Nick Robinson's Blog, page 44

Freising calling

Paulo, Nick, Kuni Kasahara in Freising

I'm delighted to announce that I've been invited to be a special guest at this years origami convention in Freising, Germany. For many years I've been lucky enough to count Paulo and Silke as good friends and they have been more than generous to me in the past.

The event takes place on the 10th-12th June and my fellow guest will be the street-artist Stephan Weber. If you have any possibility of attending, I recommend you take it. Check the website out too see what a wonderful venue it is.

Nick & Paulo in formal pose - note the absence of grey hairs!

Freising is an especially beautiful town just north of Munich, close to the airport, so is handily placed. The convention , as always, is in the amazing Domberg and like everything Paulo does, is sure to be stylish and beautifully presented. I'll get a chance to see their Origami Galerie and maybe renew my acquaintance with the odd glass of weissbier. Basically, I can't wait!

As ever, it will remind me how little effort I've put into improving my spoken German, but I 'm happy to make a fist of it & invent any words I'm not sure about.

Do you do balloon animals as well?

I recently had the opportunity to work for the National Association of Paper Merchants during their annual dinner. The venue was the Park Plaza Riverbank in London, a fairly upmarket hotel on the banks of the Thames, near the (impressive!) Vauxhall tube station.

Comedian Josh Daniels was the formal entertainmentan engaging character, but sadly I had to leave before he started) and my brief was to demonstrate then hand out models before and during the meal. I travelled down by train in the early afternoon and arrived at the hotel. I met up with Tim Bowler (NAPM Director), who allowed me to shower and get changed into my smart gear. Those of you who know me well will understand my concept of "smart", I had made sure what was expected before I came down and donned a pair of elegant black trousers and a pale blue open-necked shirt.

Imagine my delight when the toastmaster for the evening, Brian Greenan, came up to me and said "I've got somewhere you can get changed Nick!" "I am changed!", I managed to reply. The horrified look on his face would have been a treat in other circumstances, but I persuaded him that a) I'd checked in advance, b) Tim had seen it and said nothing and c) as an artist from "oop North", this was what people might expect of my fashion sensibilities. In the end, it turned out to be no real issue. Me? In a suit? There's got to be a first time, I suppose!

Joking aside, it was a fabulous opportunity to expose myself to over 200 high-powered paper manufacturers, including Antalis (with whom I had worked before), GF Smith, Robert Horne, Denmaur, Howard Smith and many more. I made some wet-folded models in advance and left one in the centre of each of the 20 tables, alongside some hastily DIY'd calling cards. Little did I realise the waiters would simply put the bottles of water etc all over the table, often obscuring my little gems. However, as I merrily "table-hopped", I pointed them out.

As always during meals, guests have only a certain tolerance for anything that interrupts the flow of alcohol and food, but they gave me somewhat curious attention.  I pointed out that everyone who I teach origami to is a potential buyer of their product, and this certainly warmed them to my demonstrations! With some I actually managed to discuss technical issues related to folding of paper. I trust (and hope) that some work may arise from the event.

I finished my duties around 9.20 and even turned down a free meal kindly offered by Tim's delightful daughter who was acting as the photogrpaher for the evening (and whose name escapes me!)  since it was meat-based. I caught a tube back to St Pancras station, where the 10.25 train got me home to Sheffield at 01.25. I certainly wouldn't want to make a living out of this type of event, but in moderation, they are fun!

Oh yes, the title of this post came from a slightly sozzled woman who thought origami was highly amusing, but really wanted something made from rubber…

http://www.napm.org.uk/annual_dinner.htm

My bunny valentine

I recently completed some classes at a school in nearby Whiston (where, coincidentally I found that headteacher Maggie had been in my year at school!). Since Easter was coming up, I taught them a simple 2-piece rabbit. At the end of the class, one of the little charmers presented me with the present shown below. I'm a sucker for gifts like this – my wall is covered with them.

Creased Pachyderm

[image error]A couple of years ago I created an elephant to order for a commercial client and eventually came up with diagrams for it. More recently I was approached by creased.com for permission to publish it in their second issue. Of course I was delighted, but even more so when I saw the folded example they had made for the cover – it's exquisitely folded.

We had some discussion about whether the trunk could/should be folded forwards – the clients wanted it facing backwards because it was to be cast in an acrylic block!) I have no firm opinion on the position of the trunk – I'm happy for it to swing either way and said so!

Needless to say, my opinion of this organisation has gone through the roof and you should all subscribe immediately ;)

Everybody work the dinosaur…

I'm currently working on a potential book with  a US publisher. Despite the fact that the contract is flying back and forth as I try to negotiate the best deal (increasingly publishers expect you to be "owners" of all the work you submit, which makes it tricksy with other people's designs!) I've already started working on the project, since it will reduce the pressure when/if the contract does come through with a 2 month deadline attached. In either case, diagrams can be used in other projects if it falls through.

