Death by Doxie: The Origami Edition

For Munich's 850th birthday, Alexandra Lukaschewitz (aka Jasmine T) made 850 origami dachshunds!

You can see more photos here.

Vintage Bookshelf: Origami (Part II)

Ok, now I have total vintage origami book envy after my sister pointed this out.  It's a vintage pop-up origami book no less, and it's from a post on one of her favourite blogs - Bird & Banner.

You can see more photos here.

Flickr Finds: Origami Shapes

1. Infiny by Melisande*  2. Modular Origami by Addie Goodvibes

3. Rainbow Star by Harvest Moon by Hand  4. Little Rhombicosidodecahedron by fdecomite

5. 5Dod by Great Stella  6. Compound of 3 Cubes by Daniel Kwan

Vintage Bookshelf: Origami

This set of 'My Origami' board books have got to be one of my favourite Etsy purchases ever! (I bought them from Honey Brown Vintage, in case you're curious).  They are chockful of fabulously obscure instructions (at least to my uneducated origami eye) and fantastic photos.

Behold!

It's hard to go past the pigs in the field but I think the origami whales superimposed over the vast ocean are my favourite, what's yours?

Etsy Finds: Origami

1. Purple paper lamp by Origami-Lite  2. Murasaki Plum brooch by Kimono Reincarnate
3. Origami bangle by Squishy Sushi  4. Origami hair clips by Miso Pretty
5. Origami flower earrings by Handmade Haven  6. Mini kusudama by Julie Dye Craft

Origami cranes are easy, right?

Photo by Shereen M

Mention origami and I bet you have trouble not thinking about paper cranes, right?  They are synonymous with the craft - something that almost every kid learns to fold at some point.  It's been years and years since I did any paper folding but seeing as it's origami week on my blog I figured I should actually have a go...

So I grabbed my vintage origami book of birds (more about that tomorrow) and sure enough the crane was the first pattern in the book.

I have to be honest here and confess that following patterns is not my thing.  Aside from an extraordinary skill for putting IKEA furniture together, I am not very good at interpreting or sticking to diagrammatic instructions (which probably explains why I can rarely sew the same thing twice and why trying to teach myself crochet has reduced me to tears on more than one occasion).

Hmmmm, now that doesn't look right...


So, I could lie to you and tell you I persevered but why do that when there is a budding origami maestro in the house?  Yep, the 9 year old taught me how to make a paper crane. A few minutes and a few folds later and ta-da! (mine is the slightly rough looking jumbo-crane).

Flickr Finds: Origami Tessellations

1. Pinwheel Tessellation by Eric Gjerde  2. Square Limpets by Polly Verity
3. Star Puff Tessellation by Pierre Andre  4. Seven Puff Stars by Gila Oren
5. Hex Star by Eric Gjerde  6. L-Triomino Tile by Polly Verity

Origami tessellations are amazingly beautiful don't you think?  I love the repetition of patterns, the unexpected shapes and the interplay of light and dark.

If you like this sort of stuff you should have a look at Eric Gjerde's website which has much information and many resources.  He is also the author of this book which is full of breathtaking (and challenging) tessellations - definitely one for the experienced paper folder.  I would be hopelessly inept if I attempted anything in there, but the 9 year old step-son Joe has been working on his first piece this afternoon and it's coming along nicely!

Polly Verity's website is also worth looking at - her portfolio of paper folding work is beautiful.

Origami is good

I watched Between the Folds the other week.  It's a ripper of a documentary about the art and science of paper folding.  I found it most compelling to see how a bunch of artists and scientists take something so very passive and common and turn it into a thing of beauty, or an object full to the brim with emotion, or something that solves a complex problem.  And it also occurred to me that origami is the ultimate in handmade - it can't be any other way, can it?

Anyway, I loved it so much that I decided to have a week of origami on the blog!  This week I'll be sharing a whole bunch of stuff related to the wonderful art of playing with paper: origami masters, vintage books, Etsy finds and more.  And yes, there will be an origami edition of Death by Doxie.  Hurrah!

ps. those colourful things in the photo above are origami spinning tops folded by Joe, the origami maker in this blended/extended family.  They look amazing in full flight.  Joe is currently working on some very cool origami flowers so I hope to show you some of those during the week too.