Happy End of the Year!

Origami Bottle by Jo Nakashima
Origami Rose by Phu Tran
Folded by Michael Sanders

Sok Song's $ Rose on a Stem

Pam Miike brought these to the Origami Festival at the Van Nuys Japanese Gardens back in October. I believe she said Sok Song (his design) was giving these away at PCOC or something.

Looks to be a sort of Kawasaki rose/Stephen Hecht flower on a stem (incorporating an Elias stretch) hybrid.

Look for diagrams to appear in a future issue of Creased magazine.

Life's a Happy Song When There's Someone by Your Side to Fold Along

Kermit the Frog
Created b Halle (Carlos Santamaría)
Folded by Michael Sanders
8 squares
Diagrams: Cartoon Origami Book 3

8 Side Box with Lid
Created by Mr. A'Kos Horn
Folded by Michael Sanders
Diagrams: NOA #361

It took the new Muppet movie to get me to finally fold this model. I folded this about a week ago.

♫♪ Everything is great everything is grand
I got the whole wide world in the palm of my hand
Everything is perfect its falling into place
I cant seem to wipe this smile off my face
Life's a happy song when there's someone by my side to sing along ♫♪

"My origami can kick your origami's @$$!"

Hat tip to Russell Sutherland on his Facebook.

Feldercarb!

I'm pretty upset! I tried adding a new link to the sidebar while in the new blogger interface mode, and it changed (they call it "upgrade") my old template to a new one- erasing all of my sidebar links to other blogs and websites and photo albums in the process! Argh! I think I probably had the largest collection of origami-related links out there (yes, a number of which were obsolete- but still....).

Not sure when I'll have time to figure out an easy way to restore stuff.

If you want to be linked, drop it into a comment.

Life is Beautiful

These videos were made by Yami's friend, Satoshi Aoki:

Origami Festival 2010

Sipho Mabona on TV Tokyo

Hat tip: Kathy Knapp on the O-List

Shadowboxing with LaFosse

Last month I went home to visit my folks in Colorado Springs. While I was out there, I folded some of my favorite Michael LaFosse models to display in shadow boxes for my mom.

(Note: The ranoshi on a lilly pad with the koi is a David Derudas model).

Momotaro (Peach Boy)

Momotaro (Peach Boy)
Created by Mr. Katsushi NOSHO
Folded by Michael Sanders
Composite of 5 square sheets of Japanese commercial kami

Diagrams found in NOA magazine #429


Note: Yes....he is anatomically correct. I didn't embellish the model...it's diagrammed in there.

Michael LaFosse's Art-Deco Wing glider Off a High Rise

This was originally taught to me by Tom Stamm years ago and I've always loved the folding sequence and the flight path of LaFosse's unusual glider- under "normal" circumstances it usually skims across the air in a bit of an up-down motion reminding me of a rock skipping across water. A truly ingenius design. I haven't filmed an example of that flight pattern; but what I did do was throw a couple off the 20th floor of my client's high rise:

*UPDATE* 4/24/2011

Michael LaFosse sent me this story regarding his Art-Deco Wing:

I designed this model while I was a freshman at the U. Tampa, in Florida, 1975. My dorm room was on the 8th floor of Delo Hall, which was situated near the athletic field (The building has since been replace, I believe.)

Many times a week I would launch an Art-Deco Wing out my window and watch it glide over the parking lot, across a street and continue across the athletic filed and out of sight. I never saw one land, but they all seemed to prefer the same path, across the athletic field.

