Saw this beautiful piece by Imagirom, a newcomer to our Origami Tessellations group on Flickr.
He’s been folding some great things lately, and this one really struck me. I like the way it’s an abstract representation of some real things, it goes beyond the normal sort of pattern and becomes something even more.
It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?
Here’s a basic crease pattern for a dodecagonal flagstone pattern, overlaid on top of a triangular grid.
The spacing between the hinges is not equal all around the dodecagon, but the actual tessellation itself is the proper dual of the 12.12.3 tessellation (two dodecagons and an equilateral triangle.)
What that means is we get two really big spiky 12-sided things and smaller triangular twists between them.
I haven’t tried it but if you actually squashed these they would probably overlap! I like them in their "uncollapsed" state, as I think they are more interesting as rigidly foldable constructs…
If you want to download the PDF version of this file, you can get it here:
www.origamitessellations.com/docs/dodecagon_flagstone.pdf
Here’s the folded version:
I recently finished this piece and sent it off for a show in Ohio (The FAVA Folding Festival, organized by James Peake and Ray Schamp). I think it’s making it’s way from there to another show later on in the year at the Sandusky Cultural Center, also in Ohio.
On top of that, I’m going to be in Ohio later on this summer for the first Midwestern origami convention- creatively titled “Centerfold“. (Being in Minnesota, I’m not so sure that I think of Ohio as the “center”, but I digress.) So I seem to be interacting with Ohio quite a bit this summer. Looking forward to meeting some new people while I’m out there visiting!
There’s a good amount of behind-the-scenes work going on here in the studio as of late, with some very curious constructions coming together and a lot of large-scale work being done… photos and more info to come soon. It’s going to be quite a sight.
hope all is well, let’s talk again soon, my friends~
-Eric
Hi everyone,
I’m getting all packed and ready to head off to Japan tomorrow for the JOAS convention this weekend in Tokyo! They’ve honored me quite a bit by inviting me there as a guest, and I hope to make it a very tessellation-centric time 
I’m looking forward to meeting lots of new friends!
I thought I’d post a crease pattern, as it’s been quite a long while…
Rhombic Flowers CP
So here’s a full CP for a design a did a while back called “Rhombic Flowers”. I’m not sure I have a finished model of this pattern, it’s just an idea that was kicking around my head; but it looks pretty neat, using rhombus twists to make star shapes. A good exercise in playing with rhombic twists, for sure
Let me know what you think! It’s on a 64 pleat grid, but by no means do you need to start so large. a 32 grid would be perfectly fine to start, bonus points for doing it on hexagonal paper. (You’ll like the final pattern better if it is even all around.)
Enjoy!
Rhombic Flowers CP in PDF format
Rhombic Flowers by Eric Gjerde is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.origamitessellations.com.
Christine Edison posted photos of this absolutely stunning piece. I am always impressed by her ability to take ideas and use them in new ways, creating completely unique and fascinating works.
She’s been making quite a few beautiful organic pieces as of late – pop over to her Flickr stream to take a look.
We just published a 17-month academic year calendar full of beautiful images of origami artwork from my book, “Origami Tessellations: Awe-Inspiring Geometric Designs“.
Available now for ordering – it’s being printed on-demand by HP’s MagCloud, which prints out some extremely nice product.
Speaking of items on the calendar: The 2009 Origami USA convention is coming very soon, the last weekend in June in NYC. I will be attending (of course!) and exhibiting some new pieces. I hope to see you there!
I will also be attending the 2009 Japanese Origami Academic Society (JOAS) convention in Tokyo this August 14-16 as one of their invited guests. Needless to say I am quite excited about this – my first trip as one of the special guests at an origami convention. I’m honored that the kind folks at JOAS asked me to attend, and I plan on bringing some special works that I’ve been getting ready especially for this trip!
It’s going to be a busy summer – time to get a calendar to keep track of all of these events
I visited the great people at OMG NYC (Origami Meetup Group NYC) last April, and taught some tessellation basics and a few models while I was there.
My friends Christine Edison and Adrienne Sack were also in town, and they came along – note Christine here on the left, no doubt explaining how wrong I am about something
It’s been a busy few months, but there’s a lot of upcoming origami stuff in the works – I’ve got a set of new pieces that are being made for several origami conventions and some exhibitions this year. Photos will be posted once I have everything finalized and ready to ship!
Hope you are all having a good 2009! happy folding!
