Archive for the ‘geometry’ Category
Kirigami Book by Jeff Rutzky now available! September 6th, 2007
Our good friend Jeff Rutzky recently wrapped up a book on kirigami, which is packaged in a delightful boxed kit. It’s now available at Barnes & Noble stores, as well as online at bn.com.
Kirigami: Exquisite Projects to Fold and Cut (bn.com)
We’re particularly fond of this book because it features some pieces by my wife Bekah as well a piece inspired by some of my tessellation ideas. I’ve talked about Bekah’s kirigami work previously; she has been very pleased about the opportunity to contribute to Jeff’s book.
It also features work from some of my favorite paper artists, including Paul Jackson, Chris Palmer, Christiane Bettens, Ingrid Siliakus, Fernando Sierra, Jen Stark, and many more.
I think perhaps my favorite feature of the book was the quantity of art included- as motivational and inspirational examples of what is out there in the world of paper cutting. I can honestly say that it opened my eyes to some things I had never even thought possible.
Congratulations on the book release Jeff!
Posted in art, design, geometry, paper | Comments (5)
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
(PS: the amazon link is an affiliate thing, I don’t normally get all fired up about that sort of setup. However, I hope you don’t mind me referring my own book. Thanks!)
Posted in art, design, diagrams, geometry, my work, origami, origami tessellations, paper, weblinks | Comments (5)
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 (3)
Sliceform Torus February 25th, 2007
I saw this amazing sliceform torus on YouTube, thanks to a link from Jorge Jaramillo (commented on this great set of sliceforms by Joan Michaels Paque.) I shouldn’t be browsing around Flickr, as I’m on a self-imposed Flickr hiatus, but Sunday’s a day of rest, so I treated myself to a few minutes of browsing 
The coolest part of the video is the way the model folds flat and pops back into 3D!
The creator of this fantastic sliceform says this, on the YouTube commentary:
This torus has been made as a Sliceform.
It is a paper model made from two sets of slices of the torus.
It folds flat because the intersection of each set of slices acts as a hinge.
The slices are cut so that one set includes the Villarceau circles.
For more on Sliceforms do a web search with Google.
See www.tarquinbooks.com for books of models to cut out and ways to explore the mathematics of surfaces using Sliceforms.
Check it out, it’s worth a look. Lots of great people are doing sliceform stuff these days [1][2][3], maybe it’s time to give it a go?
If you’re looking to get started into Sliceforms, most definitely check out this website:
http://www.mathsyear2000.co.uk/explorer/slice/index.shtml
It covers what they are, how they are made, has templates for downloading, the whole thing. This is definitely a great opportunity to put a CraftROBO to work…
Posted in art, design, geometry, math, paper, papercraft | Comments (0)
Waterbomb Corrugation Animation, by Tomohiro Tachi February 12th, 2007
Tomohiro Tachi (website, flickr) has some wonderful animated 3D simulations of paper folding- I really like this one of a waterbomb tessellation/corrugation pattern being manipulated and changing size/shape/orientation. One of my most favorite things to do with pleated paper is to make strange and different shapes out of them, and this video shows that process in action…
It reminds me a lot of this design by my friend Sipho Mabona:
Posted in design, flickr photos, geometry, origami, origami tessellations | Comments (1)
New Version of Tess, Alex Bateman’s origami tessellation software January 23rd, 2007
Alex Bateman has released a new version of his landmark software, Tess.
Tess allows you to create all sorts of tilings, and modifications of those tilings- so you can explore possibilities without having to fold it all out in paper, first! Also, this new version provides PDF export capability, which is a major plus for windows users.
Tess is a Perl application, and will run on any Perl-capable system with a bit of tweaking. (This means you, Linux/FreeBSD/MacOSX users.) Or, if you’re running windows, you can download a standalone version, which will run on it’s own without requiring any Perl resources. Both of these are available to download from Alex’s website.
Download the latest version of Tess!
Posted in creative commons, diagrams, geometry, math, o-list postings, origami, origami tessellations, software | Comments (6)
Ron Resch photos from the 1960’s January 8th, 2007
Given to me by Joan Michaels Paque, as some wonderful background information on the work of Ron Resch. Fantastic! Thank you so much, Joan!
I don’t have a date on this one, but from his hair and clothing it looks almost like the early 60’s. Wow. Isn’t it amazing to see the tessellated structure from back then? This is fantastic to me.
Check out the three other photos including a great letter from 1978, on my flickr photo stream.
Posted in art, design, flickr photos, geometry, math, origami, origami tessellations, paper | Comments (1)
Modular Kirigami by George Hart January 7th, 2007
I was just made aware of some fantastic newModular Kirigami pieces being created by George Hart, (previously linked to on OT:here).
image from georgehart.com
It’s no secret that we have a big love for kirigami here in our house- my wife is a kirigami fanatic. So when a mutual friend, Jeff Rutzky, pointed out this new work by George I had to go check it out.
It’s quite fascinating stuff, and I can’t wait to devote a big chunk of time into going nuts with our CraftROBO, and give this kind of wicked geometry-meets-craft-meets-kirigami-meets-art a spin. I’m a paper arts freak, so all this kind of stuff just gets me really jazzed up!
Check out some of the other amazing work that George has- there’s a plethora of it to gawk at, and be amazed by.
-Eric
do I get extra points for dropping as many names as I possibly could in one paragraph? I tried!
Posted in art, design, geometry, paper | Comments (1)
Roundabout Tessellation by Christine Edison December 17th, 2006
A really stunning new piece from Christine Edison.
I’m really enjoying her work, she’s always coming up with something new and fearlessly exploring new ideas and territories.
The shadowfold pattern this design makes when backlit is marvelous.
Thought I’d share it with those of you who aren’t tuned in to her Flickr stream already.
-eric
Posted in art, flickr photos, geometry, origami, origami tessellations | Comments (0)