On day, towards the end of my second semester, I took up jogging with a friend. We would jog around the perimeter of the athletic filed, outside of its great walls. To my surprise and delight I found these wings, all in a heap, caught at the base of a fence!

~~~

The accumulation of wings was an interesting sight. They were mixed in with other windswept paper and plastic trash. They had been rained upon and covered with dirt from many months of exposure; though quite deformed they were recognizable. If I remember correctly, the collection spanned a length of the fence area for some twenty feet or so. The area looked as though it got little attention from groundskeepers and the city's cleaning force. I did reach through the fence, and grabbed a decent looking specimen to show my friend and explain what it was all about.

How I Spend My Early Mornings...

I have a personal fitness client who I work with in the mornings. She's in her late 70s and lately we've been working out in her high rise rather than the gym, due to her health.

After our sessions, we go out on her balconey and fly my paper gliders (she lives on the 20th floor). She says it makes her laugh; and laughter is great medicine for the body and soul.

Won Park Sea Turtle

Won gave this to me as a present, leftover from one of his OUSA exhibits







These photos were taken today, showing how well this model has withstood the test of time.

A few years ago I began reverse engineering it, then got sidetracked and lost interest.

The Paper and the Frog

Jeremy Shafer entertains in his video tutorial for Prince Charming, a model found in his book "Origami Ooh La La! Action Origami for Performance and Play"





Another clever and fun model!

Jeremy Shafer's $ Attack Cobra

Recent video posted by Jeremy Shafer of his Attack Cobra action pop-up model, folded from a dollar. Excellent!




The model appears in his book, Origami Ooh La La! Action Origami for Performance and Play.

Hat tip: Rodney on Moneyfolders Unite

New Year Display

I will be at the Chinese-American Museum in Los Angeles tomorrow for their Lantern Festival, 12pm to 7pm, along with Yami and Jim Cowling and Yukie Parthos. Here's one of the displays I've been working on:




Rabbits are designed by MOMOTANI Yoshihide
Leaf-shaped dish YAMANASHI Akiko (NOA #254
Table and chairs by NAGATA Noriko (NOA #254)

Phyllis Snyder

March 13, 2010, WCOG at Pico Library

I got word through Beverly Baudino that Phyllis Snyder passed away at around 7pm, February 27th:

She was in Torrance Memorial Hospital and suffering from several compilations. Her pneumonia with 3 blood clots in the esophagus made it difficult to swallow and breath. She was a real trooper and tried till the end. Her family was with her.

I learned a lot from Phyllis over the past decade that I've known her and the WCOG.

Around 2001/2002, when Herman Lau's $ flower-in-a-pot was not as commonly known, she was the one WCOG member who had kept notes (when Lau had taught it to members years earlier) and was able to refresh her memory enough to teach it to those of us who were in search of it like the Holy Grail of moneyfolds, at the time. (Later, Herman Lau went out of his way to teach it to me "correctly"- he said everyone was getting the proportions wrong- so I could teach it at OUSA).

Phyllis also introduced me to the angel designed by her friend, Louise Cooper, and derived from the Neil Elias angel.

Phyllis always loved the way I fold Montroll's horse and would repeatedly ask me to fold the head so she could watch and learn how I got it to be 3D.

Over the years, I've worked with her at festivals and kept company at WCOG meetings; and have enjoyed sharing and learning from her. She had a wealth of experience and knowledge and a generous spirit to share it all.

Phyllis will be greatly missed. More to come later.

February 20, 2009 Phyllis with a napkin rose folded and given to her by Won Park

Also blogging:

Origami Mommy's Blog

Joseph Wu on Studio 4 TV

When Usagi Yojimbo Crosses Paths with Origami

I believe I've posted on this before (too lazy to dig through the archives, at the moment)...

Story:

This four-page story opens with Usagi coming to a mountain inn. He notices a patron sitting at a table folding a tsuru (crane), who explains he does this to remember the many he has killed. He claims to be an assassin. Usagi orders a meal and decides to stay away from the assassin. However, after the assassin finishes folding the tsuru, he call's Usagi by name and puts it on Usagi's table before leaving the inn. Usagi is surprised the assassin knows his name. After Usagi finishes his meal and leaves the inn, the assassin accosts him on the road outside. He reveals he was hired by Yamanaka the seaweed merchant to slay Usagi for driving him out of business. A duel ensues, and Usagi strikes down the assassin and then tosses down the folded tsuru as the assassin gives out his dying breath.

Watch "Tsuru".

Happy Chinese New Hare!

I was randomly flipping through pages in Vicente Palacios' "Origami from Around the World" when I woke up this morning; and Yoshihide Momotani's rabbit caught my attention, folded from a 2 x 1 rectangle. So I decided to adapt it to the dollar bill and it sorta worked. Folded two of these this morning right before seeing my client, while sitting in the car (first one is on the right, 2nd attempt is on the left).

Well, I would have been surprised if no one else had thought of it before me.

Better set of diagrams in Steve and Megumi Biddle's The New Origami.