KARABOUTS

Folded Paper

I'm writing crochet patterns at the moment and that doesn't lend itself to blogging, so I thought I'd blog about a folded paper project I made for the new apartment.  This project is a replica of something I saw in one of my favorite out-of-print books, Paper Pleasures.  An artist named David Lewis did the folding sequence.  I've searched for Mr. Lewis on the Internet but can't find him.  There were no directions about how to fold his piece but with some trial and error I figured it out.  Mr. Lewis' work was 4 panels and big enough to hang on a gallery wall.  I decided to make my version three panels and small enough to fit in an Ikea frame.

I started with three squares of 6" origami paper.  I folded the first one like this.

It's not as difficult as you might imagine.  Start by folding your paper into sixteenths in both directions.  Then make 7 folds on 45% angles.  I drew a diagram for you.

Once you've got your pre-creases done, fold up your paper like so (solid lines are valley folds, dotted lines are mountain folds).

If you thought that was hard, don't worry. The next step is easy. Pick up the second sheet of origami paper and crunch it into a ball. 

Then use both of the skills you've just learned, folding and crunching, and make the third square of origami paper half crunched and half folded.

Smooth out the crunched up paper areas and you'll have a progression that looks something like this. Pretty cool Mr. Lewis!!!

Mr. Lewis could have stopped there but he didn't.  He took an airbrush and gave his paper a gradient color from light to dark.  I don't have an airbrush so I used a Rembrandt soft pastel instead.

Starting at the lower right corner of your paper, color like crazy with your soft pastel.

Use a tissue to gradually spread the color to the opposite corner.  Work it around a bit until you get a nice gradation from light to dark.  Workable fixative will help with this process.  I stopped and sprayed my pieces a couple of times while coloring, and then again at the end to keep the color on the paper.

 

Now get your Erikslund frame from Ikea (I painted mine white a few years ago).

And add your works of art!!!

 

Thanks Mr. Lewis. 

Thinking About Origami Today

Today is the anniversary of both the birth and the death of Akira Yoshizawa.  

Yoshizawa is credited with raising origami from a craft to an art form.  He created more than 50,000 models and wrote 18 books.  He also pioneered many techniques like wet folding. Last summer I learned more about Yoshizawa when I did some wet folding at the Origami USA annual conference held in NYC.  

This is the wet-folded luna moth I made in one of my classes. 

We followed a pattern by Michael LaFosse and we got to use LaFosse's handmade Origamido paper - what a treat!

During the conference I also made a cactus and a mouse.

The "Cactus in a Pot" by David Petty was a very clever design folded out of one sheet of silver paper. We laminated green tissue paper to the "cactus" area before folding.

The mouse is by Masashi Tanaka.  If you want to make a mouse of your own, the directions are here.

I thought my origami skills were looking great until I went to the exhibition space where some real masters had works on display.  

I was wowed by these amazing insects and spiders by the great Robert J. Lang.

I was impressed with this beautiful grasshopper by Brian Chan (see Brian folding the grasshopper here).

 

And I fell in love with the work of Beth Johnson.  Beth's models have a sculptural element that is so appealing. It was like nothing else at the exhibition.  You can see more of Beth's work here.

 

Thank you Akira Yoshizawa for your amazing contribution to this wonderful art form we call origami.

Year of the Rabbit

This is the Chinese year of the rabbit. Or more accurately the year of the hare, since China has seven native species of hares, but no native species of rabbit (Wikipedia told me this!).  A rabbit year is a placid year, very much welcomed and needed after the ferocious year of the tiger.  In honor of the year of the rabbit, Origami USA offered a class on how to fold John Montroll's origami rabbit during their March fun folding session.  I made a rabbit in class, then came home and folded up a few more to send to my nieces and nephew.  If you want to make a rabbit to celebrate the new year you can find the pattern in Montroll's book Mythological Creatures and the Chinese Zodiac in Origami available on Amazon.com.

I had such a good time at the fun folding session that I decided to join Origami USA.  Because I'm now a member I get their magazine, The Paper.  The Autumn issue of The Paper had a pattern for this Northern Cardinal by Roman Diaz.

Roman Diaz's designs are ingenious and elegant and since every crease has a purpose, they are fun and satisfying to fold.  You can find more of Diaz's interesting work here.  I've ordered his book so expect to see more Diaz models showing up on this blog.

I'm looking forward to the big Origami USA convention the end of June.  It will be held at F.I.T. here in New York City.

Origami

While recovering from pneumonia I've been doing some origami.  When I was a kid I did a lot of origami. My parents weren't the types of people who spent money on toys or games for me and my siblings so we had to learn to have fun with what we had around the house.  What we had around the house was PAPER - lots and lots of paper.  My dad would bring home stacks and stacks of paper from his job at the university.  It was waste paper so it had printing on one side but we didn't care.  We used it for drawing and painting.  We cut it into shapes and we folded it into origami.  For instructions we used an old origami book called "Origami Animals and Fishes" that must have come from a garage sale.

Over the years I've continued to fold origami now and then - a paper crane here, a folded box there, but never anything too complicated.  

I've also tried my hand at folding dollar bills into various origami creations. These days a guy named Won Park is designing some wonderful dollar bill origami.  I fell in love with his dollar bill koi and had to give it a try.  Won's koi is rated "complex" and the folding diagram has 60 steps!!!!!  Luckily, Won provides 8 sections of online video instruction for making his koi.  Without the video help, I would have never been able to complete the folding.  Here is my origami koi.  It's much less wonderful than Won's koi, but pretty good for my first try, especially since I was on heavy painkillers while folding.

 
 

  

I've Been Sick

About a month ago I went to the ER with what I thought was appendicitis.  Turned out not to be my appendix but a nasty abdominal infection.  Antibiotics cleared up the infection, but while I was in the hospital I got pneumonia.  The pneumonia cleared up but not without leaving behind a "loculated empyema" in my right Iung that has to be removed surgically.  What can I say - it's been a tough couple of weeks.

There were quite a few people who brightened up my life during this dismal period.  First is my wonderful client Bernie who flew from Kansas City to NY to surprise me in the hospital.  What a guy!!!  He brought me some great Andy Warhol-themed gifts including Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup refrigerator magnets (so clever).  Thanks Bernie!

Next, my family went out of their way to make me feel better.  My parents, my brother and his wife, and my sister called or e-mailed every few days.  My nieces got busy and drew me some beautiful get well pictures.

And my wonderful mom knitted me this AMAZING wrap to keep me warm while I recover.  (For those of you who knit, the pattern Mom used is the Hemlock Ring Blanket by Jared Flood.)  

 

 

And then there is my FANTASTIC husband Mike, who shuttled me back and forth to far too many doctor's appointments, kept my spirits up, and took care of all of the shopping, cooking, cleaning and everything else that had to be done in life.  He also arranged for a beautiful bouquet of 50 lilies to show up one day when I was feeling particularly down.  I couldn't ask for a better husband!!!!!  

And I don't want to forget my many wonderful friends who kept in touch and kept me smiling in spite of my illness.  You're the best.

Thanks everyone.  Hopefully after this surgery next month I'll have a full recovery and get back to working on this guy.  He's going to be a New England fisherman - but still needs buttons for his rain coat, a beard, pipe, lobster, and assorted details.