Image118, originally uploaded by GuoJlng.

omg i'm juz so proud of myself for making this man =D i'm super zai
(no guide/manual/instructions used whatsoever, juz plenty of creativity!)

A página Jeff’s Origami Sightings, mantida por Jeff Rutzky, lista aparições de origami na mídia. A mais recente é em um episódio do seriado de TV Numb3rs, no qual o físico teórico Larry Fleinhardt dobra e lança um avião de papel. A imagem acima mostra um quadro dessa cena. Aí vemos Larry segurando o avião, junto à matemática Amita.

Numb3rs é um de meus programas de TV favoritos, que recomendo a todo aquele que goste de matemática. Em cada episódio, vemos ao gênio matemático Charlie ajudando a seu irmão Don, agente do FBI, a resolver crimes de todo tipo. Gosto do programa porque o herói é um professor de matemática (um saudável contraste frente a tantos Rambos e Terminators), e porque mostra como a matemática pode ser aplicada para resolver problemas do mundo “real”.

Duas coisas, em particular, me chamaram a atenção na cena acima. O aviãozinho que Larry segura parece ser este pretenso melhor avião de papel do mundo (siga o link para diagramas e instruções de vôo). Com variações menores, esse é justamente o avião que minha mãe me ensinou quando criança, lá longe e faz tempo, e que nunca esqueci -- pausa nostálgica --.

O segundo item interessante é a escultura na frente de Amita, feita de lápis. Trata-se da obra "72 lápis", de George Hart, professor de Ciência da Computação em Stony Brook University, EUA. O Prof. Hart é famoso pelas suas esculturas geométricas, que podem ser vistas em suas várias páginas web. Para os aficcionados ao origami modular e geométrico, recomendo particularmente sua Enciclopédia de Poliedros, uma grande referência online e tutorial sobre poliedros. Lá podemos aprender o que é um icosaedro estrelado tetraedricamente, ver desenhos de poliedros por Leonardo da Vinci, saber se é possível construir um zonoedro de 20 faces, e até visualizar modelos em realidade virtual.

Hier sind die Ergebnisse, die Post hat die zwei dazu prädestiniert ein Päarchen zu bilden. Sie sind sooo süß.

Nachdem die Hasen fast die Hälfte der Zeit gefressen haben, nutzten wir den Rest um eineige Ideen zu falten bzw. zu testen.

Here are the results, the pose just predestined them to build a couple. They're sooo cute

After the rabbits ate nearly the half of the time, we used the rest for folding and testing some ideas.

Realmente, existe uma empresa chamada Industrial Origami, sediada em San Francisco, EUA. Essa empresa tem desenvolvido e patenteado um método para construir carros e vários outros produtos metálicos, por meio da dobradura de placas de metal. A idéia central é a de introduzir cortes na placa de metal -- cortes curvos, na forma de "sorrisos" ou smiles --, ao longo das linhas de dobra (veja a imagem).  Segundo os relatos da própria empresa, o método traz benefícios em relação a técnicas tradicionais de montagem, pois, por exemplo, não exige soldas nem outro tipo de união de partes separadas, e permite cortar custos de produção em até 70%. Vejam esta galeria de produtos construídos pela empresa, que também informa que a mesma técnica pode ser aplicada a outros materiais em folhas ou lâminas, como plásticos e materiais compostos.

Bom, não é exatamente origami, pois as peças são construídas a partir de placas cortadas da maneira apropriada a cada peça, ao invés de dobrar uma placa quadrada ou com alguma outra forma genérica inicial. De todas formas, é uma idéia muito interessante.

A boa notícia, veiculada por CNET News, é que a empresa acaba de conseguir fundos em um total de 17 milhões de dólares, para financiar a comercialização de seus produtos. É curioso ver essa notícia justamente em tempos de crise financeira mundial. Ao mesmo tempo, é uma boa indicação de que o origami tem aplicações relevantes e merece ser levado a sério.

First, I just want to say I think it's cool that I live in a country that look up at the stars and wonders, how can we get origami up there. These ships are going to be thrown towards earth from the ISS.

