WCOG Meeting, March 14, 2009

Besides bringing Thea, a couple of other gymnast-friends of mine also came to the library this month with their families. Ani and Paul brought Alejandra; Hanna brought Miriam and her brother Ethan.

Yukie now folds the best dollar koi, second only to Won. Actually, I'd challenge anyone to tell the difference between one folded by her and one folded by Won.

Fred had a few Won Park two-piece dollar dragons that he's been folding. He figured out much of it on his own.

Photos here.

Matsuri 2009

While Won Park was here in Southern California entertaining us, Yami was in Phoenix Arizona as a guest artist for the Matsuri Festival. He and Phyllis Snyder, who also attended, did get to see Won on Friday, before heading out there last weekend.

Patty Grodner made a music video to showcase some of what went on at the Festival and origami workshop:

A "Won"-derful Weekend of Paperfolding Magic

Won Park holds up his "Won" dollar bill crease patterns.

Won arrived from Hawaii Thursday night. I picked him up from LAX and took him to Yukie's house, in South Pasadena. He and Yukie stayed up until 4am, working on the dollar koi. From my Convention experiences, I knew this kind of late-night folding would happen.

Toilet CP for those of you who keep begging for toilet diagrams in order to flush your money down the drain.

Friday, after treating Yukie and myself to a shot of wheatgrass- a daily ritual for Won-, we hosted a small origami gathering at Yukie's house. Beverly Baudino, Yami, and Phyllis Snyder made it; John Andrisan did not.

Won folds a napkin rose and gives it to Phyllis.

Won taught us his dollar camera and a dollar ring I hadn't seen before.

Saturday, he was at the Peninsula Paperfolders meeting at the Malaga Cove Library. There, he taught his dolphin.

Andrew, a very talented WCOG folder

Sunday, I brought one of my gymnasts to the Pacific Ocean Paperfolders meeting at the Roxbury Park Community Center in Beverly Hills. There, Won taught a dollar bill jumping frog design and his double crane.

My friend Erin was looking through Won's model, picks one out and said, "Cool...Yoda". I turned the model over, right-side up so she could see that it was a toilet, not a Yoda.

Fred, one of the WCOG members, was shown the base of Won's two-piece dragon and was able to do much of it on his own, just from looking at photos. Won was greatly impressed. Won was also impressed with the skill level of a number of the children in Joel Stern's group.

Sunday evening we wrapped up filming for an instructional koi video (it will take me a bit of time to edit). Basically we stayed up all night, with just enough time for us to fold a toilet and Herman Lau flower-in-a-pot before taking him to the airport.

Won wants to help his moneyfolders group get through the koi, and get through it as accurately as possible. There are a lot of details that are just hard to get across in diagrams. I learned a lot from having Won here for the weekend, and even though my kois have been decent enough prior to this visit, my understanding is 99% closer to being more "accurate" now. Already, the couple I've folded since this weekend are looking much more "Won-like". Yukie also got a heavy-dose of koi immersion training. I think she deserves a diploma from the Won Park School of Hard-Core Orikane, saying she is a certified phase IV black belt instructor in teaching the $koi. Her family was very gracious in "surrendering" their home to us for 3 days of imposing ourselves in paperfolding and raiding the kitchen refrigerator.

Won was absolutely generous with his time, patience, and willingness to share his knowledge with others. He is extremely gifted and talented in other fields; not just in origami. Thank you, Won!

"Kanpai!"Won's secret elixer for how he comes up with such amazing folds; it's "won" AM in the morning, and he's just getting started.

Stay-tuned for a couple of videos coming out, plus a new, if imperfect (you might here a toilet flush in the background and the pitter-patter of Skunky) koi tutorial.

More photos posted to my shutterfly account:

Won Park visits.

Peninsula Paperfolders

Pacific Ocean Paperfolders

Won Park: Year of the Ox

Happy Valentine's Day!

A gymnast I teach made me the following card:



I handed out David Petty beating hearts to my Thursday class; I gave one to Thea's brother, Isaac, who couldn't stop laughing and playing with the origami model:

And Thea makes her....I dunno, she's made it to so many meetings of late, I'm losing count:

Know of Any Great T-Shirt Designs?

Interesting T-shirt idea.

Hat tip: The Origami Forum

WCOG January Meeting

Yami introduced a new die he made for a container designed by Clemente Giusto of Italy. Giusto's starbox has long been a staple of folding by Yami and Joe (just check the archives for festival videos).

