Nick Robinson's Blog, page 43

Lang's origami law-suit

origami ripoff or original art?

It had to happen – so many origami artists are being ripped off but nobody was (or, to be truthful, financially able) prepared to put their neck on the line to protect them in the courts. Robert Lang has done this, on behalf of himself and Manuel Sirgo Alvarez, Noboru Miyajima, Nicola Bandoni, Toshikazu Kawasaki and Jason Ku.

Basically, crease patterns of their designs have been turned into "works of art" by UK artist Sarah Morris. Her lawyer has said the case is "completely without merit, and we look forward to defending the matter in court".

However, we know better. We should therefore do everything we can to promote and support Lang's case. If this means financially, I'm certain we can organise a fund-raising effort to help. It's a hugely important test-case for origami rights.

You can read full details on Lang's site.

Oh, Spanish Ewes

French, actually, but the pun wouldn't have worked. I saw this at the Exposition of Paper-folding History at El Escorial, set in a fabulous lower room of the ancient building. There was a lot of quality work I was familiar with, but the name of Victor Coeujolie was new to me. For more of his work, check out his (short) page on CRIMP and (thanks Francesco) his FlickR page.

He had made several amazing designs, including this sheep. Some unkind person suggested it could be the wig for a model of myself. As a member of CRIMP, the influences are clear, but he's applying them to animate subjects to great effect! I'm sure we will see more stunning work from him in the future.

Pub Origami in Spanish

A full report will be coming soon, but one pleasant surprise during my recent visit was when good friend Halle (alias Carlos Gonzalez Santamaria) presented me a copy of my "Pub Origami" in Spanish.

I had no idea that it had been translated (some five years ago) – publishers generally don't bother to inform their authors of such trivia, much less pay them a fee.

The book is reduced to a paperback format and comes with a pack of paper, all inside a neat black box. There seems quite a trend for origami boxed sets, but personally I'd go for a hardback version every time.

España, aquí vengo!

Assuming the howling wind and Icelandic eruptions will allow the plane to take off, I shall be in Spain tonight. I always find it a disconcerting experience, partly because I'm naturally disorganised and growing worse by the year, but mainly because the actual flight is the quickest part of it and will take less time than I need to get to the airport in the first place. The unreliability of the bus and railway system means leaving around 6 hours before the flight.

I've now had a total of 11 Spanish classes, have learned about 60 words (and then forgotten at least half). Despite this, I shall try to teach in Spanish. It's entertaining if not instructive! There are apparently strikes all over madrid, but what can you do?

Completely off the subject, here's a photo I entered in a  competition to win a prize from the fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss, someone I greatly enjoy reading.What he'll make oif it, nadie sabe ;)

A Dastardly Design?

I'm working hard on two new books; one is animals / birds / fishes etc, the other is cunningly entitled "things that go" – cars, boats, planes etc. They will be aimed at youngsters, so I've been trying hard to find or create car-type designs.

I came up with a "chariot", then tried to add two chariots together. It needed a third sheet to complete the model and hey presto, some kind of vehicle emerged. It taught it at a recent mini-meeting in Nottingham and as usual, chose the colours I needed least to teach it with. This means that the purples, pinks etc go and the reds and greens are left. The ensuing, somewhat garish, combination reminded me of a cross between a Cadbury's Twirl bar (I sunk enough of those over the years!) and Dick Dastardly's car from Wacky Races. What do you think?

Shihtzu idea?

I recently posted a photo of my latest creation (a dog) on Facebook. Joseph Wu suggested it might be improved by the addition of "googly eyes", so that's what I've done (OK, via photoshop).

Clearly (?) a joke, it nevertheless opens up the old debate about the merits of decorating origami. Most dedicated folders don't like it, but I'm becoming increasingly attracted to it, certainly since I've started working with children. However, sticking on "googly eyes" is a step too far, although next week, I may be advocating it. What do you think?

There'll be crease in the valley…

A rather attractive looking envelope came through the letter box this morning, containing my complementary copies of Creased #3, plus payment (yes, money) for the use of my design. This latter is a first for me, but hopefully not the last, dosh being always welcome in our house. It's actually been a long time since I had an exciting parcel like this. Back in the 80′s they would arrive several times per week, but email seems to have done for them, by and large.

So, another opportunity to examine their efforts. It's certainly an elegantly designed magazine, with lots of interest to fold and colour throughout. Perhaps my only beefs are that the edges/creases of each step are a little thin and lack definition. The colour fill used for each step uses the "gradient" feature, which adds to the slight feeling of "wishy-washiness". Or it may just be that my eyesight is worse than I thought.

[image error]However, this is a minor carp. Aside from my classic elephant (cough) there are several thought-provoking models, including a crease pattern for an excellent Wolf by Fabien Correia, a name I've been keeping an eye on. Nathan Ascher offers a box using a technique to determine the size of the enclusore, so that it fits your origami paper perfectly! Bruno Ferraz offers a clever box that transmogrifies into a wallet. I'm less enamoured of Paula Versnick's chess set and board.

There's a rat in me kitchen…

It's a moot point trying to distinguish an origami rat from an origami mouse. I've tried for years to create a simple design that would fall under either category. It's a mystery why some critturs should be so easy to capture in paper whilst others require a lot more effort.

As always, you have to balance complexity with "mouseness", but in general, a pointed tail and two ears are just about enough. I think Yoshizawa's mouse is probably the pinnacle, with Dave Brill's (called a mouse but is a rat to my way of thinking) and Paul Jackson's scampering behind.

I've recently come up with something in the genre, I tend to see it as a rat, due to the pointed snout. It's from a kite base and so the head will be the reverse colour, and in order to find the ears, it's open back & (worse, to my values) an open tail. But I don't really mind, because I think it has character, perhaps the most important aspect of a successful design (along with the folding sequence).

I'll keep working n this as the years crawl slowly by, but for this week at least, I've got a rat for a friend!

Comment j'étais crazzy…

I had a twin delight today, two copies of the MFPP's tribute to Eric Joisel edition arrived from La Belle France. One is  edition 118-120 of "Le Pli" (their magazine). The other has identical contents, but has a different cover and is on general sale to the public.

I think the MFPP were right to take their time producing this and it's been worth the wait. Inside are 52 pages of tribute, including photos, interviews and diagrams. It probably helps if you speak a little French, but it's well worth having even if you don't.

For those who won't be able to afford the book produced by the Tanteidan, this is an excellent summary of his life and works. You should also invest in the booklet Eric and I produced together for the BOS.

You get diagrams for; Coq, Rat, Bebe Dragon, Aberdeen, Poisson, Nain, Chat, 3D Manchot, Petit Demon, plus the wonderful EJ mask created by Nguyen Hung Cuong. When you look into it, there are surprisingly few conventional diagrams available considering the enormous talent Eric had. In many ways, I think the simple models were created to keep the folding public happy, since Eric knew most of us would be totally unable to make his more complex designs!

You can buy the booklet from the excellent shop on the site of Nic Terry, for 15 euros plus postage. As you look round his site, you many find there are a few other books you need to add to your collection!

Hear my crane a comin'

Having produced quite a few business cards with crane-shaped holes in them, I was left with quite a few crane-shaped pieces of paper. I don't know what to do with them, but I couldn't throw them away! So here they are – anyone have any bright ideas? There's not quite enough for confetti…