The subject of the book is "animals", covering four-legged, swimming and flying varieties. I'm in the middle of a "creative frenzy", where I torture paper all day long in the hope something half-decent may magically emerge. One such contender turned out to be a variation of a design I created 20 odd years ago, when everything had to be 3D. Fascianing to see the difference a few years make, it's actually simpler and more elegant than the predecessor, so by my standards, that's an improvement!

Paper Cranes for Japan

You may be aware that several groups are involved with raising funds for work in Japan following the tsunami.  There is an independent project titled 'Origami for Relief' with all donations and funds raised going directly to the British Red Cross.

I saw one of their stands today and the volunteers had all recently learned to fold the crane. At £1 each, they have already raised over £700 – not bad for non-folders! It's great to see origami being responsible for helping this deserving cause – if you see them, buy a crane!

They also have a facebook page – what's not to like?

Colour prejudice

I'm increasingly delighted with the artwork that my young students are adding to the models we make. Once you give "permission" to get creative, swans no longer need to be white, nor penguins black. What happens is a cascade of colours to delight the eye. I thoroughly recommend all origami teachers to relax any prejudice they may have and try this out. The students feel even more proud of a model after they have personalised it.

Pixellated Penguins

I've written previously about the use of a penguin to promote the opening of the Ruskin Collection at the Sheffield Millennium Gallery. The Gallery tweeted instructions on folding a penguin, then invited followers to fold them and upload a picture to their Flickr group.

You'll be shocked to learn that several people managed to complete the task! The opening day was today and I spent a happy two hours folding penguins, along with several other designs, for visitors to the exhibition. My journey home was enlivened by learning that Sheffield United had beaten local rivals Leeds at football. I promptly added a SUFC-clad penguin to their collection!

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Swanning About

As a professional paper-folder, I sometimes get to fold where no man (or woman) has folded before. In late October, this turned out to be Chatsworth House, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire! I had been approached during summer to provide eleven large flying swans, to tie in with exhibits based on stories by Hans Christian Anderson. These were to be part of the decoration of several state rooms in the house during Christmas.

A quick trawl of both the web and my book collection revealed that there were no existing origami swans "in flight". I called my origami mentor Wayne Brown and we spent a happy few hours trying to capture the elegant profile required. Fairly quickly we decided an isosceles triangle was the most efficient format and Wayne came up with a superb solution, which I then simplified!

The next problem was the paper. Even though the design was highly efficient, a large sheet was required to produce the desired wingspan of two and a half feet. The wings were essentially a single layer of paper, so wet-folding was required to give them some shape and rigidity. My preferred paper for this has long been Canson Mi-Teintes, but the largest sheet I could get hold of was far too small, so I arranged from some to be imported from France (the home of Canson) and delivered direct.

These measured around three foot by four foot. Even with paper this large, I still had to cut out to triangles from each sheet and join them to form an even larger triangle. Masking tape did this job and was hidden inside the finished fold.

Wayne and I made a variety of sizes, intending to enhance the illusion of perspective as the swans flew away. We custom-made some small hooks using paper clips and taped these inside the body to provide two mounting points. Some very fine fishing wire would provide the means of suspension – Chatsworth had promised three rods spanning the area we were to fill. I recruited Darren Rodgers for the installation, being tall and with no fear of heights, he was invaluable! We were passed though security and led along darkened stone corridors, (designed so the servants and masters never met) until a secret door led out to the magnificent state dining room.

We were to hang our swans by the entrance to the room, between two marble columns and shelves of book over 400 years old. A ladder was provided and thankfully it was a tall one, since the rods were over 20 feet in the air! The lack of good lighting, hair-width line and failing eyesight caused immense problems – we literally couldn't see the wire to tie knots with! Other problems soon became apparent – the more swans we put in place, the more difficult it was to add news ones, since the ladder kept catching wires and causing "dying swans" to cascade to the floor.

In the end, it took us nearly 4 hours to hang eleven swans. We then decided too many wings were a-drooping, so added some "garden wire" support to the wings, allowing us to provide some uplift. The job was completed with visitors passing by making complimentary comments. With hindsight we'd have done the whole thing differently, but it was certainly eye-catching.

Smith on Yoshizawa

When I joined the BOS in 1984, I didn't realise how close I'd been to seeing Yoshizawa somewhere near his peak – he'd visited a BOS convention 6 months ago. It was 13 years later when he returned, sadly a shadow of the folder he had been (but inspirational none the less!)

I had a call last night from John  Smith, looking for copies of a review he wrote about AY's visit in 83 (BOSmag 104, trivia fans). I was happy to oblige and thought I'd share a little poem he wrote at the time. John was a huge influence on my origami thinking in the early days.