Category: Origami

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.

I’ve been talking to publishers recently about getting my origami book published, and as part of the process I bought a bunch of origami books to see what kind of books are out there from different publishing houses. I don’t usually fold models out of books too much anymore, but I can still get a lot out of reading the diagrams. But in this case I was looking more at the books’ design, layout, photography, and that sort of thing. I also got a few Montroll books that are new and updated versions of his out-of-print classics Origami Sea Life and Prehistoric Origami. The Sea Life book (with Robert Lang) has been split into two new books, Origami Under the Sea and Sea Creatures in Origami. Prehistoric Origami has been replaced by Dinosaur Origami. I have the original of all the these books, but it’s interesting to compare the new versions and see the new models. Some are the same subjects (e.g. Tyranosarus Rex) with a new and updated design approach. Others are all-new subjects. And many favorite models from the orginals made it into the new.

Michelle’s new favorite show is now Dinosaur Train, ever since our trip upstate over Christmas holiday, when she watched the show with her cousin Charlie. Although the colors are too bright and premise is absurd, the show is educational in its own way, and Michelle is now learning about all different kinds of dinosaurs and using the word “hypothesis” alot. So when she saw my new Dinosaur origami book she got really excited, and wanted to know if it contained a Pteranodon. Shaw’nuff it did, and it was one of John’s great classic models, made in a style that was very advanced for the day, but feels quite natural to me now, even as it’s full of clever tricks. So I taught Michelle how to fold it. It’s a complex model, and although she never folded anything that advance before I thought she might be ready. We took it slow and I broke down all the compound steps for her. She did great! When she was done she said, “Daddy I fell like I’m a better folder now that I was before I started this.” Can you tell which one is hers and which one is mine?