Now to content:

My experience living in New York with a cleaner than usual roommate has left me damaged (read: civilized). Suddenly, it's never clean enough any more. I even dusted the other day. In the near future, I promise to share the the details of my "apaato" with you, but in the meantime i haven't been able to keep it up to Home & Garden photography standards (sorry, Grandma). Sadly, it constantly looks like someone lives here of something.

In the meantime, my mom went retro-summer camp style and sent me a packed stocked with Halloween candy. The amount of candy contained in this package was daunting and surpassed my best candy consuming abilities. Plus, I have a duty to instigate a little cultural exchange with my students from time to time. Apparently this is part of what they pay for.

Thus, I took potion of the stash  into school to share. Specifically, I took the jumbo bag of DOTS--sporting a ghost/"invisible mystery flavor" theme for the season. In retrospect, I see it was a bit cruel and perhaps and error of judgment on my part to try and pass along something with "mystery flavor" theme to my students. In my defense, certain items at the grocery store would convince one that nothing, let alone a :mystery theme" could inspire culinary shyness in a Japanese person.

However, this is exactly what happened. I admit was put off a bit when they approached it with the same reaction I approach Japanese candy. It was like watching Superman encounter Kryptonite for the first time.  They found the packaging a bit intimidating, and most of them cautiously took timid half-bites into the individual DOTS and reacted with a variety of faces. It was a winner with some of the students, but they all had an opinion to share. The stickiness of the candy certainly was a talking point.

I guess it was a bit ethnocentric of me to expect them to worship this as the gold standard of candy. Also, I was thrown because Japan is a gel/food culture. I think this has to do with their fish-centric diet. In this respect, DOTS are perhaps the most Japanese of the canon of classic American candies. Perhaps, the medium is the message, and that medium full of English writing, mystery flavors, and only semi-goofy pictures of cartoon ghosts says "strange" to my students.

I suppose i might end up bearing the weight of making sure this candy does not go to waste. There might be a number of nights during the next month that I end up like good ol' Hariett . Pray for me to make it until All Saints Day.

This week I have also undertaken the task of learning Hiragana. It's one of three Japanese systems of writing, and perhaps the easiest of the three. It's phonetically based, which is nice. I'm enjoying the process. Today, one of my students was giving me some help when she decided she wanted to figure out a couple of ways to write my name in Kanji (a pictograph system of writing). She could only think of one symbol for "Te" which was the symbol for "Hand. The two options she gave me for "Do" (there is no ending "d" sound in Japanese") were the symbols for "sand" or "door".  So there you go, I am either "hand sand" or "hand door". I think those both suit me well.

And now, "sophisticated" Britons let loose in Japan:

There is a nice instructional video on how to create the paper swan, over on the MAKE blog.  It uses nothing more than interlocking paper triangles.  They mention that this project is a current Asian favorite for origamists.  Many people give these out as prized pieces.  I might have to try this one.  It would make an aweful interesting table decoration. 

To read the full article on the paper swan, just continue with this link, or click above to watch the video.

About a year ago I decided to start making blank cards to sell, in addition to my paper sculptures. With the economy being what it is, it seemed like a good idea to branch out and offer something a little more affordable than my sculptures at art fairs. I’ve had mixed results so far.

 

[caption id="attachment_38" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="japanese boy dollbutterflies"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_41" align="alignnone" width="177" caption="flowers"][/caption]

Some of my best sellers have been the Japanese Dolls, Butterflies and flower cards.

Altering my own art has been a lot of fun. I’m calling the cards in this series Emixed.

First is a video showing some cutting tricks for a Möbius strip. I show this to my topology class, then have them play around with Möbius strips—twisting them various numbers of times and cutting down the middle or in thirds. One of my favorite examples is to pass the paper strip through a wedding ring, give it three half-twists and tape together. Cut the loop of paper down the center and the paper will form a knot around the ring. (I wrote about this trick here. It is attributed to Stanley Collins.)

The next video is by Erik Demaine and his collaborators, called Metamorphosis of the Cube. It shows how polygons can be folded into polyhedra and how polyhedra can be unfolded into polygons.

Finally, for fun, how to do origami with the NetFlix envelopes.

