Origami Tessellations

Here’s a good story in the Japan Times about american artisans living in Japan, learning and then teaching others to make washi. It also talks about the efforts to keep the papermaking tradition alive in a country that is speeding headlong into the future, often at the expense of ancient methods, processes and skillsets.

Since he likes the traditional Japanese aesthetic of “wabi sabi,” which connotes austere beauty and elegant simplicity, he often uses what he calls “tone-downed color,” such as earth colors and charcoal gray, to give it a more “warm or natural feel.”

…

Some of Flavin’s washi, including paper made from kozo and from pineapple, was listed in an updated version of a book of paper samples titled “Washi — Handmade Paper of Japan,” which was published in 2006 by the nationwide association of handmade paper makers.

“Mr. Flavin cultivates the raw material himself, and is sticking to the ancient form of papermaking,” said Shohei Asano, president of a washi paper outlet in Tokyo who helped compile the book.

The Japan Times, January 6th, 2007

Thanks to Mark Kennedy on the O-list for the link!

I was playing around yesterday with some star-puff related shapes, and thought these might be interesting to someone out there.

Ron Resch photo from the 1960’s

Originally uploaded by EricGjerde.

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.

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!