Origami at the Whittier Library (February 4, 2006)

The Format "The Compromise"

From Robert Lang to the O-List:

A couple of months ago John Montroll and I were approached by a music video producer who wanted to fold some of our designs for a music video. Dave Brill has kindly pointed me to a link to a page with a link to the now-completed video; it's here.

Enjoy!

(The video itself is 35 MB, so don't try to watch it from dial-up.)

Robert J. Lang

Hat tip: Gilad Aharoni for the YouTube link.

WCOG Meeting (June 10, 2006)

Matsuri Festival Phoenix, Arizona February 24-27, 2006

Photos are up in my Fisherknight album. (Let me know if the link doesn't work).

Hat tip: Juan Carlo Rodriguez

Using Paper Cranes to Educate on Avian Flu

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Jackie Chan and six children showing off birds made of origami paper, which are essential props in a public-service announcement on avian flu prevention.

Goodwill Ambassador Jackie Chan and children co-star in avian flu awareness ad

Watch the public service announcement video showing Jackie doing origami, by clicking on the photo. (Photograph by The JC Group/Mysak)

Man Vs. Machine....which is the better folder?

"Creased" animation

Origami Samurai

Yoshizawa TV Appearance

WCOG April 8, 2006 Meeting

I've been behind in doing the monthly WCOG music vid journals of our club gatherings. But having read Andrew Hans give a brief report of OUSA (I decided kind of last minute that I wasn't prepared to go this year...breaking my 4 or 5 consecutive years of attendance), and making mention of Yami Yamauchi showing off his magic rings, I got the inspiration to put together a video. I decided to do the April meeting, because I remember it being chock-full of magic show-offs, puzzles, and tricks. We even did some origami. Marcee Raffel (bless her soul!) called me from the late night folding in NY, while I was in the middle of editing the video, tonight. Yami said he brought 200 of those ring packages with him, and already gave them all away. Everywhere he goes, he is always generous; always entertaining folks. The beautiful young girl toward the end along with her gorgeous grandmother are very dear to me. Emily is another one of my gymnasts, and is very special. I'm always happy when my gymnasts also share my love for paperfolding.



April photos may be seen in the WCOG 2006 album.

The Story of Sadako Sasaki as told by Rachel Cohn

While perusing through YouTube, I found this interesting animated version of the story of Sadako Sasaki, by Rachel Cohn.

Robert Lang Interview

from GDC 2005, by Stephen Ackroyd.

Instructions for $ Hexagonal Box

06/13/07 Update: Please view the video at Metacafe. I will be taking down the LiveDigital upload, soon.


This was kind of a spur of the moment thing. Half of the footage is shot at WCOG; as I was teaching it to Jimmy Taggart, Pam Miike expressed interest in it. I had her film part of the steps to folding the lid. I then went back and had Yuki Kelly film the beginning portion of the lid (the lighting is rather dark). The footage I filmed on my back porch on my own turned out surprisingly well, considering I just rested the camera in front of my chest, and tried to keep my hands in view, but not so close as to be out of focus. Even though my camera is a 2.0 megapixel, the resolution looks rather clean, crisp, and clear. I could probably re-shoot the lid like this...but that would entail more work! Hopefully, this is sufficient.

I realize that I didn't do much in the way of explaining the diagonal crease lines that forms the top of the boxlid, and the bottom. Hopefully, people are bright enough from viewing what I'm doing, that a little brainwork and close observation will carry you through the day. I will have you note, though, that on the lid, where the 1st 7th is unequal to the other 6 segments, when you set in the diagonal crease, it does not touch from opposing corner to corner. Use the last segment to lay over it as a template (with its diagonal creaseline already in place), and then set the crease line that way. If you squint your eyes, you can see me doing this in the video. Good luck, and let me know if you are able to successfully do this, and what level you'd rate yourself. It'd be great if even a novice could follow these directions.

Fold neatly....and for the most part, set your creases in sharp. This will especially help you when you have to hold the two ends together and spiral the top/bottom to lay flat. You might use a clothespin to hold the two ends together while you do this.


Origami Moneyfold: Hexagonal Box Out Of Money

(Don't forget: There is a "pause" button).

I've been experimenting with different sizes, including making a box within a box within a box. I forgot to include that clip at the end.

Those with foreign currency, noting the method used, or being familiar with Tomoko Fuse-style boxes, can probably figure out how to fold the model, adapted to their bills.

You can make your own here.

Westland Origami Workshops

Nina Rosen invited me for what I think is my 3rd year out of 5, doing origami at Westland School, off of Mulholland, here in Los Angeles. It all started with one of the parents at Santa Monica Gymnastics Center seeing my origami Christmas tree display in the office; something that I put up every year. She put me in contact with Nina Rosen, who was her son's teacher at the time.

