Archive for April, 2007

Origami Tessellations: The Book

April 30th, 2007

An alert Flickr friend let me know that my book appeared on Amazon.com:

Origami Tessellations: Fantastic Paper Geometry

I’m interested to see it listed, although it’s still in the final stages of layout and all that fun stuff. The “cover” shown is not the final one, but just the mock-up created for the catalog; I don’t know yet what the final cover will look like.

The final ship date is earlier than Jan 1, 2008- I hope, anyway- but nevertheless it’s not that far away, considering how much work still remains to be done on the publisher’s side of things.

Here’s the blurb text from Amazon, which (I’m guessing) is something that was written for the catalog that Lark sends out to all prospective purchasers.

Tessellations—shapes repeated over and over to fill a plane without overlapping—have inspired beautiful art, from intricate tile work to M.C. Escher’s playful graphics. Now, master origami artist Eric Gjerde has produced the same stunning kaleidoscopic patterns simply by folding paper! His awe-inspiring collection—the first of its kind—explores the creative possibilities of origami tessellations. The techniques will captivate anyone interested in papercrafting, mathematics, architecture, and design. Gjerde meticulously walks you through all the key folds and creases. Twenty-five projects are organized by complexity, beginning with the easy-to-learn Tiles Hexagon Tessellation and continuing to more exotic designs, like Arms of Shiva, Field of Stars, and Aztec Twist. Each one appears in extremely close-up photos—sometimes backlit—and an inspiring gallery of breathtaking tessellations by origami artists concludes the book.

So, things are moving along. This is the first visibly tangible evidence I have seen that this whole experience is actually real; it’s kind of strange, to be honest with you. I think when I hold the final result in my hands it’s going to be a very odd moment indeed.

-Eric

UPDATE

The book has changed publishers, and will be re-listed under it’s new ISBN number. Find out more info here!

Posted in art, design, diagrams, geometry, my work, origami, origami tessellations, paper, weblinks | Comments (9)

Nishimura Yuko Show at Keiko Gallery in Boston MA

April 28th, 2007

I received an email from KEIKO Gallery in Boston, letting me know about an upcoming show for Nishimura Yuko (or Yuko Nishimura, in Western name styling.)

The Exhibition is from May 5, 2007 to May 27, 2007; there is an opening reception on May 5th from 3PM to 6PM. If you’re in Boston or anywhere *near* Boston I most highly suggest you make an effort to see this show! Her artwork is absolutely stunning, and I never can see enough of it- I regret that I am unable to make the trip out to Boston just to see this, but I’d do it in a heartbeat if I could.

Detailed information about the exhibition can be found here:

http://keikogallery.com/nishimura_exhi.html

Nishimura Yuko was awarded notable prizes for her innovative paper reliefs while still a student of architectural design at Nihon University in Tokyo. Using her skilled fingers as her tools, she transforms crisp, single white sheets of Japanese hand made paper into two dimensional panels and three dimensional objects that are filled with lyrical and rhythmic patterns comparable to music. Even the most subtle play of light across these intricate folded surfaces endows them with an unusual energy and excites the senses.
Beginning with a single folded line, the constantly changing length of each subsequent fold determines the final square, circular or oval patterns that sweep across the surfaces of her large scale reliefs. Nishimura says that these folded surfaces allow her to project the play of light and shadow into physical space and free her to express her feelings about space more fully.

KEIKO
121 Charles Street
Boston, MA 02114
617-725-2888

Posted in art, design, origami, origami tessellations, paper, profiles | Comments (2)

Design Work of Yu-Chih Hsiao

April 26th, 2007

I’ve long been a fan of Yu-Chih Hsiao, who makes a seemingly endless array of fantastic designs. What appeals to me most is the broad array of concepts that he pulls together and uses. I don’t like comparing people to others, but his work reminds me of Thomas Heatherwick mixed together with a whole lot of kirigami goodness (and that’s a wonderful thing!)

Take a minute to look through some of his designs - there’s all sorts of ideas and concepts there, definitely something that will spur the imagination.

There’s a lot that can be said, but I’ll let the pictures do the talking instead.

-Eric

Beautiful stuff, isn’t it?

Posted in art, design, geometry, profiles | Comments (2)

The Institute For Figuring // Online Exhibit: Mathematical Paper Folding

April 23rd, 2007

I am in love with The Institute for Figuring. If you’re at all interested in geometric art, tessellations, chaos, fractals, or really anything- you should become a member. It’s highly worthwhile.

