Eric Gjerde Origami

• radical cartography
  Fascinating GIS mapping of housing in Manhattan and valuation of properties… you can really tell where the social structures lie, when looking at this map. Intriguing.
  (tags: map NYC art interesting structure information)

Stars in a sky of hexagons, originally uploaded by AndreaRusso.

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!

• Toby Curnow’s FFFFOUND! images
  Toby Curnow has wonderful taste in found images – delightful sources of inspiration here. Much time wasted following link after link after link… well, not wasted – but instead feeding new ideas! Try it yourself.
  (tags: ffffound images art inspiration ideas)

I am 30

Originally uploaded by EricGjerde.

Today I turn 30 years old. I hope the next decade holds even more interesting things for me to see and experience.

I’ve always been a cranky old man at heart – today I’m just a little bit closer to making that the reality!

For those of you joining us for the Origami Tessellation meet-up on June 26th in NYC, we’ll be celebrating some birthdays – including mine – and having a great evening all around. I look forward to seeing you there.

After some trials and tribulations, my book on Origami Tessellations is moving forward with a new publisher – A K Peters, Ltd.. They have published some wonderful books on origami, and I’m looking forward to being a new member of their publishing family.

The new ISBN for my book is: 978-1-56881-451-3, to be released later on this year.

The print version of this postcard will be available at the OUSA convention in NYC later on this June; or, if you’d like one, just drop me a line at origomi@mac.com and I’ll pop one in the mail to you.

For the many of you who pre-ordered the book on Amazon.com and elsewhere: your current orders will be (or have been) canceled, as the book is not being published through Sterling as previously planned. The book will be re-listed shortly with the new ISBN, and I will be sure to provide a link to the book as soon as I can. It will be available directly from A K Peters, as well as the regular channels – your local bookseller, Amazon.com, and other online stores.

Thanks for all your support, my friends!

-Eric Gjerde

UPDATE: My book now available via Amazon! Origami Tessellations: Awe-Inspiring Geometric Designs

• Palace and Mosque: Islamic Art from the Victoria and Albert Museum
  (tags: islamic art Arabic mosque tiling tessellation)
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Special Exhibitions: Venice and the Islamic World
  (tags: islamic art venice exhibition)

finished!

Originally uploaded by Bimbi_OM.

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

• The World of Fashion: Pixel Perfect: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
  fascinating article on a photo retouching master.
  (tags: digital photo retouching fashion)

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

hierarchical

Originally uploaded by goran konjevod.

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!