coming out to enjoy the springtime.

After lunch was the complex section, and again I let anyone fold anything. It was much fuller and half the class were kids. Elliot returned, and several boys turned up. One of them folded the Dragon in less then an hour, and out of ten inch paper, with all the claws. This group folded the Moose, Frog and other complex models quite handily, which made me feel better about the level of the models. I brought along a model of my Armadillo, even though the diagrams aren’t complete. They were all so admiring of it that I ended up teaching it to the group in the last part of the session. It was a big hit. All in all a great teaching session and I got lots of good feedback on my new models and diagrams.

Oh, and only an hour or so after my last post complaining about my slow progress dealing with my publisher, I heard back from him and cleared up more than half of the outstanding issues with the contract.

As you may already know, I’ve been working on my origami book. I’ve made a lot of progress in the last few months, largely because I’ve had interest from a publisher. Now we’re in contract negotiations, and it’s been going back and forth. There’s a bunch of points, none of them huge but all need to be worked out. It’s a bit frustrating because in general they’re slow to respond, so I’m just kinda waiting to hear back. I’d like to get it all squared away because once we have a deal, the first thing I want to do is go out and buy a nice camera so I can do the photography.

Meanwhile I’ve been doing lots of diagramming, since that’s the major part of the work. Since the new year I’ve diagrammed my Inchworm, Fox, Walrus, Elephant Seal, Frog, and I’m more than halfway thru my Narwhal and Armadillo. I’ve finally perfected the Armadillo. The key detail was the head, particularly the ears. I have only a few models left after that, but one is my Turkey, which maybe my most complex model. I’m teaching this coming weekend so I can test all the new diagrams. I hope to be done the rest by the end of June so I can bring them to the convention.

I finally perfected my origami fox. People seem to like this model, and I’ve had requests to put it in books and magazines, but I’ve never been fully satisfied with it. It was one of my earliest successful models and quite good for what I was capable of at the time. Naturally it’s a old design style, based on a stretched bird base. I still like the big puffy color change ears and tail. But the proportions were crude.

I had been thinking of doing a complete redesign, but thought I’d give this one more try before letting it go completely. I made one small change to the folding sequence fairly early on, and this just made everything work. I made the head larger and ears smaller, the back longer and the legs shorter. The overall aspect is much more fox-like. I also changed a lot of the sculpting and finish details. My change to the base removed a thick bunch of layers from the middle of the model, and this let me push in the fox’s back as part of the sculpting, giving it a nice curve. Now I’m really pretty happy with the model, and will be diagramming it for using a book and exhibiting it.