Category: Origami

Book Blues

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.

Out on the Tiles

I’ve updated my origami site with some new tessellations. I had been waiting and planned to refold these designs out of good paper and then take new pictures. But there’s a lot going on with origami and me these days, so I figgered as long as I’m updating my site I may as well throw ‘em in there. I’ll be folding lots of new stuff and taking lots of new pictures soon anyway.

Two of these designs date back to last June, when I created them at the OUSA annual convention. They are what I’m calling the Quadrose and Psuedo-Penrose Stars. The Quadrose Star came first. It features a fourfold symmetry that is easer to fold and has fewer cells (24 vs. 40). In fourfold geometry this is an allowable quasicrystal tiling. But it was just a proof of concept for the Penrose, a spiral matrix of parallelograms that features fivefold symmetry. At first I thought it was a ture Penrose tessellation, since it was in 4space, but the joining rules do not conform to the Penrose tiling. I have since folded several true Penrose quasicrystal tilings, but have yet to fold one out of good paper. They are more challenging because several different angles come together at the vertices. Meanwhile the star will have to do.

The third model is a grid of interlocking pentagons and hexagons, which has some really interesting properties if you look at it long enough. I hope to fold all of these out of good paper soon.

In related news, I just ordered a metric shitton of high-end origami paper from France. It’s from Origami shop, Nicolas Terry’s online store. The thing that motivated me was his claim that he bought up the remaining world’s supply of Elephant Hide paper, which is no longer being made and hasn’t been for sale anywhere the last few years.

Paper Dragon

I’ve been researching videos of origami instructions in preparation for my new book, when I came across a funny thing. It used to be that when you googled “origami dragon” the first link was the diagrams for my Classic Dragon:

http://zingman.com/origami/zingoridragon.html

Every so often I’d get an email from someone asking how to do step 8 or so. The diagrams are clear, but it’s a complex move that can be difficult for someone who’s not at an advanced level or is not good a reading diagrams. I hadn’t gotten a question like that in a while, and now I know the reason why: someone video’d the step and put it up on youTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH47QYoKcrs&list=UUXjoCyW74kxPiDU8VCiHjVw&index=6&feature=plcp

The video has over 8,000 hits! I’m amazed, I guess a lot of people must be folding my old Dragon. The guy has a youTube channel in which he has video clips f a number of other steps from other models:

http://www.youtube.com/user/therealchris

I also came across a video for a song called Paper Dragon by a band named Moe. By coincidence I heard them on the radio the same day. This is kind of a big deal for me simply because it’s been a long time since I heard a new band on the radio that I like well enough to want to go and by their record. The group is musically adventurous, which is important to me. They have actual musically creative ideas and can play. They have a vibes player who gives them kind of a Steely-Zappa sound. Plus the subject matter spoke to me. But then I went to try and find their CD, and it looks like they’re a jam band with more live records than studio records, and Paper Dragon is a new song and not on a CD. But then where did the version I heard on the radio come from? Maybe they’re making a CD. Hope so.

Now Are The Foxes

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.

Origami Site Update

I posted an update to my origami site at http://zingman.com/origami. The main page now features larger thumbnails and an update image for the Fox. I added a few new models from 2011 including the Inchworm and the Dual Cube. I still have a bunch more new models to add, including some new tessellations, and while I’m at it take better pics of the Fox, and add the CP for Dual Cube. In the descriptions of the model I’ve added links indicating where diagrams for that model have been published.

Dinosaur Origami

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?

‘Tis The Season

Been doing lots of holiday stuff the last couple weeks. A trip to the museum, two family holiday parties, three kid’s performing arts shows, and four work-related parties, town halls and similar functions. Whew.

I took the kids to the AMNH a couple weeks ago, and we had a great time. Spent a long time with the dinosaurs and the frogs, and in the hall of minerals. The Origami Tree is in the south hall this year, since they’re doing renovations in the lower hall on the Central Park side. My elephants were featured in the “folding the museum” display at the base of the tree, and they saved a number of my models from years past, which are in the tree.

I also folded some models – a dragon and a moose – as ornaments for the tree at the kids’ school.

Yesterday was the big family xmas party for Jeannie’s dad’s side of the family. A good time and great to catch up with all for Long Island cousins. Today was a party for her mom’s side. Had to skip that one to get some things done.

Our kids a in this after school theatre program, in which they do singing and dancing and acting. They had two different shows last week, one for the younger kids and one for the bigger ones, and it’s pretty impressive the level of the performance. Later this week there’s some kind of holiday play. Lizzy is an angel and gets to say some lines.

There’s been a lot of end-of year holiday parties, for my immediate team, for the platform group, and for the whole company. Our corporate parties tend to be rather boozy affairs, but I survived alright. I’ve been there long enough that I have friends in all different divisions, so it was good to catch up. Then there was a town hall in which our corporate overlords are telling us out of one side of their mouth how the company had a great year and made tons of money, and out of the other how internet piracy is destroying our business and killing innocent people and must be stopped. Umm, yeah.

