To continue the origami how-to video fun, here’s a new one from my partner Ioana Stoian showing how to fold a cute origami cat designed by Roberto Gretter and Ioana during the Polish origami convention earlier this year. What a fun little cat! And it’s based on 60 degree angles, which for geometers like me is particularly satisfying…
I saw this fantastic little 4:30 minute documentary on Bobby Jaber, a retired chemistry teacher who has spent the last 20 years working with porcelain to represent geometric shapes and solids. It’s beautiful artwork and well worth seeing. It reminds me a lot of Shuzo Fujimoto, a Japanese chemistry teacher who decided to fold paper to help represent chemical structures for his students; he was one of the first origami tessellation masters, and his explorations became the basis for most of what exists in the origami tessellation world these days. I don’t know what it is about retired chemistry teachers, but they sure seem to have a gift, don’t they? PORCELAINIA from Dave Altizer on Vimeo.
Here’s another instructional video, covering the simplest of the Vincent Floderer-style crumpling techniques. If you’re unaware of this style of folding, it was brought to the awareness of the global origami community via Paul Jackson, a British origamist and designer. Vincent Floderer learned this technique and really developed it to new heights, and has been focusing primarily on it for more than two decades now! I highly recommend checking out his website to see some of the amazing examples of his work. Give this model a try and let me know how it turns out for you! Eric
Here’s a short video I knocked together on how to fold a hyperbolic paraboloid, which is a folding exercise from the Bauhaus school (notably from Josef Albers). I learned about this model ages ago, but the great research work of Erik and Marty Demaine clued me in to the real history behind this piece, as well as numerous other tessellated & geometrical folding patterns! This folding method I demonstrate is a fast way of doing it, and the method I use when teaching classes as it saves a massive amount of time. I highly recommend giving this model a try!
Sara Adams, prolific origami video creator and teacher, is running an origami giveaway – deadline July 13th. The prize: a free copy of our new book, Origami for All! Sara has been a big supporter of our new book and we’re very grateful for her kind words and enthusiasm. Please check out her contest and join in, the prize is fantastic 🙂
