Archive for the ‘paper’ Category
Beautiful Firsts May 10th, 2008
Spotted in the Origami Tessellations photo pool on Flickr, this beautiful tessellation from user Bimbi_OM.
This is their first tessellation design! And not only is it fantastic and aesthetically a knockout - but they posted step-by-step photo instructions on how to make it, too.
Sharing and community involvement like this is really where it’s at - we all learn from one another and grow as artists because of it. I’m really impressed and so very pleased with this work.
We’ve crossed over 3000 photos in our tessellation photo group on Flickr, an astounding amount that I never would have imagined when I started posting photos of my tessellations a few years ago. Every time I see a new contributor - a new folder to join the community - I get so excited! It’s not a zero sum game, so the more people playing, the more fun there is to be had.
Hope you enjoy this pattern as much as I did, it’s a novel and creative design that has a lot going for it.
-Eric
Posted in flickr photos, origami, origami tessellations, paper | Comments (2)
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!
Posted in art, creative commons, flickr photos, origami, origami tessellations, paper | Comments (3)
Current and Future Exhibitions October 13th, 2007
I recently shipped 5 pieces to Vancouver for an upcoming exhibition at the Pendulum Gallery, coinciding with the PCOC 2007 convention. Much of it is new work, representing some new folding concepts and ideas that I have been exploring lately.
Night Creature, 2007
Odd Man Out, 2007
Printemps, 2007
Pecten Magellanicus, 2007
Vertebral Stretch, 2007
I also have a number of pieces on display at the Treasures of Origami Art exhibition at the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art in Haifa, Israel. This wonderful exhibition was the product of much hard work and planning by Dr. Saadya Sternberg, who was kind enough to ask me to participate.
The Tikotin exhibition is currently open, and will be running until December 2007. The Pendulum Gallery exhibition will be from October 29 - November 10, 2007, in Vancouver, Canada.
Something I mentioned to my wife the other day- I have yet to participate in any gallery or museum exhibitions here in the United States! I hope to have a show in my hometown of Minneapolis some day soon, but so far I seem to spend most of my time shipping my creations abroad. At least I’m getting much better at filling out customs paperwork!
-Eric
Posted in art, design, flickr photos, my work, origami, origami tessellations, paper | Comments (1)
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)
Tessellation Basics booklet now available - free PDF! August 15th, 2007
Well, I had all the best intentions to add more content to this booklet - but it’s hard for me not to just put in all the material from my book! So I’m posting it now in the same format that I used at the Origami USA convention this summer.
This document is just a small taste of the material from the book, put together from some of the draft work and preliminary writings. The final product is quite lengthier and more detailed, as well as more polished. (Editors are very good at taking text like mine and making it readable!)
This 8 page booklet is meant to be printed on 11×17 (or A3, in a pinch) double-sided- so it can be folded into a proper booklet shape.
I had a lot of fun putting this together- thanks again to Jamie and Jeff for helping me to create and format this document!
Posted in diagrams, flickr photos, my work, o-list postings, origami, origami tessellations, paper | Comments (10)
Coudal Partners Swap Meat July 21st, 2007
So, I’ve been a fan of Coudal Partners for quite some time now- circling back to their site every time I dig through my bookmarks and then spending a day browsing through all the content and links they have.
I recently learned from my friend Jeff Rutzky (happy birthday Jeff, by the way) that they’re not just a wonderful site, but this powerful and brilliant ad agency in Chicago. Oops. I suppose I should have figured that one out more quickly, especially when they were so nice to link to me way back in 2005. Live and learn, right?
Well, Coudal had people sending in things to them all the time, unsolicited. You know how much fun it is to get packages you aren’t expecting, don’t you? It’s kind of like a grown-up version of Christmas, but without any family awkwardness or having to buy gifts for kids. It’s a tiny little moment of self-gratification as you tear into the Fedex box and wonder what sort of goodies are inside.
