Nick Robinson's Blog, page 34

Farewell Creased ;(

Sok Song, founder of Creased magazine has issued the following statement;

“Unfortunately, Issue #12 will be our final one for the magazine. We knew from the beginning that the road would be a tough one for a niche magazine with no advertising and corporate sponsorship, and that it would probably be a short-term project and doesn’t really make any business sense from a financial standpoint. The magazine was started and survived until this point, all thanks to a generous fiscal donor who agreed from the beginning to help finance operating costs of maintaining an office in Manhattan, as well as printing and shipping expenses. We hoped that the subscription numbers would improve as we entered the second and third year, but we just don’t have the resources to make that possible with the limited number of people working on the magazine.”

Whilst perhaps not surprising in the current economic climate, this is a huge shame. The standards Sok and his team applied to this project has been exemplary – every issue has been a treasure trove of beautiful content and design. If you have’t seen the magazine, go to their site – I urge you to buy back-copies while you can.

This is a sad example for other would-be private publishers of origami content. Even with the advantages of the Internet, you’d have to be a brave (or rich) entrepreneur to launch the same kind of project again. Maybe a look at costs and production standards may help (find an office outside Manhattan?). However, without a quality product, you’ll struggle for income – the “4 Esquinas” magazine is professional and completely free, for example.

Sok ends on a higher note;

“Don’t be disheartened by this news, because Creased will be pursuing other publishing opportunities from individual booklets and collections as well as full books and ebooks from your favorite authors and creators.”

I look forward to seeing what he does next!

This is the modern world

I’ve used OUSA’s excellent new online diagram vending system to dip my toes into e-publishing.

It’s something I hoped the BOS would implement first, but I’ve just not pushed hard enough due to lack of mental energy. We will be getting there soon through thanks to the sterling efforts of Paul Hanson.

So, my first e-book is a republishing of my first ever booklet,  “One Dozen Folds” and you can buy it here – 12 excellent designs by a variety of folders.

DECORATION by Ted Norminton

SPORTS CAR by Iris Walker

MEDIEVAL LADY by Thea Anning

HEXAHEDRON by Nick Robinson

CANDLE by Jonathan Shapcott

DOUBLE CUBE by Dave Brill

FISH MODULE by Francis Ow

BABY BIRD by Nick Robinson

ORI-TWIST by Jeff Beynon

ENVELOPE by Paul Jackson

SHIP AHOY by Ted Darwin

KERMIT by Mick Guy

Sorry, me old Bucko

Life is rarely dull with email – I had another interesting exchange recently with a character (allegedly) called “Vinson Bucko”. (It sounds like an anagram, but I haven’t cracked it, if it is.) So, the first message was;

“I was wondering if you could design a unit for me and create an

exclusive diagram of it for me.”

I asked for more details;

“I mean you would design an modular origami and create a diagram of it that you would send to me.”

I suggested it might be an expensive process. He replied;

“How much do you want for it”

I suggested $5000 would be a suitable fee. His concise reply was;

“Nope”.

End of communications. Almost surreal, don’t you think? Both his name and email bring no useful google results, so I’m certain it’s someone winding me up, or at least, trying to. Next time, try harder ;)

Napkins in Basel

[image error]Following the wonderful Didactics Conference (report coming soon) Wayne, Joan and I went to Basel to check out his exhibition of napkin folds at the Toy World Museum. This building in the centre of the city has a superb collection of wooden toys, exquisitely carved and displayed. They also host Joans exhibition until 07/04/13.

The display is simply stunning. Napkin folding on a scale and diversity I’ve never encountered before. Looking through images from old books, you are tempted to think “it looks great, but surely you couldn’t do that with napkins?” The answer is, yes, you can! The type of simple folds I was familiar with are but the entree to this feast of folding, which culminates in a massive pair of lions on with side of a temple.

For many years, Joan has tried to persuade us that Europe has a tradition of folding as deep and rich as that of Japan. This exhibition goes a long way towards proving that. As you look at the dozens of exhibits, you’re struck by how many look like contemporary origami. There’s a peacock straight from a JOAS book, a 3m display of what appears to be Floderer-type folds, but which is 400 years old. Perhaps most interestingly, there was a snake with a tongue formed by what we know as “box pleating”, again many hundreds of years before Elias discovered it.