All this has been great fun, but it’s really hard to get stuff done. Looking forward to taking a few days off this week and getting caught up.

Back in the New York Groove

I was sick with a cold Thanksgiving week, and it took me a while to recover. My energy was really low the last couple of weeks and I mainly worked from home and even (gasp!) took a couple of sick days. But the last few days I’ve been feeling better and I’m back at work. It’s good to have my strength and energy back. Been catching up on a few things.

I finished the diagrams for origami Inchworm. Now it’s on the my new Butterfly II and my Rocketship. Hoping to re-establish a groove with that.

My neighbor lent me a stack of Bob Dylan albums a while back. Believe it or not it takes me a long time to listen to music, because the first time I hear it, I want to listen to the record the whole way thru with no distractions. It’s harder to find the time than you might think. I did manage to get thru a few when I was sick, and only have one to go now, but it’s a double live album. Listening to it now.

I finally got together with Blick to jam over the weekend. It’s sounding really good and fun as always. I love that he’s really focused on working out vocal harmonies and making them sound good. I think my singing is better after the Cabaret show; all that horn playing got my breath support back in shape. I want is to get together with the Cabaret rhythm section soon, but it’s the scheduling question makes it hard. And I think it’s about time to start looking for gigs.

My only issue is that I want to spend more time on originals, because they take longer to develop. But this is partly my fault. Every time we get together we spend the first part of the session just jamming songs that one or both of us know, rather than working on getting our originals tight. And I keep calling tunes. This time we tried to figure out a good Zeppelin and Floyd song to do. It’s harder to pick one than you might think, since both groups have lots of long songs with many complicated parts that may not come across stripped down. Ah well.

Origami Break

Things are okay with me these days. Busy as usual of course, but having a lot of fun too. The weather has been beautiful, up into the 60’s most every day. Drove my Mustang Saturday.

The main thing is I’ve been preparing for this cabaret show. Learned 40 songs in the last few weeks. Most of them on sax but a few on keyboards, adding orchestra, accordion, organ, etc. to compliment the piano. Finally last week they started having full rehearsals with the band, and I was able to see how what I’d prepared works in context. And, as predicted, there are lot of changes, but I think it’s getting there. One of the high points of the set is Scenes From an Italian Restaurant from Moving Out. Great sax part. Now it’s a matter of making the thing tight, but overall the music is coming together.

So if you’re into this kinda thing, come on down, November 18 – 20 at ICS for the Broadway Then and Now cabaret show. Meanwhile, we have rehearsal every night this week. I told my boss this morning I need to leave a 5 sharp each day this week and I’m taking Friday off, and she was cool with all of it.

In other news, I’ve had an intense origami focus the last few days. I finally finished updating the diagrams for my Dragon a few weeks back, and went on to diagramming my Inchworm, a new model. Then John Montroll came into town for a visit, and we hung out Friday night, going out to dinner and staying up late talking origami. He showed me a bunch of new models form his forthcoming book, Origami Math. John is working at such an advanced level these days, it always gives me alot to think about afterwards. His newer stuff is maybe not as hard to fold, but the underlying designs tend to be deeper. John is famous for his animals, although of late he’s been immersed in more geometric subjects. I’m encouraging him to do a book of Modern Animals, revisiting some of his favorite subjects with his current approach.

Sunday was my day to volunteer to teach origami at the AMNH. It went really well. I taught my inchworm and butterfly, and a new butterfly too. All my models were successful for my students. I’m trying to finish my Butterfly II, because it’s so much nicer to fold than my old butterfly. It works great from a rectangle, but if you fold it from a square you get an extra flap of paper that you can use to make legs.

The girls came with me and folded some wreathes. After the session, we found the secret way from the cafeteria to the whale room. We spent a couple hours in the museum, hitting the highlights, and then went for a nice walk thru central park.

I feel like I’ve been doing tons of driving recently, just scooting around town, and into the city and back. Dropped of Lizzy at some bizarre protopostapocolyptic mall in Yonkers for a Birthday party the other day. Blech.

Livin’ on Spongecake

Yeah I’ve remained lazy about updating my blog. But I’ve been on vacation, enjoying time in the real world away from the screen. And then yesterday was the first day of school for the kids. How quickly the vibe changes from relaxing to demanding. So here’s a LIFO recap for all y’all.

The good news is the kids think the new school is great. Jeannie for some reason has was really uptight and upset about the whole thing.

And of course the return of the usual pressure from work. Put up a new release of or app today. Completed lots of refactoring to smooth the road forward. The boss always wants me to get more done in less time while making my code look more deeply thought out despite the time pressure.

Before that, on the weekend between our vacation and the return to the world of working for the man, I finally organized my studio and cleaned up the garage, so those jobs got crossed off my summer todo list before the start of fall. I took apart my old lawnmower and put the engine in storage, added to the collection of future robot parts.

