Saturday, December 12, 2015

Target & Star Wars Galactic Experience at L.A. LIVE

Chris Alexander will be teaching some of his Star Wars origami models at this event at the Staples Center in Los Angeles:

In anticipation of the upcoming film “The Force Awakens,” Target is giving media, fans and families the ultimate opportunity to make more Star Wars memories with the Target & Star Wars Galactic Experience at L.A. LIVE. The event will feature stunning dome structures that come together to form an otherworldly and interactive Star Wars experience.
The Target & Star Wars Galactic Experience will be free and open to the public from 10am – 10pm on December 12 and 13.
Attractions include:
  • LEGO Master Builders Dome – Be among the first to help LEGO Master Builders create “The Force Awakens” TIE Fighters
  • Galactic History Dome – Take an exclusive journey through Rancho Obi-Wan’s collection – some of the coolest and rarest Star Wars products and memories in the history of the franchise
  • Use the Force Dome – The Force is strong in this dome! Use the Force, for real. Battle your opponents and race across the desert to BB-8
  • Galaxy Show Dome – Journey through the galaxy and discover hidden Star Wars constellations
  • Origami Building – Make your very own Star Wars origami
  • Shop exclusive Star Wars gear and experience 17,000 square feet of Star Wars fun
For more event information, visit: www.lalive.com/targetstarwars
WHEN: Media availability hours:
December 12, 10am – 4pm
December 13, 12pm – 4pm




Among those origami padawans assisting Chris are Jim Cowling, Pam Miike, and Michila Caldera.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Celebrate World Origami Days!

A couple of useful links to check out in relation to World Origami Days:  Croatian Origami Society and Origami srce za Japan.

Via  Sanja Srbljinovic Cucek:

This exhibition is a continuation of the first origami art exhibition in Croatia, with international origami masters, Poetry in Paper in Krapina in 2008. This time, we had fine art professionals, jurying and setting up the exhibition. We had a special way to open the exhibition:  the Cultural Attaché of the Japanese Embassy in Zagreb, Mr. Ryohei Nakajima, unfolded a Miura map to symbolize the opening. Some of the feedbacks are that visitors lingered more around origami than around food and drinks, and that the Gallery personell had to gently remind the last of us it was nine, the closing time. 

Check out the Croatian Origami Society Facebook page.  Also Origami srce za Japan.

Via Patricia Grodner to the O-List:

 Origami Heaven is happy to be celebrating World Origami Days this year with 2 remote online classes from Dennis Walker in Scotland and Michael Assis in Australia.  These classes are FREE!  OrigamiUSA’s Origami Connect team will be producing this event for folders everywhere.  We hope you are enjoying World Origami Days in your communities!

> Please join us on November 1st!
>
>     - Class 1:  Dennis Walker at 10:00 AM
>     - Class 2:  Michael Assis  at 11:00 AM
>     - Tour: "See" the Origami Heaven and "meet" some of the participants at 12:00 Noon


NOTE: ALL times are in EST (UTC-5) which will be the time zone of New York on November 1. Be sure to check the time in your region since daylight saving times will change on October 31!  Use can use the time zone converter at http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html <http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html>.

Be sure to check your time zone and remember that Eastern time zone changes from daylight saving on October 31!

Please join our classes at the following link:

https://origamiusa.adobeconnect.com/online_class <https://origamiusa.adobeconnect.com/online_class>

Watch for more Origami Connect events on the OrigamiUSA website: https://origamiusa.org <https://origamiusa.org/> --coming soon!

 Via Patsy Wang-Iverson on the O-List:

What better way to celebrate World Origami Days than to hear an MAA (Mathematical Association of America) Distinguished lecture by our own Tom Hull!
Date: November 10, 2015
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: MAA Carriage House, 1781 Church St., Washington, DC

http://www.maa.org/meetings/calendar-events/hull



Monday, October 19, 2015

Sunday, October 18, 2015

PCOC Boulder


Joisel rat folded by me for Chila Caldera (finally!)


I drove out to PCOC from LA to Boulder last weekend; stayed and visited with my parents in Colorado Springs between folding.  I'll try and gather photos together, soon. 

It was great to see old familiar faces from near and far; and connect with some folders I have not had a chance to meet, yet.





