Husky Escaping Cranes and Display

Not too long ago I held a small workshop at the UWT library on floral origami. Since that time the library hosted librarians from all the campuses over the weekend. As one of the many preparations for the event, they wanted to change over some of the displays and asked if I would be willing to showcase some origami, with contributions from the workshop.

The workshop was fun, and as part of it we made some simple tulips, the traditional origami lily and some compound roses. You can see the tulips on the bulletin board that was created from the workshop and you can catch some of the lily's in the floral display case. The folks who were there were fun to create with and were gracious in letting some of the end models be used.



Additionally, I assembled one of my favorite projects which I call "escaping cranes". You may have seen them on this blog before. This time I went with the host colors and created a "Husky Escaping Cranes". For some reason I had a difficult time focusing the darn camera, so I don't have a good long shot as yet. I have included a poorly shot version just to give you an idea.



If you would like to make some cranes as part of a larger project, save Oct 9th and come by the UWT library for another workshop.

Fun at Showcase Tacoma

My family and I had an excellent time at Showcase Tacoma last weekend. We came out on a Saturday in the early afternoon and walked around in the sporadic rain. It was not very crowded at the time, which I would expect, as we came through at a quiet time of the day. Still we ran into many friends.

One thing I saw that was interesting was a group of students who were fund raising with some origami. The folks they were working with made packages of paper balloons sized to fit over holiday lights so that they created a festive feel.

Another thing that I thought was very cool, along with the Lava Tube, the various glass art booths, the bands and the chalk art was the wonderful putting course put together by the Fulcrum Gallery.

From a distance you might mistake it for a topical map of the South Sound, but when you approached it their was unmistakably a putter and golf ball in the exhibit ready to put to use.

Both my son and youngest daughter walked across the spongy islands and covered concrete inlets to try their hand at it, both enjoying the challenge. Hard to believe, but apparently a gentleman had earlier made a hole in one all the way from Vashon Island.

Compound Origami and a Workshop

I like to fold with a single sheet of paper. No cuts, no glue. That being said, I will be gluing and in one small exception, cutting, origami models in order to create modular origami flowers and arrangements this Thursday.

Modular origami can be rewarding in the detail of the model and is also interesting and challenging. There are some great books on the subject, such as "Unit Origami: Multidimensional Transformations" by Tomoko Fuse.

As defined by Wikipedia, modular origami, or unit origami, "is a paperfolding technique which uses multiple sheets of paper to create a larger and more complex structure than would be feasible using single-piece origami techniques. Each individual sheet of paper is folded into a module, or unit, and then modules are assembled into an integrated flat shape or three-dimensional structure by inserting flaps into pockets created by the folding process. These insertions create tension or friction that holds the model together."

I have created a few Kusadama's in the past with the largest using 175 sheets of paper. Kusadama's are paper models "that is usually (although not always) created by sewing multiple identical pyramidal units (usually stylized flowers folded from square paper) together through their points to form a spherical shape."

This Thursday I will be giving a workshop on ornamental floral origami at the University of Washington, Tacoma's Library from 10am - Noon in the upstairs conference room LIB 222A.

At this time my plans are to talk about single sheet origami and compound origami. Though I would like to fold the traditional Lily, I think we will start with a simple two piece tulip. From there we will create the six piece rose from Hiromi Hayashi's Origami Flowers: Popular Blossoms and Creative Bouquets and if there is time, back to the lily.

I would also like to do the Dahlia from Hiromi's book, but it has one collapse that I don't think a novice or early origami folder can do themselves.

If you are in the area and would like to join in, please do.