If you get the chance to visit it, I urge you to do so. Best of all, Joan told us that in January he will set up a similar display in Bath, so us Brits can get to learn from and enjoy his research. You will eb staggered at the work he has done, both in research terms as well as in technique – he has had to re-learn these lost techniques with very little information and has made a superb job of it.

I’ve posted some photos on a new facebook page I set up for Joan, plus you can see more images at the museum website. Finally, there’s a discussion area on the Didactics forum for you to share your knowledge.

Napkins in Basle

[image error]Following the wonderful Didactics Conference (report coming soon) Wayne, Joan and I went to Basle to check out his exhibition of napkin folds at the Toy World Museum. This building in the centre of the city has a superb collection of wooden toys, exquisitely carved and displayed. They also host Joans exhibition until 07/04/13.

The display is simply stunning. Napkin folding on a scale and diversity I’ve never encountered before. Looking through images from old books, you are tempted to think “it looks great, but surely you couldn’t do that with napkins?” The answer is, yes, you can! The type of simple folds I was familiar with are but the entree to this feast of folding, which culminates in a massive pair of lions on with side of a temple.

For many years, Joan has tried to persuade us that Europe has a tradition of folding as deep and rich as that of Japan. This exhibition goes a long way towards proving that. As you look at the dozens of exhibits, you’re struck by how many look like contemporary origami. There’s a peacock straight from a JOAS book, a 3m display of what appears to be Floderer-type folds, but which is 400 years old. Perhaps most interestingly, there was a snake with a tongue formed by what we know as “box pleating”, again many hundreds of years before Elias discovered it.

If you get the chance to visit it, I urge you to do so. Best of all, Joan told us that in January he will set up a similar display in Bath, so us Brits can get to learn from and enjoy his research. You will eb staggered at the work he has done, both in research terms as well as in technique – he has had to re-learn these lost techniques with very little information and has made a superb job of it.

I’ve posted some photos on a new facebook page I set up for Joan, plus you can see more images at the museum website. Finally, there’s a discussion area on the Didactics forum for you to share your knowledge.

Angel Delight

I’m currently working on a book about origami Angels – it may turn out to be slightly “impure”, using thread, multi-piece etc from time to time, but there will be plenty of “proper” folds. One request from the publishers was for an “angel bookmark”.

I’ve got through many sheets of paper in search of this subject, with much frustration. The problem is that necessarily, one can’t produce too much detail without making at all too complex and we can’t have that!

Here’s the most pleasing form so far, appropriately adorning the festive issue of the British Origami magazine.

You want a WHAT???

I get several request a week for diagrams or help to locate specific designs. However, one came in today that has be slightly baffled. It goes;

“I wanted to know if you can show me how to make

an origami  of top half horse, bottom half duck.”

I’m almost convinced it’s a friend winding me up, but have ask for more details, just out of curiosity. Life is rarely dull!

Here’s what this monstrous hybrid might like like, apologies to Katsuta and Sternberg for cross-breeding their designs.

The question is, is it a Hock or a Durse?

Make your Orisons

ORISON is the name of the magazine produced by the Origami Sociëteit Nederland who have been publishing this excellent booklet for a long time (since 1983!) and as origami mags go, it’s one of the best for a regular supply if new, not too complex designs.

They favour diagrams over text based content and it must be hard to keep finding this many models, month after month. However my old friend Peter Blondel seems to succeed every issue.

The latest came through today and features my “bat” amongst others. They have recently decided to use creators diagrams as is rather than redrawing them. I’m all in favour of seeing the original diagrams, even if they are not perfect. It’s all part of the design in my eyes.

I’ve yet to visit the Netherlands, but must put it higher up my wish list.

My first affair

I noticed recently that my list of books didn’t include my first semi-serious effort from around 1987, “One Dozen Folds“. So, I’ve rectified this!

It occurs to me there might be some mileage in republishing it as an e-book, but I imagine it would be pirated within days.

German as it is spoke, proper like!

My intermittent love affair with the German language continues in a very ad-hoc fashion. Basically, the only time I speak it is when in Germany, so you can imagine that progress is *very* slow! However, after a few days, a slight degree of fluency (if not accuracy) develops. Now you can marvel at just such an occasion, when Paulo Mulatinho decided to interview me about the finer points of origami philosophy, but in German!

Marvel as I struggle to express deep thoughts using a vocabulary of around 26 words! There’s a second video around there somewhere, in case you’ve not laughed enough.