Archive for the ‘art’ Category

Octagons for October contest winners announced!

January 1st, 2009

The Origami Tessellations group on Flickr created a contest for the month of October, asking people to create octagonally-themed works to celebrate our lonely eight-sided friend and all of his creative possibilities.

My deepest apologies to all of your for the delay in choosing and awarding the winners of this contest - sometimes life has a way of becoming very busy and suddenly two months have passed in the blink of an eye. As penance for being two months late in my judging, I’ve added some additional prizes to this contest: Three contestants will receive a one year Flickr pro membership!

I’d like to thank everyone for participating and contributing such beautiful artwork - so many varieties and methods of folding, I was really astounded to see the diversity of ideas at play in all of your creations! I think everyone who has created something here and shared it with the world is a winner, and you should all be proud of the artwork you have created.

So without further ado, here are the three people who submitted artwork which I thought was the most compelling:

Andrew Hudson (origami_madness) - Andrew absolutely blew me away by creating a new octagonal art piece for each single day in October! I never imagined in my wildest dreams that someone would take this contest to such a level of creative energy. Along with the Flickr Pro account I will also be mailing Andrew a special copy of my origami tessellations book, along with a selection of papers from my own studio paper collection. I’m completely amazed by what he has done! There are so many favorites here, and some truly astonishing new ideas he has shared… but here’s my favorite three:

Endre Somos (soma0213) - Endre made a delightful floral octagonal pattern which reminded me greatly of illustrations from the Grammar of Ornament, my most beloved book of architectural elements and design. The use of visually complex floral design elements together with empty space linked together structurally reinforces the beauty of this artwork. I’m quite fond of this pattern!

Carlos Natan López Nazario (Origami Natan) - Natan creates these phenomenal 3D tessellation structures, which have long fascinated me; but he really captured my interest with his “8 Cubes Star” model, which is a three-dimensional version of my absolute favorite octagonal star pattern. He also has a larger model of a previous version, his “8 Points Star” design, which is similarly delightful.

There was additional work by friends and group members which I also thought was quite deserving of award:

Almost Orange Octagons, by Yureiko

Octagons and Squares Twists, by Andrea Russo

Octagonal Spirals, by Ben Parker

October Blooms, by Ilan Garibi

Dana Hall Display, by Alexander Soukas

Khatam, by Mélisande

If you are interested in looking through all of the submissions to the contest, you can see them via the following link:

http://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?w=90644975%40N00&q=Octagons+for+October&m=pool

There were so many beautiful pieces submitted, I loved them all - thank you everyone for participating and sharing your art!

Tags: flickr, octagons, origami, origami tessellations
Posted in art, flickr photos, origami, origami tessellations | Comments (0)

My book is shipping in mid-December! Pre-order now!

October 19th, 2008

My book, Origami Tessellations: Awe-Inspiring Geometric Designs, is now available for pre-order on Amazon. My publisher has indicated that it will start shipping sometime around mid-December, although no dates have been set in stone yet.

I had a chance to see the proofs of the book two weeks ago at my editor’s office - it really is a gorgeous book! And I’ll be receiving my advance copies within a few weeks, in time to bring them with me to the Italian origami convention in Verbania, IT this December for my book’s first official showing to the public.

I know many of you pre-ordered this book when it was with my previous publisher, Lark Books, and after that deal fell through I’ve had many people asking me “when will your book be available?” Well, the answer is now very very soon - within two months from now! It’s been a long time in the waiting, but I feel that this book is well worth the wait :) Having the chance to change things around with the help of a talented editor/book designer really allowed us to make it a better book, and I think you will be pleased with the result. I know that I am!

Tags: author, book, eric gjerde, origami tessellations
Posted in art, design, geometry, my work, origami, origami tessellations, paper, weblinks | Comments (5)

Buckminster Fuller Quote - Poster Offensive 4

October 13th, 2008

I was contacted by a local designer, Peet Fetsch, about using some of my work in a poster design for the fourth annual Poster Offensive exhibition.