This year, Nina set up something different: instead of one demonstration/teaching session, we set up four 2 hour workshops. So what I tried to do, was build a progressive lesson plan.

These workshops were conducted back in February and March. I began with your typical introduction, showing off traditional models and the evolution into modern origami. In each workshop, I brought something new to show off. I began with teaching Yami's banger, which transitions nicely into a moving mouth. Fairly simple. I also taught Yami's spinner that day. The kids seemed very excited after that first day.

The second workshop, we did a simple swan from a kite base, and covered the reverse fold (required for the head and neck). I encouraged the students to experiment with proportions and go off onto tangents to come up with their own swan/bird by incorporating reverse-folds. Charles Esseltine granted me permission to distribute diagram copies of his delicious french fries. I can't think of a better model to teach that has the simplicity of the traditional papercup, with the joy and ease of shaping the bottom by denting it with your finger; and what beginner can't like fan-folding the fries into 16ths, without having to be perfect at it, and still end up with a great-looking origami model? We covered the waterbomb base, and incorporated it onto index cards for the jumping frogs. I then brought back the previous workshop model, the moving mouth, setting up a big version of it as the target for jumping frogs to hop into the mouth of.

The third workshop, I opened with a demonstration of Kenneth Kawamura's Butterfly Ball (using printed paper created by Lar deSouza). It was a way to revisit the waterbomb base from the previous lesson. We made waterbombs. I think we also did cranes, as I showed how the waterbomb base can be turned inside out, into the preliminary base.

There had been a request for folding paper planes, as I think the first day, I had demonstrated the boomerang cicada glider I like to do. So we did that toward the end, and had a blast flying them around outside on the playground. It was a bit windy, so the breeze sometimes picked the gliders up for a long flight. The kids loved launching them from up high, on the slide.

The last workshop, I taught the Thai tulip, which starts with the waterbomb base I had been hammering into their heads. We also did the 20-piece modular flower. That kept 'em busy.

At the end of each workshop, I had giveaway models for them, including stuff Joe Hamamoto had made, and three of my favorites: the LaFosse butterfly, Arai spinning top, and 22 Montroll horses- my all-time favorite- for 22 wonderful kids, who I hoped I had inspired to continue exploring the magic and fun of folding with paper.


For more pictures, go here.


05/22/2007- It would seem that there are some parents who are angry about the YouTube video. Therefore, the video is now on a private setting, as well as the Westland photo album. I will only make these accessible to family and friends. Sorry.

Announcement

Youtube has disabled my account, due to some crackdown on copyrighted videos that I've had uploaded for months. So none of the videos on this blog will work. I hope to get things straightened out.


UPDATE: I have opened a new account, as YouTube hasn't responded to my e-mail. Being the impatient guy that I am on this, I shall begin uploading the vids all over again. Be patient, and hopefully I will get it all done by the end of the weekend, and it should be like nothing ever happened.


4/11/06- I have a new account. It will take me a while to re-upload all the videos, so be patient.

April 16, 2006- Happy Easter! Pretty much all of my videos are back up (or in the process); anything over 100 MBs or over 10 minutes in length, I have posted through LiveDigital.com, as YouTube is now also enforcing a policy of videos being under those amounts.

Japanese Commercial with Origami

I found this video at Metacafe.com. It appears to be a Japanese commercial for Filemaker Pro. I believe the racer is by David Brill. How much of it incorporates actual origami and how much is just computer animation? Does anyone know what artists contributed to this video, if any?



Also, check these videos out:

When Good Frogs Go Bad

Robert Lang Interview

Chronicles of WCOG (January 2006 Meeting)

You can see photos here. Just look for the album labeled "Westcoast Origami Guild 2006".


Just realized that I forgot to link this other video in the "Festival" archives, from last February. It's from a Chinese New Year Festival Yami and I did at the Chinese-American Museum in downtown Los Angeles.

2006 Rhombic Calendar

Lar deSouza posted the following to the O-List 5 days ago, and I just now took a look at it today:

Happy New Year to one and all!!

I've skipped doing this the past couple years, but then there's been
others who've taken up the slack. For those not familiar with
it, our late dear friend, Thoki Yenn, worked out how to skew the
angles to fit a calendar onto Nick Robinson's most excellent rhombic
dodecahedron. With vector software it was a simple matter for me to
fit things neatly and convert it to a pdf format. Interested folks
can find the file here.

It's six letter sized pages, each with two months on it, and a last
page with Nick Robinson's diagrams (unaltered) in case you can't find them.

I know I've seen these at WCOG meetings before, with John Andrisan always coming out with interesting printings. But I had never taken an interest, really, until now. It's really a cool concept and a nice, fun, easy fold. Thanks to Lar and thanks to Nick and Thoki!!! The photo is taken of the one I folded tonight. I used semi-glossy all-purpose photo paper. It folded very nicely.