Crocheted Hyperbolic Plane, copyright IFF

From their website:

The Institute For Figuring is an educational organization dedicated to enhancing the public understanding of figures and figuring techniques. From the physics of snowflakes and the hyperbolic geometry of sea slugs, to the mathematics of paper folding and graphical models of the human mind, the Institute takes as its purview a complex ecology of figuring.

It’s like someone took EVERYTHING out there that I find interesting, and wrapped it up into a non-profit with a cool website, publications, and speaking events! Fantastic stuff.

To whet your appetite, there’s a rather good article on mathematical paper folding on their site currently:

The Institute For Figuring // Online Exhibit: Mathematical Paper Folding

Enjoy!

Posted in art, design, geometry, math, origami, weblinks | Comments (6)

Some origami links and inspiration

April 18th, 2007

Been very quiet here as I wrangle some personal and professional monsters. More frequent posting will resume soon. Look for a good writeup on up-and-coming paper artist Jen Stark shortly!

Reposting this short list- it was something I sent to the Origami Mailing List a week ago. Some nice things to admire, and/or be inspired by (or make yourself!)

-Eric

————
Not all just origami, but also some paper art and folding architecture things too. The list has been rather quiet lately so here’s some things to look at.

http://revistagalileu.globo.com/EditoraGlobo/componentes/article/edg_article_print/1,3916,516776-2680-1,00.html
A nice article on the mathematics of origami, in Portuguese

http://www.gailbarlow.com/sculptures1.html
Wonderful paper sculptures (lots of sliceforms!) by Gail Barlow (thanks to J. Rutzky for the link)

http://www.foldschool.com
Free foldable cardboard furniture designs for kids

http://www.orangevoid.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=36
Fantastic tessellated membrane, mechanically controlled for architectural purposes (I dream about this sort of stuff, and here it is in real life!)

http://community.livejournal.com/ru_pop_up/32317.html
Some very nice tessellations on a russian paper architecture site- great curved pieces

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/11/how_to_use_furo.html
great PDF from Japan on Furoshiki, cloth gift wrapping - with lots of styles illustrated

http://www.polyscene.com/
the artwork of Polly Verity, an amazingly gifted paper artist in the UK

http://web.mit.edu/optics/www/origami.htm
Nanostructured origami fabrication and assembly - some great promise here

http://www.origami.no/gallery_menu.htm
gallery of origamic / paper architecture pieces, a wide variety

http://www.flickr.com/photos/83855901@N00/
some new works by Joan Michaels Paque - enormous wall-sized sculptures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/67861823@N00/
Many, many photos of waterbomb-based tessellations, by Ben Parker - tantalizingly part of a lengthy tutorial / write-up

Posted in art, creative commons, design, flickr photos, origami, origami tessellations | Comments (2)

Large collection of Waterbomb Tessellations

April 1st, 2007

Ben Parker (brdparker on flickr) has posted a great collection of waterbomb tessellations recently- 132 photos, in all! Ben says this is all part of a tutorial/write-up on waterbomb based tessellations, which I am eagerly looking forward to reading.

Quite a few of us on Flickr have been folding all sorts of waterbomb-esque tessellation things in the last few months, although the real breakthroughs with this sort of technique comes from the “flagstone” tessellations of Joel Cooper, who has been creating magnificent works of art in this style for years. It is only recently that others of us have been able to sort out some of the methods of this type of construction, and of course we all seem to have approached it from different ways.

Many of the pieces posted here by Ben are not flagstone tessellations, following the intricate style popularized by Joel (great example here), but instead some interesting 3D pieces that remind me a lot of the work of Polly Verity and Ray Schamp. Also, I see a bit of Frank Van Kollem in some of these pieces, as well. But many are new and different, and resemble nothing I have seen before, and that’s always of great pleasure to me. New works are always wonderful to experience.

Many of the photos are low-res, but that’s the breaks when you’ve got a free account on flickr- sounds like a great opportunity for someone out there to step up and sponsor a Pro account, in my opinion…

If you’re a flickrite, I highly recommend adding Ben to your contacts list, so you don’t miss gems like this when they come along.

-Eric

Here’s a few sample photos:

Posted in art, flickr photos, math, origami, origami tessellations | Comments (7)

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