As he was planning on using a quote from Buckminster Fuller, one of my personal heroes, I was quite interested. I’m so pleased with how this turned out.

I had a great time seeing it in the gallery - it’s always a blast to see something of yours on display, even if it is just background imagery for a Bucky quote!

It’s also intriguing to me how other people find the crease lines in this work to be the real focal point… I’m always fixated on the folding process, but with this piece in particular the unfolded crease lines add something to the piece as a whole, and for many people it’s what they focus on. Most people seem to think it is pen or pencil, which makes me chuckle a little bit. When I explain it’s all just folded lines, they don’t always believe me. :)

The original work of mine can be seen here:

Posted in art, design, flickr photos, my work | Comments (5)

Andrea Russo: Stars in a sky of hexagons

June 21st, 2008

My friend Andrea Russo folded this wonderful piece, titled “Stars in a sky of hexagons”, and posted it for me as a birthday gift. It makes great use of negative space - I love the negative space stars, which so nicely solve the problem of making an uncluttered star shape out of a single sheet of paper.

Thanks for sharing this with me, Andrea!

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

stop-motion video of origami tessellation folding

April 22nd, 2008

I have a lot of superfluous photos from the book writing/documenting process - including many extra photos from the step-by-step photo shoots for the various projects included.

So here’s a bunch of them for the model “Bird Base Stars”, by my good friend Mélisande (or also Mélisande* on Flickr.) She graciously gave me permission to use this design in the book, along with a few other delightful patterns as well.

Nothing serious here, I just like to look at the way the pictures flow when I look at them in Aperture or flick through them on my computer, and I thought I’d try to share the same perspective with you.

Funny thing about this model: I folded this version (the easy one) and then a larger, more complex model from the same paper, and that beautiful blue just rubbed off all over my hands! between photographs I had to wipe my hands clean with rubbing alcohol. It looked like I was turning into a Smurf.

I hope the arriving spring finds you well, my friends! It’s a time of growth and renewal, and possibly my favorite season. Enjoy it!

-eric

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

Goran Konjevod: Hierarchical

March 5th, 2008

Goran Konjevod has done a lot of work over the last few years combining math and art - the output is fantastic things like this new piece, called “Hierarchical”.

I love the way it all flows from a strict, ordered process and yet produces such an organic, vibrant result. From a distance I would have a hard time believing this is paper, much less a single uncut sheet of it!

Goran also has an exhibition running currently in Phoenix, AZ, which includes this work.

I’m looking forward to my next opportunity to check out his art in person - probably at the Origami USA convention this June in NYC. Maybe I can even get him to share some of his design secrets!

Posted in art, flickr photos, math, origami, origami tessellations | Comments (1)

Branching out

February 21st, 2008

I’m still folding paper - see some of the work at the end of this post! But I’ve just started taking GMAW/MiG welding classes, and it’s a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to learning some metalworking skills and applying some of my love for geometric design… and seeing what comes out of the combination!

I have a lot of fond memories of my grandfather working in his shop welding things, and my first attempts at welding tonight (while messy) made me feel a connection with him, and it was a happy-making experience.

And then this - my first exposure to a computer-controlled plasma cutter! It was love at first sight!

I have, however, been doing work in paper as well. I took a week in early February and went on a personal “art retreat” in NYC, and I was able to get some interesting work done. I also came away with a lot of ideas for new work, which is still continuing.

Here’s a design for a bowl (of all things) which I am still refining, to be completed in some wonderful multi-hued blue handmade flax paper. Please forgive the quality of the photos here, I was taking photos during the build process for my own reference.

Here’s the blue flax that I’m intending to use, from Cave Paper in Minneapolis.