Sunday Funnies


Thursday, October 15, 2015

Monday, October 12, 2015

An Orizuru that Really Flies










Origami and technology go together pretty well. Lightweight, efficient structures... and animal shapes. But there's nothing more "origami" than the humble paper crane. Now, courtesy of a small, light, power-efficient microcomputer from Rohm (a Japanese company: don't let the name fool you), the crane can fly. Better still, it's remote-controlled and can even keep itself afloat for around five minutes, according to the spokesperson. It's almost the most Japanese thing here at this year's CEATEC. Almost.


Read more

Or, your cheap alternative:

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

The Paper-Airplane Collector


From the New Yorker:


 Smith, who died in 1991, was, according to his friends, always collecting things, and his groups of objects would constantly morph: because he moved frequently, bits and pieces would be lost from one long-term hotel stay to another.


Smith’s paper-airplane collection was one of the oddest of his many odd collections. (Among other things, he also accumulated string figures and Ukrainian Easter eggs.) Most of the paper airplanes were found in the streets and buildings of New York. (The map below plots the locations). Smith was “always, always, always looking” for new airplanes, one friend said: “He would run out in front of the cabs to get them, you know, before they got run over. I remember one time we saw one in the air and he was just running everywhere trying to figure out where it was going to be. He was just, like, out of his mind, completely. He couldn’t believe that he’d seen one. Someone, I guess, shot it from an upstairs building.” It’s not clear how many airplanes Smith collected in total; he would flatten them for storage, and friends recall seeing boxes and boxes of them. Smith’s “spiritual wife,” the Beat muse Rosebud Feliu Pettet, estimated that there were “multiple” boxes, “more than two, less than fifty.” Friends recall that Smith donated the bulk of his paper-airplane collection to the Smithsonian in the eighties. The museum sent a box containing two hundred and fifty-one planes, which he picked up between 1961 and 1983, to the Anthology Film Archive in 1994, at the request of the director of Smith’s personal archive, but it’s unclear what happened to the rest. The photos in this slide show are taken from a new collection, by J & L Books and the Anthology Film Archives, that contains images of all the airplanes in the surviving box.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

12-Step Heart for Heart Attack Assessment Awareness

Joel Stern via Origami Mailing List:

Hi everyone,
A while back, a mother of a young man who had died suddenly of a heart attack reached out to me to design an origami heart that could be folded in 12 steps. Here's the story behind this request.
Justin Carr was the young man's name, and his heart attack was caused by pediatric cardiomyopathy, which had gone undetected.
There exists a 12-question heart attack assessment that, in Europe, has proved over the last 25 years to be over 85% effective in saving lives. Currently, only 6% of U.S. doctors even know that these questions exist. These questions can be found here:http://www.origamihearttrust.org/index.php/59-pediatric-cardiomyopathy/youth-heart-health-assessment/96-12-questions
The mother wanted to use origami to publicize this assessment because her son had once used origami to reach out to a very shy young girl. The story can be found here:http://www.origamihearttrust.org/index.php/mission/inspiration
The 12-step origami heart integrates Justin's love of people, his skill with origami, and the 12-step assessment program which has the potential to save many young lives.
I am continually inspired by Justin's story, and by the dedication of his parents to create something meaningful and positive out of their pain.
Here is the heart that I designed in Justin's memory:http://www.origamihearttrust.org/index.php/get-involved/learn/how-to-fold-our-heart


NOA #481 September Issue

It seems I somehow forgot to schedule Heather's review to post at the beginning of this month:




Friday, September 11, 2015

Today is Tuesday...




Source

Remembering David, Ron, Daniel....

 


Video description:
Uploaded on Sep 5, 2008 These tiles were put up on the fence across the street from St. Vincent's, the hospital in the Village where they waited to take care of the survivors who never came. In case you can't read it, the name on the tile I walked up to at the end is David Reed Gamboa Brandhorst, who was only three years old. His fathers Daniel R. Brandhorst and Ronald Gamboa died with him. I didn't know any of them. I just walked up at a certain point and pointed at the first tile that caught my eye. RIP.


Monday, August 31, 2015

The Sharpest Fingers in Clayburn County


Via Joseph Wu on the O-List:

Inspired by the storytelling of O Henry and Mark Twain, our little film tells the twisty story of two testosterone-driven men in a tavern who unexpectedly enter the world of origami.



Sunday, August 30, 2015

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Slinky Dog


Leyla Torres put out a video tutorial of Yara Yagi's charming dachshund model that is reminiscent of the slinky dog from Toy Story:



I've been seeing this all over Facebook, so may have to fold one myself fairly soon....or several.