In an email response to Yami by Tricia Tait:

The star (twist) box you are referring to is by Clemente Giusto of Italy. Sara Giarusso, from the Italian origami society, saw his little box in a pizza shop. She asked the owner about it and he hooked her up with Clemente. He was a "closet" folder and didn't know others in Italy did origami, as well. She invited him to his first convention (and my first Italian one) about 8 years ago. I remember that he had many creations that he was sharing with the other folders. He was teaching way past 4am when I finally went to sleep!

Through some correspondence with Tricia, Yami acquired knowledge of another design by Clemente Giusto: Scatola Rettangolare Chiusa. You can see it in last month's WCOG video; and in this month's, Yami introduces a new die he had made that scores the paper with a crease pattern for the Scatola Rettangolare. Yami's done this before for his Doodle-Bug, having index-sized cardstock scored by a die (actually, the cards are perforated off from an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper).

Why bother? Because Yami enjoys sharing the joys of paperfolding with the world. Even though folders are "cheated" out of the challenge of starting at scratch, and folding all the creases themselves, it allows beginners (Yami often has children in mind) to experience the magic of being able to complete what is otherwise a fairly complex (to non-folders) model, with a feeling of accomplishment that they did the work themselves. My friend Thea, who is 11, has some folding experience- but not extensive. Within a few minutes, Yami had successfully taught her how to collapse the model along its crease pattern, and follow the proper fold sequence to the model's completion.

Yami, Joe, and I often work with teaching and entertaining non-folders who come by our tables at festivals; so this is a great addition to our repertoire of origami.

Also uploaded to YouTube (Blip TV is higher resolution).

I also finally gave Thea her Christmas present. A Montroll Horse and a Kasahara cube that opens up with a Christmas scene inside (I've made a giant one before with miniatures nesting inside, each opening into various scenes and landscapes, similar to the one advertised in the inside cover to Origami Omnibus):

Origami on Local Public Access Broadcasting

Carolyn hosts this, and invited me to do two programs. The first one, "Origami 3", I used up the entire airtime to demonstrate the folding pattern of Montroll's horse (I didn't dwell on teaching it slow, as I only had 25 minutes tops.

This is from a Long Beach public access program. Teaching the Robert Neale dollar bill flapping butterfly with John Andrisan's cosmetic modifications.

Unscripted and dry...funny toward the end...hey, it's public access! What more can you expect?

Thanks to both Johns for their permission to teach this on the airwaves.

Another video on Folding the Fins on Won Park's $ koi fish

Many folders still complain about steps 37-39 on Marcio Noguchi's diagrams of Won Park's koi. I've started folding some more as Christmas gifts and thought I'd film myself doing part of the fins.

Sorry if it's not great quality, but it was a challenge keeping the model in focus since I had the camera around my neck; I'm surprised nothing came out blurry. I forgot to turn the tv off in the background. So I replaced the natural sound with music. If that annoys you, just turn the volume off. I guarantee the sci-fi channel program in the background was so stupid, you'd thank me for replacing the sound.
Step photos can still be found here.
Also, I've been experimenting with applying methyl cellulose to the dollar koi model. I find it a bit challenging to keep the model from "expanding" when moistened too much with it, after it's already been shaped. I've had more enjoyable success at applying it when after the scales have been pleated, and the model is still flat. I then apply a dab here and there as I continue folding and shaping.

Merry Christmas!

Luminary and one of the WCOG Founding Folders (well....not exactly, but member since 1986), Terry Hall, returns after a 6 year sabbatical.

The last time Terry folded with the group was at my first meeting. I arrived late, and he was folding a beautiful Montroll horse for a young girl. That inspired me. The only other time Terry came in the last 6 years was to drop off a couple of boxloads of folded models to be given away.

Catherine Ortiz took over leadership chores from Terry; but now, she stopped attending on a regular basis for about the last 2 or 3 years. No more newsletter, no one really in charge, although John Andrisan takes on some leadership tasks.

WCOG May 10, 2008

This is a video of raw footage from our WCOG May 10th meeting:



The opening scene is from an event that Yami and I did at Griffith Park for the mayor, for a couple of hours prior to heading over to the library.

Have you folded a book, lately?

I have David Brill's "Brilliant Origami", but never got around to folding the books, until I happened upon Mari Michaelis' instructional videos. It was her bookcase design, though, that got me out of my malaise, and I just started folding to her videos.

Books

Bookcase.