They decided to expand on this, and started swapping out items sent to them with other items sent to them- so they got to have their pseudo-Christmas fun, and then spread the joy with others too. I like this idea a lot, enough so that I will be sending something in to them shortly, once I figure out what it is that I should be sending in. (Here’s a hint: it’s most likely made of paper. Guesses, anyone?)
But then I was further enlightened to know that some of my origami friends have already been doing this- see nifty items from Jeff and Vanessa Gould (of Green Fuse Films fame, home of the Exploring Origami documentary project):
Crown Hall Kirigami, from Jeff Rutzky
Color Wheel Kusudama, from Vanessa Gould
Also, the folks at Coudal are behind Jewelboxing.com, a really slick method for making jewelboxed CD/DVD cases and inserts/labels/etc. I saw that Jeff and Vanessa had connected together to make some cases for her “Exploring Origami” demo, using none other than Joel Cooper’s mask images for the cover!
It’s just an odd thing how different people and places you know seem to connect together in unexpected ways. I’m always surprised when I find things like this- “I know that person- and that person! they’re both here on this site! who knew?”
I’m hoping some of you other creators out there send something in to Coudal Partners as well; I’d love to see them swamped with fantastic paper artwork all at once.
-Eric
Posted in art, design, origami, paper | Comments (3)
Great Paper Artwork at OUSA Convention June 30th, 2007
We just got back from NYC a few days ago; my wife Bekah just finished uploading the majority of our photos, if you’re inclined to take a look.
It was a lot of fun, and we were able to meet up with many flickr folding friends, both old and new. I’m very thankful for such a great chance to meet so many of you in person!
Some highlights that I enjoyed:
(title shot) - Bekah’s kirigami artwork of the Sun and Water, assembled (or deconstructed?) in Jeff’s Harlem studio.
32 two-dollar bills, folded as a single sheet, by me:
Some great work from Christine Edison:
Brian Chan:
Fantastic tessellated Romanesco cauliflower, again by Brian Chan:
Pureland Tessellations by Goran Konjevod:
Ray Schamp’s Corrugations:
More beautiful tessellations and masks from Joel Cooper:
Astonishing pieces from Polly Verity, our new folding friend from Scotland:
And, of course, some photos from our visit to Jen Stark’s exhibition at the LMak Projects over in Williamsburg:
(this last piece is my favorite!)
Posted in art, flickr photos, origami, origami tessellations, paper | Comments (4)
Paul Jackson Corrugated Surface video May 9th, 2007
Paul Jackson, one of my favorite paper artists, put together this wonderful five minute video on making a corrugated paper surface:
Paul is, of course, the master of this sort of folding, along with many other styles (see his website linked above for many beautiful examples). There’s been a good amount of interest in this style of folding lately, which I can’t talk about without mentioning my friend Ray Schamp, or his great Flickr group, Origami Corrugations.
As someone heavily biased towards origami tessellations, I have a strong affinity towards this style of folding- tessellators see a lot of pleats, and it’s a rare day when I do not succumb to the pleasure of twisting pleats around to make interesting shapes and structures. (who can avoid it? If you haven’t tried, fold some pleats and try it sometime…)
Footnote: check out Paul’s introductory video about himself and his work.
Posted in art, origami, origami tessellations, paper | Comments (4)
Laser-cut art book by Olafur Eliasson May 8th, 2007
Artist Olafur Eliasson created this piece, a laser-cut negative space rendering of his house in 85:1 scale:
It’s made of 454 slices, bound together in a book. Apparently it was quite a difficult process to put together, due to the complex constraints that were put upon the paper. From what I understand it was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.
The folks that produced the book are a laser-cutting house that specializes in paper-cutting, called Visionen in Papier (Visions in Paper). I’m actually even more interested in what they are capable of doing, and the kinds of services they provide- check out some of their other examples of their work.
As this piece combines books, paper cutting, laser cutters, architecture, and paper making, it hits a broad area of things I really enjoy- so I pass it along to you, readers, in the hope you find it interesting as well.
(All images copyright www.kremo.de)
Link from Бунт Архитекторов!, my favorite Russian website!
Posted in art, design, paper | Comments (21)
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)