Saturday, August 08, 2015

Saturday Morning Cartoon





Clifton Truman Daniel, the grandson of President Harry S. Truman who gave the order for the dropping of "Little Boy" and "Fat Man", referencing the story of Sadako:

Truman’s Grandson & Japan’s A-Bomb Survivors: A Story of Reconciliation


As the generation that survived the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki begins to pass, the grandson of President Truman works to end the threat of nuclear weapons.
In June of 2012, I was driving home from taking my son, Gates, to high school when, contrary to common sense and Chicago ordinance, I decided to check the messages on my cellphone. There was only one. Someone with a lovely soprano voice was singing me “Happy Birthday.”
It turned out to be Shigeko Sasamori, who survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, an attack ordered by my grandfather, Harry S. Truman.

I had met Shigeko only a couple of weeks earlier, in New York. She was there working with Hibakusha Stories, a United Nations-affiliated NGO that, as of this date, has brought atomic bomb survivors to share their experiences with more than 25,000 New York Metro-area high school students.

Needless to say, I never expected to know a survivor of Hiroshima, let alone have her sing me “Happy Birthday.” My grandfather never spoke to me about the atomic bombings. I learned about them like everyone else, from history books. Aside from casualty figures, the books told me very little about what happened to the people.

In 1999, when my older son, Wesley, was in fifth grade, he brought home a copy of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. The book is based on the life of Sadako Sasaki, a little girl in Hiroshima sickened by radiation. She followed a Japanese tradition that says if you fold 1,000 origami paper cranes, you are granted a wish. Sadako’s wish was to live. Sadly, though she folded more than 1,000 cranes, she died of leukemia on October 25, 1955. There’s a memorial to her and all children killed or wounded by the bomb in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park.

Tuesday, August 04, 2015

Jurassic Origami



No.....I've never seen any of the Jurassic movies.

But I did hear about the Chris Pratt Jurassic meme.

The Satoshi KAMIYA Coelophysis was folded by me today (just for this); and the shoddy photoshopping was all done using a phone app.


If I had a bit more patience, I would have liked to have tried using these models:






Friday, July 31, 2015

Paper Pets


Karen Reed on the O-List:

I had to share this origami moment!
Yesterday I gave a flapping bird to my new 5-year-old neighbor.  When Sam
saw the wings move, his eyes opened very wide and declared: "This will be
my paper pet!"




Thorigami





Thursday, July 30, 2015

The Fold is Strong in this One

Best Darth Vader origami I've seen yet:



Darth Vader
Created and folded by Ángel Morollón
 Folded in dry, paper 28 x28 cm, figure of about 20 cm tall
 Source

Morollón is the same designer who came up with this elegant batman model.  This Darth Vader has the same designer's fingerprint all over it.  Outstanding!

Hat tip:  Michila Caldera

Here is one by Ignacio Smith:





Saturday, July 11, 2015

Raising Money for Living Water International Through Origami


Steve Pfost/Staff Photographer
Isabelle,8, left, and Katherine, 6, Adams have made origami ornaments to sell to raise money for water wells in needy countries. , Wednesday March 21, 2012.



(This news story is 3 years old- but still worth sharing).

Young Dallas sisters use origami to help fund water wells:

“Every 15 seconds a child dies because they don’t have clean water.” Isabelle Adams, 8, shares this tragic fact as she shows the handmade origami ornaments that she and her sister Katherine, 6, make to raise funds for Living Water International (water.cc), a Houston-based charity that drills water wells in Ethiopia and other developing countries.

The girls learned about Ethiopia’s need for clean water last year through a YouTube video highlighting a Midland company’s project (projects.lemishine.com). The video describes the plight of rural families whose only source of water often is polluted and many miles away.

The sisters and their parents, Ken and Deborah Adams, were moved by the video. “The children have to drink dirty water,” Katherine says. “And they have to walk so far to get the water that they can’t go to school.” Inspired to help, the Dallas family set out to raise money for a well to help others halfway around the world.

Ken, a Dallas physician whose mother was Japanese, suggested that they employ origami, the ancient art of folding paper into complex, three-dimensional shapes. His girls already knew how to fold some origami pieces, because he had taught the craft to them in the car-pool line.

Making origami Christmas ornaments became a family project they call Paper for Water. Through fundraisers at local businesses, orders from friends and a matching contribution from Midland company Envirocon Technologies (which makes Lemi Shine and other cleaning products) in 2011, Paper for Water raised the $9,200 needed to fully fund a well. It serves 520 people in Ethiopia.