I think there's a bookcase design in Origami Omnibus, as well (I'm too lazy to go look it up at the moment- the real book sits on a real shelf, in a real bookcase, gathering dust). But this 3-piece bookcase worked just fine. Loved using the wood print paper, finally (as well as the brick printed wall and wood print floor). Anyway, another charming model set.

Well, this about covers it all....

Found this video by Mari Michaelis:

"Life is Beautiful" created by Yoichi Yamauchi (Yami), is an arrangement of 427 individual models.
Top left: Health. Bottom left: Happiness. Top right: Have Dreams. Bottom right: Most beautiful.

More at Yami's Corner
(Don't forget to check out the two articles by Yami:
The Magic of Origami (Check out the original Nippon Keizai Shinbun article)
Folding Myself from Grief to Joy)

My New Fave Fold

Rocking horse, designed by origamist redpaper (seo won seon). Other models from his book, Creative Origami, here.

I ordered through Jassu, and it arrived from Korea in less than a week, even though I was told to give it two weeks.

Love it!

The Fun of Paper Gliders

Apparently, my simple video entry is ineligible for the competition, since I live outside the UK/Ireland. (That's ok, though....I don't really feel a strong yearning to ride around in a helicopter- so there!). You can see more entries here.

This was brought to my attention when I saw Nick Robinson's post to the Origami Mailing List.

Here's my entry:

Michael Sanders' Cicada Boomerang Glider @ Yahoo! Video

Very simple, "on the fly" quick-take video. Also uploaded onto YouTube.


Here are a couple of Nick Robinson's designs:

"Little Nicky"

"Triplane"

Natural History Museum's Art & Science Family Day: "Beautiful Birds"

This is our second time at the Museum; we were there, maybe two years ago. The theme was birds. I've never been much for origami birds, so didn't have much in the way of exhibit models, pre-made. I wanted to do more complex ones, but ran out of time.



I was pleased to see two friends from my gymnastics life come by for a visit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photos here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hat tip: Douglas Philips on Origami-L (mailing List)

Yami gets away with "Grabbing the breast and pulling the tail"

This is Randlett's flapping bird.

I sometimes wince at Yami's humor when it borders on the edge of "inappropriate for children's ears".

There was one year that Yami apparently offended some wife of some program director at the JACC in downtown Los Angeles, during Children's Day. I only learned of it sometime later, when we stopped getting invited back, after two years of doing it. My contact didn't know the details, but I it's hard to imagine Yami offending anyone since he's so generous and kind; but I wonder if it had to do with humor like this?

I vaguely remember him phrasing something in a really funny way (I'm absolutely sure it was unintentional, and just came out funny) once, while teaching the Thai tulip. I don't remember the exact wording, but it had to do with the moment when you expand the model, like the waterbomb, by blowing air into it. To orient the students s to which way to hold the model, he said "this is the top and this is the bottom...." and pointed to his rear end.....then talked about blowing through the hole. I wish I could remember the way it came out, because it was hilarious. But I'm sure you can just imagine...

Have Furoshiki, will Travel

While closing up shop, there were still a few odds and ends on the table that Yami hadn't packed away yet. Yami showed us what to do with it.



From Wikipedia:

"Furoshiki (風呂敷, furoshiki) are a type of traditional Japanese wrapping cloth that were frequently used to transport clothes, gifts, or other goods. Although possibly dating back as far as the Nara period, the name, meaning "bath spread", derives from the Edo period practice of using them to bundle clothes while at the sentō (public baths;public furo). Before becoming associated with public baths, furoshiki was known as hirazutsumi (平包), or flat folded bundle. Eventually, the furoshiki's usage extended to serve as a means for merchants to transport their wares or to protect and decorate a gift.

Modern furoshiki can be made of a variety of cloths, including silk, chirimen, cotton, rayon, and nylon. Furoshiki are often decorated with traditional designs or by shibori. There is no one set size for furoshiki, they can range from hand sized to larger than bed-sheets. The most common sizes are 45cm (17.7 inch) and 68-72cm (26.7-28.3 inch).

Although there are still furoshiki users in Japan, their numbers declined in the post-war period, in large part due to the proliferation of the plastic shopping bag. In recent years, it has seen a renewed interest as environmental protection became a concern. Furoshiki are, however, commonly used to wrap and transport lunch boxes (bento) and often double as a table mat for the lunch."

Yami also sent me this link diagramming how to do this.

Yami Folds Under Pressure

While showing my friend Thea how easy it is to piece together Kenneth Kawamura's butterfly ball using a "third hand" template, Yami goofs it up the 2nd time around- a rarity: