The Origami Forum

Hi there everyone,

Nice to meet you all! My name is Mark, and I just recently got back into origami after a 15 year hiatus. I started folding when I was in 2nd grade, and back then I folded exclusively with kami and occasionally gold or silver foil-backed paper. The only 2 "advanced" origami books that my parents bought for me were Lang's Origami Sea Life and Peter Engel's Folding the Universe: Origami from Angelfish to Zen. My ultimate goal back then was to be able to fold Engel's Knight on Horseback, but I was never able to complete it without the paper ripping (it didn't help that almost all of my paper was only 8"). Knowing nothing about higher-quality paper/advanced folding techniques and feeling like my skills had hit a plateau, I eventually started to pursue other hobbies and interests.

Fast-forward to last year when I was at an alumni event at my fraternity with friend and fellow alum Jason Ku. I had heard that Jason was into origami a few years earlier, but I had no idea how amazing his designs were until I came across his website. I was completely floored by the complexity of his models, and seeing them reignited my interest in the subject. He invited me to start attending the origami club meetings which he ran every week, and as a result the past 4 months have been a crash-course for me in wet-folding, paper backing, crease pattern analysis, and advanced design techniques. I've gotten to meet other expert folders like Brian Chan and Michael LaFosse at the meetings, and I'm completely in awe after seeing their work up close. It wasn't until I read more about these guys online and saw Between the Folds that I realized how incredibly lucky I am to essentially be getting free lessons from these accomplished artists, and I'm looking forward to attending more meetings when they start up again next month.

I recently picked up some new books including Lang's Origami Design Secrets, LaFosse's Advanced Origami, and Shafer's Origami to Astonish and Amuse and am hoping to try some of the models in them soon. I got a jar of methylcellulose as well (that was an odd thing for my family to see on my Xmas list), although I haven't had a chance to learn how to mix or use it yet. I also got a bunch of new types of paper, including the Pack Discovery variety pack and washi brown paper from origami-shop.com, and was lucky enough to be able to buy a few sheets of LaFosse's Origamido paper when he was visiting. The only things I'm missing now are a good way to cut the paper into squares, and most importantly a good surface to fold on (the table and desk in my tiny apartment are way too small).

I have to admit that I feel like I'm in a bit over my head and I'm still trying to grasp a lot of these new concepts, but I'm really excited to be folding again after all this time and rediscovering an old hobby. At some point I hope to get good enough to design some models on my own, but for now I want to focus on absorbing all of this new knowledge and improving my folding technique using these new materials.

I haven't had time to fold very much yet, but here are a few things I made recently (including the Knight on Horseback, yay!):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/57617475@N00/4145037051/

It looks like a lot of you are very accomplished folders/designers yourselves, and I'm looking forward to learning with you all.

Now I'm jealous!

Welcome on board lucky man
This is a very nice place to share experiences and solve questions, but it seems you already have some of the best advisors around you.

welcome aboard

A heartly "Welcome", SenorTortuga! You found one of the nicest places to communicate about Origami.

Let me say that your story reminds me on my own one: Angelfish to Zen was my first Origami book, too (though my personal challenge was the Butterfly), then there were one or two years when I was folding like a madman ... then I got a *very* time-intensive job, and dropped Origami completely. Now, after taking a many-years break from Origami, last spring the virus has bitten me again ...
From your photo on Flickr I see that you did the Knight-on-Horseback in the meantime, and it seems to look good! (The picture is a bit small, though.) (And Engel's Scorpion is one of my favourites from that book - see my flickr if you like.)

Personal note: when compairing Origami 12~13 years back with Origami today, I found one very big difference: back in the late 90's, there was no Internet! (Well, at least for me.) Now that we're deep in the WWW age, Origami has become quite a different thing, in so many aspects.

One thing irritates me a bit - Angelfish to Zen was published in 1997, and you have folded from it for a while. Now we just reached 2010. How did you manage to take 15 years hiatus inbetween? Finally found the time machine?

Thank you guys for the warm welcome!

@Didée: I did finally manage to finish the Knight on Horseback and Scorpion, but in both models I experienced the paper tearing (could have had something to do with the fact that I was using 15+ year old machine-made foil-backed kami). The Knight ripped open a bit in front near the head, and the Scorpion actually "popped" completely in half down the middle when I was putting the finishing touches on the tail due to the stress on the paper. Needless to say I was extremely frustrated after putting so many hours into the scorpion, but I was able to hide most of the damage with some super glue . Your models on Flickr look amazing too, especially that frog - I'm anxious to start using MC to see how much more detail it allows me to add to things.

As for Engel's book, the version I purchased was published in 1989, and I think I got it in '90 or '91. So no, sadly, I'm not a time traveler .

Hey Mr. Tortuga, welcome! I'd be happy to mentor you if you could get me into MIT for my masters Being able to learn from Jason and Brian is certainly a good thing. And it's not just them either. You're in one of the most origami-concentrated spots in the world.

And yes, super glue works wonders.

SenorTortuga - oh my, of course you're right, please pardon me. First publish was in '89, not in '97 ... where did I have my head?!
(Now, that means that my own sabbatical from Origami was much longer than I thought ... about 16 years. Time passes by so quickly, it's a mystery ...)

Mark - Your Models look great !

I know you are proud of the Knight, but I am also impressed with your frog. Since you have met Michael Lafosse, I suggest that you buy some frog paper from him (and perhaps buy the frog CD), practice wetfolding the frog with cheaper paper, then wetfold the Lafosse frog with Origamido Frog paper.

It is a challenge but I believe it will be very rewarding.

- Hank Simon

Hank - Actually, when LaFosse came to visit he held a workshop where he walked us through wet-folding the frog with his special frog paper . I'm very new to wet-folding though and I haven't had time to do much final shaping on that model yet, so right now my foil one looks better.

I think the biggest thing I've learned in the last 4 months is how important (and time-consuming) the final shaping process can be. When I was younger, I used to just stop folding as soon as I finished the last diagrammed step of a model. After seeing how much realism and "life" artists like LaFosse and Josiel can breathe into what would normally be relatively easy to fold models like their frog and rat, I've come to appreciate how little personal touches like that can go a long way.