Asked how it feels to pay for a well by themselves, Deborah Adams says: “We didn’t do it alone. Our friends, family and neighbors helped us make the ornaments and spread the word. We had lots of help.”

And now that the Ethiopian well is completed, what’s next?

“We are thinking about funding a well in northern India,” Deborah says. India’s poor, rural population faces the same water woes as Ethiopia and other African countries.

 Read more.
Steve Pfost/Staff Photographer
Deborah Adams, left, Katherine, 6, center, and Isabelle, 8, right, create origami ornaments to sell to raise money for water wells for needy countries at their dining room table., Wednesday March 21, 2012.

Hat tip:  Academic Origami

Friday, July 10, 2015

Find a way or find excuses




This photo has been trending on my FB newsfeed. It was taken last month by Joyce Gilos Torrefranca, a medical student in Cebu:
It shows 9-year-old Daniel Cabrera kneeling on the pavement with the famous golden arches in the background. He's using a makeshift wooden bench as he writes in his workbook. "For me as a student, it just hit me a lot, like big time," Joyce Torrefranca told the Philippine news network ABS-CBN. "This kid, he doesn't have anything but he has dedication to study." Joyce said seeing Daniel struggling with his homework inspired her to work harder. The photo was quickly shared thousands of times with other people saying they'd been inspired by him too.
An inspirational reminder of the blessings in our own lives, the struggles of those less fortunate, and the adage that if it's important enough to you, you will find a way; if it's not, you will find excuses.

Gymnastics is an expensive, "elitist" sport; and many kids don't have the opportunity to discover their potential in the environment of training in a well-managed, well-equipped, well-coached facility. As a gymnastics coach, I try and remind my athletes to never take their opportunities in life for granted. I have one athlete on the team whose parents struggle to afford her monthly tuition. The mom does not speak fluent English. Does not have a computer or email. She once pulled her daughter out of gym. At the end of the month and at the end of practice, without fanfare or warning, her kid comes up to me and matter-of-factly states, "This is my last day. Bye." I guess the mom was too embarrassed to let us know her husband lost his job and they were struggling. She was doing extra work just for her daughter because she knew how much her daughter loves gymnastics Fortunately we were able to talk her into keeping her daughter- my gymnast- enrolled in our program. I'm grateful to the gym I work for in that the owner and office management were willing to work with the mom and negotiate something that she could afford.


 At the annual Vidmar Invitational out in Los Angeles, '84 Olympian Peter Vidmar reminds the competitors of this life lesson, telling the gymnasts that the next time their parents drop them off at the gym, to take pause and thank their parents and show deep appreciation. Because their parents don't have to do any of this: Driving them to practice, financing it, watching meets, etc. The 3 golden rules for the staff at my gym: Do your best... Always do the right thing... And everyday, do something selfless that benefits others.

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Forensic Origami to Weed Out Those of Less Than Meticulous and Stellar Possession of the "Right Stuff"


 Would you like to become a candidate for Japanese astronaut school at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency?

Then you better know how to fold a tsuru:

To test people, JAXA isolates small groups of astronaut candidates for days at a time and makes them do menial tasks. Mary Roach’s excellent book Packing For Mars talks about one of those tasks: folding 1,000 origami cranes.

In traditional Japanese culture, folding 1,000 paper cranes is supposed to bring good luck; at JAXA, folding cranes tests how crazy you’ll go if you have to fold 1,000 paper cranes.
Roach explains:
The genius of the Thousand Cranes test is that it creates a chronological record of each candidate’s work. As they complete their cranes, candidates string them on a single long thread. At the end of the isolation, everyone’s string of cranes will be taken away and analyzed. It’s forensic origami: As the deadline nears and the pressure increases, do the candidate’s creases become sloppy? How do the first ten cranes compare to the last?
And it’s not just origami cranes that are analyzed with a fine tooth comb. Every single little detail of an astronaut candidate’s performance is put under the microscope.

I can understand why JAXA does all of this. I mean, if you’re going to spend millions of dollars to send somebody up into space, you should probably make sure that they’re suited for the job.

 Another review on Packing for Mars:

During a week-long continuous observation session, candidates have to fold a thousand origami cranes. These cranes are then analyzed by a team of psychologists to see how the person deals with boring, repetitive tasks and time constraints. The psychologists check whether the folds get less precise at the end of the task, and see how they compare with the first ones.

Like a lot of things in Japan, there’s an explanation for why it’s done, but no other countries have anything similar to it, and you’re left wondering if there wouldn’t be a test that’s more closely related to actual space missions.

