The Origami Forum

Hey everyone, I recently accepted a request for a commission, but it has a catch.
I'm part of a team of people who are in competition with another team to design journals, with each journal reflecting the personal life and hobbies of the designer. I have until the end of the month.
So, naturally, origami was the first thing that came to mind. I definitely want that to be my theme for the journal, but I'm having a really tough time in trying to figure out exactly how I could...
I gave this a shot: http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_paper/ ... 98,00.html

But it didn't work out so well. It's great for books you don't plan on using anymore, but this journal has to be usable.
So I've come across a few problems:
1. How do I make an interesting design without sacrificing writing space?
2. I only have two corners to work with (because a journal has the other two corners within its binding).
3. The journal has to look good! I can't have random designs on each page, so I guess most of the pages shall be folded the same.
4. The journal has to be durable (for some unexplained reason), so I can't have anything loose inside of it, and three-dimensional models wouldn't survive being flattened in a book.

Help, please?

You could fold some 2d models that fit onto the corners of pages, or better yet-why don't you fold the journal itself? Brian Chan designed an origami book with quite a few pages-here is the CP:



You could also fold a nice 2d design and attach it to the front of the journal. Folded pop-ups glued or taped inside the journal could also work.

That is certainly quite a challenge you have taken on, and it will surely be fruitful when you conquer it! Keep with it and best of luck to you.

What about taking the outer top and bottom corners of the pages and folding them into some 2d models like these:

http://home.no.net/origami/tablecards.htm

Obviously you could not use all of the ones on those page but the butterfly and the flapping crane look like they might work. Or you could make your own journal, using one of those place cards as the cover, fold it out of a nice thick paper, back it with cardboard and coat the folded portion with methyl cellulose or some diluted elmers glue to give it some stay and then sew in your own pages.

I actually think I might make myself one this way, as I usually make my own journals.

here's the tutorial for making your own bound journal that I use: http://www.daydreamingonpaper.com/0204pg2.html

It provides a very sturdy journal and then instead of the plain paper for the cover you would have your folded card.

Now look at this: http://www.onlab.ch/?ids=2,-1,45,1

that is so cool! how did you find that?

It was written today on the Origami Mailing List.