Before that we got back from a road trip to Washington DC and Ocean City. It was a great time. In DC we visited John Montroll and he and I had some good origami time. He has some great new models, and I showed him my work-in-progress book, which he wants to help me get published. I’m up to sixteen models diagrammed and formatted for the print page.

We also went to a few of the Smithsonians. The museum of American History, where we saw Eddie Van Halen’s (heavily modified Strat) guitar, Bill Clinton’s (completely unmodified, not even a rubber band to stand in for a bad spring, Conn) saxophone, and Farrah Fawcett’s (I have no idea) orange swimsuit and Catwoman’s original Catwoman costume, among other attractions.

The National Museum of Natural History is much smaller than the NYC counterpart, but the exhibits are more focused and less run-down. Better lighting and signage mainly; the taxidermy and rocks are pretty much the same. There’s a major Hall of Skeletons that goes on and on, going from every order of mammals thru birds and down to reptiles. Plus all the usual taxodermy and minerals, and a bit of outer space, and a focus on Elephants. Couldn’t do the mall without visiting the Air and Space museum, with Wright and Curtis fliers, and spaceships that have been to the moon and back. At this point it feels like America’s former glory. Saw an awesome newsreel of Teddy Roosevelt flying a Wright Bros. plane

Also toured the Capital. It’s changed alot since we were kids and you could circumnavigate the place running up and down all the steps. Now all the step are guarded like Grand Central Station by Homeland Security cops with dour faces and machine guns. To take the tour you have to go in thru this new underground compound on the East side, and then after a movie you’re shuttled up thru some escalators to the Rotunda. The tour guide was friendly and knowledgeable, and there was alot to learn about the paintings and friezes in the rotunda. The painting of Balboa was unrealistic, since he was supposed to be 24 years old but had a beard like a 12th level Dwarven warrior.

We also saw the Canadian Embassy. We took the train in to DC to avoid parking hassles. When I visited D.C. as a kid my Dad parked at the Capital in the space reserved for our NY representative, uh, claiming he was representing New York. Well that’s no longer possible without suffering severe tire damage or worse.

The last three day of the trip were spent on the beach and in the hot tub and in the water park and at Asseteague National Seashore. The waves were pretty intense, which made for good body surfing and boogie boarding, but it took alot of energy just to get out past the breakers. You got pretty beat up or at least thrown around every time, so you could only stay in the ocean an hour or so. The rest of that stint was total relaxation, boardwalk, and yummy seafood dinners. Scallops and crabs. This has gotten to be a habit with us. 5th year in a row I think for Labor day. Just so awesome. The days go by too fast. You should consider joining us one year.

Before that, rewinding a week and a half now, was the hurricane. Lots and lots of wind and rain. Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel was broadcasting from NYC, which was enough to fill us with dread. Luckily in the end we were unharmed, although we lit out for our vacation a day and half late because we needed to ride the storm out and then clean up the yard and clear the street. We had been planning on going to colonial Williamsburg and Busch gardens, but ended up punting on all that b/c in VA they lost power and didn’t know when it would come back on.

The main storm was Saturday night, and I stayed up late listening to the wind howl, but we all went to bed not knowing the end of the story. Sunday morning it was pretty calm and we went for a walk down to the creek, which had overflowed its banks and flooded the adjacent street. Sunday afternoon we got heavy wind from the backside of the hurricane. It downed a tree across the street from us, the last of a stand that have fallen in storms the last five years or so. Luckily for us it fell away from our house. Unluckily for our neighbors across the street, it took out their power line and they didn’t get it back for five days.

In other news, Lou came home from the hospital the Friday before the storm. He’s basically okay and glad to be home, but there’s some major lifestyle adjustments, particularly around diet. He has to eat soft foods for a while, and ease his way back into normal food. Heaven knows when he’ll be able to have a drink. When the storm hit, their whole neighborhood lost power, but their house didn’t flood. Denis and Sylvia took KVAP for a few days and brought over ice and food daily, so Lou could get some rest and Mary could deal with the emergency. The power came back on sometime when we were away, and things are more-or-less back to normal now. KVAP started school today and Lou is home convalescing for a few more weeks at least. Luckily (for 21st century America) his health insurance covered everything and he can take as long as he needs to get back to work and his job will be there for him. Still the situation sounds pretty rough.

In other other news, my friend Olga from work had her house pretty much destroyed by the hurricane. She lives in central New Jersey, on a bit of county-ish land by a creek, kinda like Martin’s old place. A few years ago the dam upstream failed, and she has been involved in a lawsuit against her town, which declined to rebuild it. This last storm her whole house flooded on the lower floor, plus her cars were destroyed, and she was stranded in the top floor of her house for most of a week without power, until the flood receded. Bad situation. Not sure if her kids made it to the first day of school. Not clear when she’ll be back to work; she was out the whole week. So I’m basically picking up her work for now on top of my own.

Ah well such is life.