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.

Won Park Improvises a Newspaper for a Bottle Opener

Won Park at the Japanese-American National Museum

Won Park on CNN

$pinning Tip by Wensdy Whitehead

F.I.P.

p

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Hand Clawing Out from Grave created by Eileen Tan
About a 15" x 30" rectangle of steel grey Strathmore paper

Skull by Hojyo, Takashi
Folded from 4 3/4 inch square of tissue foil


Little Bird by Miyajima, Noboru
Folded from 3" unryu foil

Black Rose by Phu Tran
Leaf Stand by Kawasaki, Toshikazu
6" Tant commercial origami paper

Shopping for Dollars?

Pega$u$ by Won Park
$hopping Cart by Sy Chen
Folded by Michael Sanders

If you're shopping around for a fun, complex dollar bill model, Marcio Noguchi has published his first run of diagrams for Won Park's popularly requested pegasus model. Go to the Moneyfolders Unite Group.

Eric Joisel (11/15/1956 - 10/10/2010)

His friends and family have lost a loved one. The origami community has lost a master and pioneer. The world has lost a true artiste. His work deserves to be marveled at in every museum as art- definitely not "kid's craft". His sculpted origami work truly elevated the field of paperfolding into a respectable medium for artistic expression.

I always hoped to meet him one day at a convention; the chance to do so in this world has now passed.

My limited contact with him consisted of him granting me permission to sell his cartoon rat- one of my favorite folds. All of Joisel's models have charm and humor. They are enchanting and exquisite...like wooden sculptures and clay statues, not folded paper. To look upon Joisel's origami masterpieces is to be humbled by awe and beauty.

This is the legacy he leaves behind- a gift to the world.

Also blogging:
Nick Robinson

None of Your Bee's Wax!

Arriving 2 hours late, Thea and I found 2 fire trucks outside the library and our origami friends milling about. Apparently the building was evacuated on account of a bee invasion.

So much for origami this month.

Celebrating 50 Year Legacy of Aerospace Corporation

June 5, 2010
Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo CA

I missed out on teaching gymnastics today to help Joe with his event, celebrating The Aerospace Corporation's 50 years of leadership in space programs. It might be the last opportunity to work with Joe since he says he's no longer doing these kind of things.

...So I had to get a picture of the three of us, "ruling the world" by supporting the earth and all its inhabitants with the fun of paperfolding.

Indoors, not a problem making the glider come back to me; but outdoors, it's pretty challenging, given the mercurial, fickle nature of wind patterns.

More pictures here.

Welcome to....Origami....IS.......Jerichooooooooo!!!

I've been looking for this one on YouTube for ages. Finally someone on YouTube uploaded it (4 months ago), and I isolated the portion relevant to this blogsite:



I am a big Y2J fan (mainly, I loved how he portrayed himself from 1999-2001). Not only is he your party host and the most charismatic showman to ever enter your living room, via television screen; not only is he the Ayatollah of Rock-and-Rollah...your role model and hero for the new millennium...but the bad mammajamma Chris Jericho also has mad origami skills. Check it out.

Then put up your fat, grubby little paperfolding hands in the air and chant along with me:

Go Jericho go!

Go Jericho go!

Go Jericho go!