Nick Robinson's Blog, page 5

Hiho, hiho, it’s off to Oberweißbach I go!

Joan Sallas has organised another conference in Germany and I’ve been asked to teach. Really looking forward to this!

Last night in Sweden

Just to help Trump learn geography, here’s a Swedish flag ;)   #trumpigami

Paper Life by Laura Rozenberg

Published on Createspace  ISBN: 1533312958  106 pages 8.5” x 8.5”

Origami books tend to fall into a few specific categories; the most common being collections of diagrams. Some cover the techniques required for folding and a few focus on the artistic qualities of work by master folders. Here, at long last is a new category, an autobiography of a talented but relatively unknown folder from Buenos Aires in Argentina.

The author is Laura Rozenberg, herself an Argentine, who is a volunteer managing editor for OUSA’s “The Paper” and is in the process of setting up a museum of paper-folding in Uruguay. She is thus perfectly situated to research and write this book.

Montoya (1920-1967) was a recluse who spent her time in her room, obsessively designing and folding new models. Thankfully, she shared these during correspondence with several key figures of the origami world, including Yoshizawa, Harbin, Elias, Oppenheimer and Legman. All of them greatly admired her work and her untimely death at the age of 47 surely robbed the world of a major creative talent. Legman in particular had a close relationship over many years. The book tells her fascinating story with both empathy and objectivity.

The book is beautifully presented and makes us of photos, diagrams and more artistically presented images. It covers Montoya’s life, but also presents it as a fascinating social history. Rozenberg’s researches have unearthed some fascinating archive documents and anyone with the slightest interest in the history of paper-folding will find this utterly fascinating. There are a few diagrams, but this is primarily an academic text, albeit written in a style that younger readers would easily be able to understand.  I can easily see how this book would fit into several different areas of an educational curriculum.

I read the book from cover to cover and will undoubtedly do so again. Montoya’s work is graceful and inspiring. You can find a list of her published designs at www.giladorigami.com/origami-database/Ligia Montoya and many diagrams can be found on the “The Origami World of Neal Elias” DVD written by Dave Venables and Marc Cooman (available at www.nickrobinson.info/origami/elias_dvd)

Lacking the economies of scale that commercial publishers can enjoy, the book costs £20 including free delivery and if you have any interest in the history of paper-folding, I urge you to invest in a copy.

Blowing in the wind #trumpigami

Here’s a tribute to the hair with a life of its own…

Behind the mask

A recent “mask” design for a client

The origami Mexican Wall solution

To launch my #Trumpigami page, here’s a model of the infamous “Mexican Wall”, with the aim of offering a quick, low-cost solution to the project.

 

Flugzeuge, noch einmal

This classic has been republished for the 5th time (that I know of) again, this time in German. I emailed the company and they have kindly sent a copy.

A small sticker on the cover amusingly says “Die fleigen immer! Garantiert!” (they always fly, guaranteed) – I wouldn’t like to be in their legal department ;)

 

Freezing & folding

It’s around zero degrees here in Yorkshire but work continues unabated. I’m currently filming videos for my dinogami book, but having to take a break every ten minutes because my fingers are too numb to fold properly and I’m too money-conscious to heat the entire house just for one room.

Poissons d’ origami

I had a lovely message (and photo) from Viviane Berty, one of the contributors to my fishy book.

Hello Nick,

This message is to say thank you again for having included me in the project “Poissons en origami”. I have read this book and folded many models with pleasure, and seen some videos, so I can say it is a good book and publication ! Usually books by Nick Robinson can be recommended, but this one is in French version and includes decorated papers, which is much more nice.

Of course, decorated papers are not good for every models, but it is easy to find simple papers. 

Not a blame but a regret : about Sebastien Limet’s arête de poisson, it was not possible to indicate how to make the decreasing effect… too bad ! I talked with him about this, he is OK, and grateful to have been included in this project like I am.

So : tout va très bien et merci !

Amicalement,

Viviane.

A brilliant photo!  I did speak about this to Sebastien before simplifying his excellent design. The folding technique would have made a difficult model almost impossible for most people and the publishers insisted there was nothing too complex within the book and I really wanted to inldude what is a wonderful concept.

Neue Deutsche Bücher!

Try to contain your excitement, but you can read about my forthcoming books written with Evi Binzinger, due out soon.

Origami Tiere and Origami Boote + Flieger