Читать книгу Creative Origami eBook - Marc Kirschenbaum - Страница 6

Introduction

Art is the expression of ideas through a medium, and origami challenges the artist with its stringent rules. These rules, of simply folding squares of paper, are not to be thought of as limitations of expression. Instead, they provide the artist with an opportunity to distill and highlight the features of his subject. The works in this book were developed with the additional rule of brevity. In developing these pieces, it was satisfying to see how a direct approach with fewer folds was often the best way.

A few of the works contained here were developed with yet another self-imposed rule. Most origami pieces involve maneuvers that involve both valley and mountain folds happening simultaneously. Valley fold is just the origami terminology for folding your paper in a concave fashion, while mountain fold refers to the convex approach. Even beginner origami practitioners soon realize that the two types of folds are effectively the same, albeit a mountain fold requires the paper to be turned over first. The question of why both types of folds are needed is answered with the more advanced sequences that involve the simultaneous collapsing of a series of mountain and valley folds. John Smith of England pioneered an approach he called Pureland, which requires an origami piece to just use simple valley and mountain folds. You can see that fairly sophisticated results can be obtained in pieces like the Pureland Eagle and Pure-land Ship in a Bottle, using the simplest of folding techniques. The folding sequences are exceptionally easy, making the results even more magical.

At the other end of the spectrum is Homage to Picasso, which is all about achieving a certain look. Picasso, who purportedly dabbled in origami, is famous for his Cubist approach. In Cubism, multiple perspectives of a subject are expressed simultaneously, and such an approach is a rarity in origami. Before designing Homage to Picasso, I studied many of Picasso’s pieces, and the result is a model that represents an amalgamation of various images.

The rest of the models are of some common (and some not too common) subjects. They all were created using the path not commonly taken, so you are certain to have a fun folding experience. Using the included papers, you can have attractive results. Of course you can experiment using your own materials, and even adjust some of the folds to your own personal taste. Enjoy!