Nick Robinson's Blog, page 36

Skillman to Shen

At the recent Sheffield maxi-meeting in Wentworth Castle, Dave Venables kindly brought a small selection from the BOS library archives for us to enjoy. Part of this was written communications from the late Philip Shen. As a huge fan of his work, I found these utterly enthralling!

One real gem was a letter from Jack Skillman to Shen, with hand-drawn diagrams and folded examples of his new invention, the legendary Jackstone! It was amazing to be actually handling pages from the history of origami. I can’t begin to imagine what other treasures are filed away in the BOS archives. If only someone would gift us enough money to create a properly funded and staffed resource for this extraordinary collection.

M2 2

More work from the same client – the finished artwork

and the original design

Not U2, M2…

I recently did a commission for M2 Printing Services, creating a variety of subjects. Here are the final artworks.

click for larger versions

Maxi meeting!

For the past 3 years I’ve organised a private Sheffield “maxi-meeting” at Wentworth Castle (20 miles up the road). This years event starts tomorrow and we have a special guest all the way from India, Himanshu Agrawal.

Essentially, it’s a relaxed weekend of folding and chatting with friends at a glorious venue. The weather has always been great and I hope this weekend will keep up the record. Here are photos of a previous event.

Book(s) of brilliant things

Checking on Amazon recently, I noticed that covers for three of my forthcoming books have been posted – the books themselves are due in Autumn. So, I’ve created individual pages for them on my list of published work, with details of the contents. They are

Origami X, Origami XOXO and Halloween Origami

Feel free to both buy and promote these books!

Kathi come home

For several years I have been a freind of Dr Angela Haeussler from Chemnitz in Germany (we met while I was doing an origami job there) She works extensively with children who need therapy and she uses origami extensively in her work.

I sent her some of my diagrams recently for use at work and she has sent back a charming video of thanks from her children. It’s hosted at a cake website (and why not), so I don’t know how long the link will remain, but it’s good and kitsch ;)

Moi? Un nul? Absolument pas!

The classic, if somewhat flawed “Origami For Dummies” has been translated into French as “Le Kit Origami Pour Les Nuls”, a title which tickles me!

All lovingly rendered in 100% Gallic, they have used the 2nd edition of the book, Dieu merci, but the free paper at the end is still is American (gaudy but square – meeeeeiou).

I’m assured that I will receive the started royalty of 3% of 2% of 1% of the trade price, so I look forward to investing it in some Boursin (le fromage, pas le plieur). Fingers crossed it will be in German next…

To confuse the publishers, why not buy it from Canada??

Lucky Lips

Someone recently sent me a link to downlaod a pdf bootleg of my classic “Adult Origami“, a hugely controversial product at the time, but thankfully no longer generating emails such as “you’re a pervert” (I replied “yes, and?”) and “you’re a disgrace to origami” (I replied “yes, and?”).  Anyway.

Filing the pdf in my AO folder, I noticed some examples of press coverage, including this nice photo from the “Erotica” magazine, which I’m sure you all subscribe to. I may have folded it for them, but can’t remember. Still, it’s a nice child-friendly image to share with you.

All our yesterdays

Jeff Beynon sent me some digitised photos from his BOS collection, I guess from the late 80s? Here’s one of myself with Florence Temko, David Lister and Thoki Yenn – how I miss “Aunty” Florence and Thok.

Walking on the Moon 2

A while back I was approached for permission to use one of my modular stars in a theatrical performance called “Moon 2 @ Tryston” in America.

The play is described as “an intergalactical political romance”, about two very different planets in a far-off solar system. Planet Verideen, where women reign over men, is ruled by Queen Philoxena and planet Gobara where a person’s worth is measured solely in material terms. With me so far?

Of course, I agreed. Other models include those by Endla Saar, Michael Shall/Marshall and Lillian Rothenberg. The play is now showing, see here for information.

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