Hat tip: Andrew Dewar on the Origami-L, as a follow-up to Karen Reeds' post.

Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Miss Pilot Japanese Drama

Via Karen Reeds on the O-List:

Another origami sighting from the world of J-drama, courtesy of my husband.
A Japanese airline company uses a paper-airplane flying contest as a way to
weed out potential employees. Very funny!  (Paper airplanes also figure in
show's opening/closing trailers.)

 "Miss Pilot," episode 1, about 20 minutes into the show.

I zipped to the 20 minute mark and extracted the segment relevant to origami.  The entire episode should be watched, though, for the sake of story.  The paper airplane contest is a teaching vehicle/transformation mechanism for a larger meaning in life.  Watch it here at Dramacool, from the beginning.



Sunday, July 05, 2015

Failed Rocket Launch at Marti's

Light turnout, this month.  Host Marty herself was out traveling.

David Donahue had a nice flapping-ear elephant model.  Around 2006 or 2007, I beta-tested the Dumbo action model that Sy Chen was working on while at OUSA.  Just the other day, I also saw this flapping-eared elephant on FB.  It's always been a cool concept.


Tried to fold and launch this rocket, using a straw and wasn't too successful.



There are other rocket designs, similar to this (you can find a lot of vids on YouTube)- really, you can make up your own waterbomb base variant. 

Maybe instead of a straw, I could use Jeremy Shafer's Ninja blow dart and have an origami RPG? 
Photos here.

Sunday Funnies

Source

Wednesday, July 01, 2015

POP Last Sunday

Fearless leader Joel Stern was out of town.  So Brian was our illustrious host.

One of my gymnasts came, as her brother is into origami:


His mom picked up a dollar origami book by LaFosse and Alexander while she and her oldest daughter were in NYC (they stopped by to see me at OUSA).


Photos here.

Action Model T-Rex


Kathleen Sheridan taught this model, designed by Oriol Esteve, at OUSA:

July NOA #479





Saturday, June 27, 2015

OUSA at Manhattan College



Won Park Koi folded for Marcee while he was vending

After a 7 year dry spell, I finally made my return to NYC for this year's Convention. 

 1st year at the new location, Manhattan College.

I left LAX on a redeye flight Thursday evening and arrived at La Guardia Friday early morning.  Taxied my way to the College without a hitch.

I shared a suite with Won Park and his mom, Maria; and Marcee Raffel.

It was great to see familiar faces, including those I've only known through the magic of the internet and social media.  My one lament is not having the time and opportunity to sit and fold or even chat with everyone there. 

Much of my time was spent on the 4th floor, vending.  Doing that ended up paying for about half the cost of my trip.  I shared a table with Won, who now sells origami jewelry- cranes that he folds himself and has cast into silver and gold. 

I did an hour of volunteer public teaching on Saturday and Sunday.  I didn't do much filming; but you can see a few clips of what I did capture, here:




 If I didn't have to spend time vending, I think I would have enjoyed signing up for more hours teaching to the general public.

I was delighted that the mom of one of my gymnasts and her older sister, who happened to be in NY, came by to visit and see the origami exhibits.

 The campus is nice; but the distance in walking from housing to the Commons to classes was hard on those older and with physical challenges.  Some of the complaints were legitimate grievances; others just have to do with 1st year growing pains in a new location; and personally I think some other griping is just that people love to gripe- there's a natural aversion to change.

I could actually dine on the dorm food all day.  But that's just me.  I have no accounting for taste, when it comes to food.

I only taught one class, which was on Saturday.  The model was Angel Blanco's self-closing box.  It was also selected for a live class, broadcast feed. 

I did not sign up for any classes; nor did I really learn anything new, aside from Arlene teaching me Mancini's Vertigo while hanging out on the 4th floor. 

I have a couple of gymnasts who are into owls and wanted to learn Won Park's barn owl.  He did not bring his crease pattern for it; but stayed up Saturday night to fold me a barn owl 3.0:

Won Park barn owl 3.0

My trip was pretty short and I took a redeye flight out of NY early Monday.  I stayed up all night.  Took a taxi to La Guardia which dropped me off at Terminal B, American Airlines.  This is because when I flew in from LAX, American Airlines and US Airways was combined.  I thought it was a combined merger.  I was wrong.  I needed to be at Terminal C for US Airways.  Well, La Guardia is pretty well closed down that early in the morning, with shuttles only coming alive after 4am.  So I hauled it by foot to Terminal B.  I was told it was a 10-15 minute walk; but that was an overexaggeration. 