Come find the Asian-inspired jewelry, housewares, and gifts of MaJenta Designs (everything under $15-17!) at the South End (SOWA) Outdoor Market amongst other wonderfully talented Boston Handmade artists and crafters THIS Sunday (10/12/08)!  Its a holiday on Monday, so enjoy your long weekend by soaking up crisp autumn air and enjoy a day of shopping and supporting the local arts!

Dal blog di Ilaria Lab.com un post bellissimo :)

Come creare una custodia cd/dvd con un origami

Here's my block for Whoopdeedoo5:

Edited to add that I found the tutorial for the origami flowers here. They're surprisingly easy to make and completely addicting once you start!

Hier sind ein paar Impressionen des Entstehungsprozesses:

Here are some impressions of the building process:

Flori de hartie cresc din ziarul meu

Si parfum de cerneala proaspata din cer

Inunda-al meu vis si nu pot sa inteleg

Unde au plecat toti oamenii de pe strada pe care i-am vazut?

Am scris cu pamant pe marea uitarii ce-atunci o umpleai

Si cu creta pe albul cerului si carbune in adanc

O pasare mare, alba, se desprinde din creanga rugaciunii

Sunt catelul ce asteapta firimiturile sa cada.

Ganduri de ceara din aripi imi cresc

Pieptul meu inunda soarele, parfumul lui ceresc

Primesc al meu vis dar nu pot sa-l mai visez

Am adormit trezit visand ca dorm, pe tine sa te visez

Unde-am incaput mereu in atatea vise?

Nu mai vreau sa te visez, vreau sa te intalnesc.

Spune-mi ce sa fac, sa ma opresc din vis,

Spune-mi ce sa fac, sa inteleg ca nu esti vis.

Asculta piesa aici.

*Note : Picture intensive entry.

I just love creating with the gorgeous Japanese chiyogami papers!  I love the intricate patterns and the way they reflect light and the beautiful array of colors they come in!  My pendants and magnets have been hugely popular, but this time I wanted to  expand my line of chiyogami products to accessories that make great practical gifts for daily use!

First off, I have these great keychain bottle openers!  They are beautiful and fun and are great for those who need to organize their keys in style! It also serves a second purpose with its built in bottle opener back, which is great for those who want the practical aspect of a bottle opener keychain without appearing like a lush!

I also now offer great pocket mirrors as well!  These are equally as stunning and vibrant!  The mirror fits perfectly in your pocket, but also comes with a classy black velvet pouch, so you can keep the mirror in your purse as well without it getting dirty!

You can find either of these, as well as any of my other chiyogami products and Asian-inspired gifts in my MaJenta Designs online shop!

At it's 3rd edition, Asianim will take place at the Palais des Congrès de Liège.

A glance on the activities section is enough to entice  any  person with a soft spot for japanese culture:

• Cosplay,
• manga drawing contest,
• DanceDance Revolution  -for your own amusement or for the amusement of others and maybe for prizes as well
• video games - to be played on: PS3, Xbox 360,  Wii and "vintage" ones Nintendo, Mega Drive, Néogéo et PC Engine
• guests (Junko Kawakami , Keiko Ichiguchi et Jean-David Morvan)
• martial arts demonstrations -- with the help of: Japan Asbl, Team SK de LIEGE and La Mante Belge
• Origami, Haiku, Go, Mah-jong - brought by "Le Clan Takeda"
• Tea Ceremony, (japanese:) cuisine, languge ,caligraphy , the wearing of a Yukata - with the help of Passerelle Japon
• the art of growing a bonsai  by Bonsai Club de Liége
• role playing ( bleach, naruto and one piece mentioned)
• inflatable sumo  :))
• purikura booth
• fanzines
• anime projections (titles to be announced)
• amv booth
• j-music -- with support from Abunai and Higashi Music
• concerts : AciD FlavoR
• snacks and drinks (sushi/sashimi/tea...they didn't mention anything about sake thought)
• manga on sale -- by Slumberland bookstores and also "used" ones from fans

Now if all that isn't worth a trip to Liége I don't know what is!

Tickets are already on sale  at Slumberland bookstores across Belgium. Prices being 7€ / day, 12€/week-end. Concents are 10€ apart from entry fee.

see ya there!