And here’s a sample of a variant pattern folded from the same paper in a chocolate / brown hue:

The paper has a delightful roughness to it, with an uneven deckled edge that should really make a great rim to the bowl. I’m looking forward to the final version of this; I just have to make sure that I calculate everything properly, as I only get one chance to make it, and it’s going to take three sheets of the blue flax to do it in the proper scale.

If anyone has a good suggestion for a clear and strong glue, please let me know. I haven’t found any satisfactory “connecting” materials yet, which is also holding things up a bit. Ideas welcome.

Posted in WIP, art, flickr photos, my work, origami | Comments (3)

Beautiful octagonal design by Mélisande*

January 7th, 2008

Can’t help but post this beautiful octagonal star design by Mélisande*:

She calls this piece “Stars, Flower and Octagons”. It’s an extension of a design she was exploring in December, based on an irregular negative-space octagonal star - the shape created when you connect lines from all four corners of a square to the midpoints along the sides.

She further details the origins of this shape via some geometrical explanations on this flickr post:

It has been used quite a bit historically, including this Moorish mosque (now a church) ceiling in Toledo, Spain. (Image used under CC license permission from albTotxo’s flickr photostream.)

And of course I would be remiss not to mention Mélisande’s new blog, starting 1/1/2008!

La Chronique de Mélisande*

I’d be hard pressed to find a nicer person out there. She has this to say about her art:

I’m not claiming my art to be only a product of my own genius, nor have I proprietarian pretentions on it : many of my ideas actually come from friends of mine and I’m happy when someone else find my work inspirational. It isn’t origami until you share it, according to my friend Philip Chapman-Bell.
Art is a way to abolish time, distance, and a consolation to our mortality.

Congratulations on your new blog, my friend, and I look forward to reading more about your creations.

For all of you out there, С новым годом, Happy New Year, Bonne Année, Feliz Año Nuevo, and prost Neujahr! May this new year of 2008 bring interesting times and good luck to all of us.

-Eric Gjerde

Posted in art, flickr photos, origami, origami tessellations, weblinks | Comments (5)

Vertebral Stretch - 3D Wigglies

December 17th, 2007

I’ve been experimenting with this three dimensional folded structure for a little while now, and for reference I’ve created a simple crease pattern in case anyone wants to fold this.

You can grab one of two versions - one on a grid, and one without. They are much smaller versions meant for reference understanding; just expand the construct to make it larger.

http://www.origamitessellations.com/docs/3D_wigglies.pdf

The version superimposed on a grid: (sorry for the misalignment, this was done for reference purposes only, not for publication anywhere!)

http://www.origamitessellations.com/docs/3D_wigglies_grid.pdf

I hope you enjoy, and if you fold one of these please send me a photo! I’d love to see how it turns out.

Posted in art, creative commons, diagrams, flickr photos, my work, origami, origami tessellations | Comments (5)

Andrew Hudson’s exploratory work

November 21st, 2007

I’ve been following the continued explorations of Andrew Hudson, via his Flickr stream.

Lately, he’s been working with a series of three-dimensional tessellation structures, particularly stretched pleats and box pleating. These are some areas that I have explored recently as well - there’s much fertile ground here for new ideas. Seeing what he thinks of and all his conceptual work is very inspiring, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of his constructs as time goes on.

Here’s a small sampling of his work, with links to the original flickr images.

Check out this box pleated house structure - imagine pleating together a whole city? Andrew linked to this additional blog post, as well, with another fantastic box-pleated house… it serves as a good example of what can be further be done.

This reminds me, of course, of a recent work by one of my favorite Italian origami creators, Lorenzo Marchi. When I see this design, all I can think of is a proto-city, waiting for tall skinny skyscrapers to grow upwards, making an entire cityscape. If one was sufficiently ambitious, I suppose an entire landscape could be created, from the city core to the rural countryside. I’d love to see that!

3D Cubes, by Lorenzo Marchi

Posted in art, creative commons, flickr photos, origami, origami tessellations, paper | Comments (3)

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