ORIGAMI LET THE NEW YEAR UNFOLD!

(re-post)

It seems fitting that on this first day of the year I had the time to sit down with an origami book that I came across while Christmas shopping and bought-for-self. I have a number of origami books but this one seemed to offer something extra; for one thing a picture, if not description, of wet folding - in this case a mask.

My fingers are tingling with the expectation of taking some brown paper-baggy type of paper, dampening it, and then 'sculpting'. It will be interesting to see if the actuality 'feels' like the vision. For another there was a folded nun that looked particularly appealing. And she is! I used black paper, white on reverse, and the result is standing delightfully on the table in a prayerful but rather perky attitude.

It was a very simple series of folds, required some tweaking (this book does not have the detailed instructions of many of the origami books which is a bit frustrating but also gladly liberating as it requires and encourages one's own creativity), and the finished figure has that elegance of simplicity.

Another thing this book does is alert me to the fairly recent expansion of Origami with people taking it in new directions. Wow. Softer folds. Wet folding. In-air manipulation (as opposed to on table). Modular forms using multi pieces. Working models. Whew.

Origami has been a recurrent activity across many years and it looks like it has surfaced again.

At times, when the kids were young, we would go through periods when the origami books and paper would suddenly appear on the pine box that served as a coffee table back then and over days and weeks folding would occur and the finished products would appear here and there around the house.

Sometimes it was a solitary endeavour and sometimes a person would attract someone else who would sit down and fold and then perhaps another and the family would be together folding.

Complicated figures might take a few sessions to finish and help was welcomed, but not without permission; in short, you could leave your project and know it would not be tampered with.

A dragon, many water bombs, foot-high elephants, crane earrings folded from a square inch of paper, a dancing couple (folded from a single sheet of paper!), owls, boxes, decorations - oh! I have many memories of the exquisite magic that can occur when a sheet of paper and fingers interact.

Posted on January 01, 2005 at 11:00 AM | Permalink

It seems fitting that on this first day of the year I had the time to sit down with an origami book that I came across while Christmas shopping and bought-for-self. I have a number of origami books but this one seemed to offer something extra; for one thing a picture, if not description, of wet folding - in this case a mask.

My fingers are tingling with the expectation of taking some brown paper-baggy type of paper, dampening it, and then 'sculpting'. It will be interesting to see if the actuality 'feels' like the vision. For another there was a folded nun that looked particularly appealing. And she is! I used black paper, white on reverse, and the result is standing delightfully on the table in a prayerful but rather perky attitude.

It was a very simple series of folds, required some tweaking (this book does not have the detailed instructions of many of the origami books which is a bit frustrating but also gladly liberating as it requires and encourages one's own creativity), and the finished figure has that elegance of simplicity.

Another thing this book does is alert me to the fairly recent expansion of Origami with people taking it in new directions. Wow. Softer folds. Wet folding. In-air manipulation (as opposed to on table). Modular forms using multi pieces. Working models. Whew.

Origami has been a recurrent activity across many years and it looks like it has surfaced again.

At times, when the kids were young, we would go through periods when the origami books and paper would suddenly appear on the pine box that served as a coffee table back then and over days and weeks folding would occur and the finished products would appear here and there around the house.

Sometimes it was a solitary endeavour and sometimes a person would attract someone else who would sit down and fold and then perhaps another and the family would be together folding.

Complicated figures might take a few sessions to finish and help was welcomed, but not without permission; in short, you could leave your project and know it would not be tampered with.

A dragon, many water bombs, foot-high elephants, crane earrings folded from a square inch of paper, a dancing couple (folded from a single sheet of paper!), owls, boxes, decorations - oh! I have many memories of the exquisite magic that can occur when a sheet of paper and fingers interact.