Читать книгу Origami Odyssey - Peter Engel - Страница 9

Preface

Creating the origami designs and thoughts that fill this book has been a personal odyssey spanning two decades. At the time I finished my first origami book, in 1989, I had been creating original origami designs (paperfolders call them “models”) for over 15 years. I was proud of them, but they felt like the work of a child and a student, not someone of the world. Since that time, I have traveled to a dozen countries in Asia, for work and research; traveled the path of marriage and parenthood; and traveled deeply within myself as I questioned the relationships among art, craft, nature, music, and philosophy, and, especially, what this strange art/craft/pastime of origami means to me. These journeys have taken me to a place I consider to be the edge of paperfolding. In this book, I invite you to follow me there.

If you are new to origami, or even if you consider yourself a veteran, be prepared to traverse some very challenging territory. Some of these models are among the most complex ever published. (Although my design aesthetic tries to make a virtue of simplicity, getting to simplicity is often complicated.) Even highly experienced folders may find that it takes more than one attempt to produce a satisfying result. In the Table of Contents, the models are rated in order of difficulty from blue square (intermediate) to black diamond (more difficult) to yellow hazard triangle (can’t say I didn’t warn you).

The models in this book can all be made from commercially available origami paper, such as the approximately 10-inch squares found at arts and crafts stores, although I strongly encourage readers to experiment with larger and higher-quality art paper. Handmade Japanese washi paper comes in a myriad of textures, styles, patterns, and colors, is durable, and if molded when damp (misted with a plant sprayer) or coated with a thin paste of starch or methylcellulose (a safe and readily available thickening agent) retains its shape when dry. Useful tools include a burnisher (any hand-held tool with a flat edge or tip; hardware stores often stock metal ones that resemble dentist’s tools), and tweezers with an elongated tip. To fold a model of a given size, calculate the size of the initial square from the information given on the first page of each set of diagrams.

When you behold your finished models, having completed the long and rewarding journey from step one to the final destination, say a word of thanks to my friend and artistic collaborator Mao Tseng, who transformed my rough hand sketches into the beautifully rendered drawings presented here.

Welcome to the edge of paperfolding!