February 20th, 2007 — Notes
Recently I’ve been playing around with Squidoo to create a beginner’s introduction to modular origami. Their pages are called ‘lenses’, and here’s the one I’ve been working on:
Modular Origami - So what is modular origami then?
Let me know if you find it interesting or useful, or if there’s more information you’d like to see!
November 27th, 2006 — Notes
The Japanese wrapping cloth known as the furoshiki is said to have been first used in the Muromachi Period(1392-1573), when people spread it out in place of a bath mat or wrapped one’s clothes with it. 1
Here’s a great idea for giving gifts this Christmas (or at any other time!) - wrap them in a traditional Japanese cloth. As a rough guess at the size, I’d say the one in the pictures is about 2 1/2 feet or 70cm square, you can buy them at various places on the web, but you could also buy some nicely patterned cloth and make your own.
If you want to see the Japanese style cloths, even though it’s not in English, this page has some really nice pictures.
The Japanese governernment has reintroduced use of this interesting item as part of an environmental drive - they even recommend several folding patterns PDF.
More information:
November 19th, 2006 — Notes
Just posted over at the always-great Paper Forest, here’s a list of Paper Mechanics Resources.
I have been asked for some good resources on making your own paper automata, so I thought I’d post the books I know of that are out on the market. These are resources for strictly mechanical toys, and not pop-up books, origami books, or origami Architecture. There are plenty of pop-up instructional books out, many of which are very good, but it becomes harder to find books on automata.
Of the books listed, the only one I’ve seen before is Up-pops: Paper Engineering with Elastic Bands - I haven’t bought it yet, but having had a browse in the shops, it’s definitely worth reading. Looks like I’ll have to check out the rest too.
July 3rd, 2006 — Papercraft
Here’s a cool recreation of the first stage from Sonic The Hedgehog for the Megadrive/Genesis. It’s hardly the most challenging papercraft around, but it is very very cute.
It’s been released by Sega Japan to celebrate Sonic’s 15th anniversary, however even though all the instructions are in Japanese, you should have no problems with this model. Via Kotaku,
Download the Sonic Papercraft Model
EDIT : Updated the link
May 29th, 2006 — Origami
So you want to give origami a go, but you can’t get hold of any origami paper? No problem! Just follow this simple guide and you’ll be able to make your own square origami paper from any regular sheets you have lying about.
February 7th, 2006 — Notes
Eric over at Origami Tessellations pointed me towards this cool shirt folding machine, made from a few pieces of cardboard
It’s deceptively simple, even though it looks very flashy - much like the classic Japanese method How to Fold a Shirt.
The first few times I watched that, I kept feeling like I’d missed part of the video out - it starts with a flat shirt, and then all of a sudden, it’s folded. Watch it a couple of times and you get the hang of it though.
If there’s any point to all this, it’s that you shouldn’t limit yourself to just using paper for origami and papercraft. Embrace all the different materials out there - paper, foil, cellophane, textiles and more can all be used, and give very different results.
January 18th, 2006 — Notes, Origami
I haven’t had a huge amount of time to post to the blog recently, but I wanted to let all of you know that soon I will be kicking off a new series of posts aimed at newcomers to Origami.
The first instalment will start with an overview of the origami folds and how they are shown in diagrams, and the second part will move on to the bird base, and how you get from that to an origami bird.
After that, who knows? There’s a lot more to cover - if there’s anything you’d especially like to see, please leave a comment!
January 9th, 2006 — Origami
Checking out some links from origamitessellations.com I discovered the Foldingfreaks Origami group on Flickr - there’s some amazing origami work there.
How about this tiny origami crane - just 3mm across!
Folded from a 5.5mm square piece of tissue paper, it must require some incredibly nimble fingers to complete.
I’m off to try and find a pair of tweezers now.
December 17th, 2005 — Papercraft
Still on the Chrismas papercraft theme, Intermaweb reminded me of this Merry Christmas Pug available from Homespun Magixx (remember the Spongebob papercraft?)
It would go well with the Christmas Mac papercraft, wouldn’t it?
December 17th, 2005 — Notes, Origami
It’s a bit late to post these in time for christmas, but how about sending your thank you notes in these hand-made origami envelopes?
This is a simple design that’s folded from a single sheet of paper, and whatever is written inside is completely hidden when folded - a nice surprise for whoever recieves it.
This may not comply with US postal regulations, so check carefully if you’re sending letters around America - you can always put it inside another envelope, or just stick to hand-delivery for people who live close.
I found this on Instructables, “a venue for showing what you make and how others can make it”. There’s loads of projects on there, but not much in the way of paper crafts at the moment.