-Eric Gjerde
I’m writing today to ask for your advice.
Over the last five years, I have come quite far – rediscovering and developing an art form which is fairly unique, meeting many like-minded and gifted artists, and making friends all over the world through our shared love of paper arts. This has been a wonderful journey and I have loved every minute of it.
However, I’m at a bit of a crossroads right now. I have so many areas I want to explore; working with metals, wood, fabrics, leather, and plastics, using CNC routers and lasers and plasma cutters and 3D rapid prototyping… but I don’t have the time, resources, or knowledge to do these things. This has led me to the decision that I really need to find a school or university where I can learn all about these technologies and techniques, and put them to good use making my own artistic visions become reality.
… And I’ve hit a stumbling block. Most of the schools I am looking at offer either focused Paper and Bookmaking Arts programs (like Columbia College in Chicago) or more general Fine Arts programs (Pratt, SVA, etc.) which often require students to have the ability to draw/sketch/paint. This is not a gift I happen to have I also have little desire in designing book art; I truly adore good book art but it’s just really not something I see myself doing, and I hesitate to look into a program that would want me to spend a lot of time working with books rather than the paper itself.
Here’s where I need your help, fair readers. Do any of you have suggestions or ideas as to schools or universities I should look into? Is there a better focus to look at, like design vs. art, that would allow me to better use the talents I have? I’m very interested in branching out to new art forms and materials but I do have a rather focused interest, which makes this all a bit complicated. I want to find a school that focuses my geometry and pattern skills to their best possible level.
I’ve seen so many interesting things that people do – design, architecture, sculpture, paper arts, graphic design, printmaking, and so on… I’d love to pursue these things further and see where my potential can take me.
If you have any ideas, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line at ericgjerde@mac.com. I’d be happy to have a phone conversation with you, just send an email and I’ll respond with my contact info.
Thanks so much to all of you! I greatly appreciate your help.
-Eric Gjerde
(And a quick note – I’m currently working on some new projects out of leather, I hope to have finished pieces in a few weeks to share with you! I’m very excited with how this is turning out!)
Shiseido’s in-house fashion magazine, Hanatsubaki (Camelia Flower). Shiseido is a high-end Japanese cosmetics company, and Hanatsubaki has been in continuous print since 1937 with a subscriber base of over 9 million. (thanks Wikipedia!)
I am part of a small story on origami and design process, or something to that effect – along with some material from Robert J. Lang and Yuko Nishimura, both artists whom I respect very much.
I would be very interested to know what this article says, so if someone out there is willing to translate this for me I would greatly appreciate it!
It’s a bit out of place, in some respects, with much of the content in the remainder of the magazine… it’s primarily about fashion and design, a lifestyle culture product. It’s quite interesting, but I must admit it was a bit of a surprise for one of their writers to ask me to participate and do an interview. I had a good time, though, and it was helpful for me to think about my design process and actually write out some thoughts on how I go about doing this. The answers surprised me a little bit! When you’re creating things, you don’t consciously think about the creation process – you’re just creating, and in the moment, so almost all other thought is pushed back while you’re focused on the task at hand. To reflect on it after the fact isn’t something I normally do, so it was quite a good exercise for me to undertake.
Thanks to the kind folks at Shiseido and especially to writer Yukari Miyamoto for allowing me to contribute to their magazine.
Our friend Christine Edison posted these fantastic boxes – something she first made about four years ago. The blue one is a new version, slightly modified with additional pleats, and she’s thinking of teaching it this year at the Origami USA convention in NYC.
I have to say that I’m completely in love with this blue box. The curving shape, the textures of both the elephant hide paper and the spiking, ridged pleats – it’s a beautiful piece of art. I want to see it folded on a grand scale out of some kind of marvelous leather, all shiny and smooth.
It reminds me of a leather pillow that I saw on Pietro Seminelli’s website – www.seminelli.fr – but it looks like he has done a site update and I can’t find an image of it anymore, sadly.
I believe there is a photo of it (or a similar pattern) in Jean-Charles Trebbi’s book, L’art du pli. It features a wide array of pleating and folding eye-candy – a must-have book. More on this when my copy arrives here in the States!
Christine has been on a real folding kick lately – check out her blog, at cedison.wordpress.com for updates. She’s also posted a partial set of instructions for the Oceania Box:
Keep up the good work Christine, your fan club is loving it!