Then I had another wait, this time in line for TSA check-in to open up.  Aside from having my hands swiped 3 different times and minor TSA hold-up (good job, agents!), everything went pretty smoothly.  But it just reaffirms my aversion to travel in general, in the post 9/11 era. 

I went practically straight from LAX to work on Monday. 

Photos are here.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Vertigo






I learned this model from Arlene last Sunday while we hung out in the Goldmine/Source/vending area at OUSA.  I believe she taught a class on Francesco Mancini's wonderful model.  Diagrams appeared in CDO convention book 2012, German convention book 2012; and is also now available for download from the OUSA Source.  $2 and $1.80 for members.

I will blog about my OUSA 2015 experiences soon.


Monday, June 08, 2015

Marti's 1st Sunday in June



Akiko Yamanashi's Kabuto Box with fancy kabuto nesting inside.

It was a medium turnout.

Joe Hamamoto had to stay home and take it easy because he's been tired from dialysis.  While at the hospital, he's been entertaining people there with his origami.

Yami suffered a mild stroke last Monday and was in the hospital for 3 days.  He, too, decided to take it easy and did not come to meeting.

Highlight was having Cathy Wilimzig visit, from Phoenix.  I've known her through OUSA Conventions and Matsuri Festival in Phoenix, with their folding group.





Always fun at origami kai 1st Sunday @ Marti's!
Posted by Takashi Iwamoto on Monday, June 8, 2015




Pam taught this rose (she sticks Hershey kisses inside like a container)







Cathy Wilimzig



Photos here.

Saturday, June 06, 2015

The Origami Effect

The magician who apparently designed this dollar butterfly- Andrew Mayne- also has a dvd called The Origami Effect, released in 2010:

Instantly turn a slip of paper into the origami shape of the animal a person is visualizing in their mind. Turn a borrowed bill into a butterfly. Tear up a newspaper and produce an animated origami rabbit. Andrew Mayne presentsThe Origami Effect; powerful, visual magic that lets you give form to thoughts. 



The effects on the video:

The Origami Effect: A spectator thinks of an animal from a list of over 40 different origami shapes and you change the Post-It-Note into the animal instantly before their eyes.

The Recycled Rabbit: Tear a sheet of newspaper to pieces and then restore it into an origami rabbit that can't sit still. Great for kids and grown-ups alike. Takes only minutes to prepare.

Psychic Origami: Borrow a dollar from a spectator and change it into the animal they're visualizing in their mind. Includes multiple presentations.

Wineglass Origami: A devious way to change a borrowed bill into an origami shape right under your spectator's noses.
 Review at The Magic Cafe Forum:

The effects that are provided of the DVD are ones that allow the magician with the skills to turn simple slip of paper and imposable turn it into an Origami animal. The different types of paper include post-it notes, newspaper, and dollar bills. Because of the option of being able to use different types of paper it provides the magician with many different types of environments in with the effect could be used. Including but not limiting to close-up, walk around, and parlor.  
The skills of folding the Origami animals are well explained, and easy to follow. Andrew goes in great deeps in explaining how each stage of the folding is to be done. Thus making the learning of the making the Origami animals as much fun as performing the effect.  
As far as the skill level of sleight of hand needed to perform the effect is mid-level. By this I mean that one only needs to understand how to control ones angle of view.
This is a great effect that literary packs flat and plays big, and would make a great addition to any table hopper’s arsenal.

Another review here.  Excerpt:

Some may argue that this isn’t a ‘magic’ effect. Some may interpret the ‘magic moment’ as you simply being REALLY fast at origami.

Well, being primarily an origamist with an interest in magic rather than a magician with an interest in origami, this wouldn't be a negative.

One more review:

Folding a sheet of paper into an animal or an object is the beautiful art of Origami.  If you conceal the physical part of folding the paper, it becomes magical because you now transform a lifeless piece of paper into a representation of an animal or an object.  This was what Andrew Mayne attempted to do in The Origami Effect DVD.

~~~

If you are fascinated by origami and want to use it in magic, this DVD is a very good place to start – it will motivate you to come out with your own presentations. 

Here's also a clip of him performing his dollar butterfly effect:


Andrew Mayne is awesome.  Just be careful not to trust him.

Wednesday, June 03, 2015

Oversized Origami Sighting




A coworker sent this photo:

Avalon california last weekend in may part of a budweiser whatever usa promo

I can't find anything else about this.