Greetings
Posted: October 17th, 2016, 11:04 pm
Hello Origami community,
I've been lurking around for several months now, so it's about time to introduce myself. My name is Bernd, 41 years old from Germany, father of two children.
My interest into Origami started in my youth, when I discovered a book from Robert Harbin on my parents book shelf. Later on, other books followed, but at that time I still considered Harbin's book to contain the most interesting models for me.
As I became older, leaving school, I focused on other hobbies and interests. Probably also, because I didn't see any advance or new challenges in my Origami skills.
It was many years later, actually just about two to three years ago, when I digged up the old books again and checked the internet for additional literature. That's when I came across Robert J. Lang's Origami Design Secrets among others. A must have, I knew immediately.
A completely new approach and level of understanding opened up to me. It seemed, as if the world of Origami has turned very fast in the last 20-30 years. But in fact, it already developed drastically several decades before my birth with the work of Akira Yoshizawa. I simply wasn't aware due to the lack of international communities like this forum at that time.
Discovering models like Ryujin or the lich king made my eyes pop and created the wish to build those for myself. As a child I had to learn, that some wishes will never be granted. Let's see if this is still true...
While I have no problem to follow the diagrams of many complex models, the biggest challenge for me at the moment is the accuracy and the final shaping of the model.
I did finish Nguyen Hung Cuong's Eagle, for example, but it more looked like a capercaillie cock than an eagle :o). One reason could be that I folded it with Biotope paper. Probably not the best choice. But I'm still learning and getting better at it, I think...
What I learned was, that you should not expect to get a complexe model perfect on the first try.
As soon as I have improved my skills, the next big step will be to understand and collapse crease patterns. This is still a mystery to me. Whether I will ever be able to realize my own ideas and create new models, I don't know.
Another topic that opened up to me was the choice of paper. Or to be more precise the variety of paper. In my early days, I only used copy paper and maybe some Kami. For those medium level models, it was sufficient, though not very beautiful.
Thanks to globalization, today one can get nearly any type of paper from around the world. When I came across Nicolas Terry's shop I felt like a child in a toy store. Papers like Biotope, thin Kraft or Nicolas Terry's Tissue Foil offer so much more folding pleasure and possibilities.
I tried various papers, but in the end I came back to paper, that I could have used already in my youth. I just never got the idea to use it for folding Origami. I'm talking about tissue paper and mulberry paper (called "Faserseide" in Germany). I can get these papers from the local handicraft workshop in various colors. The key is to treat the paper with MC. It took me a while to understand, that "MC" stands for methyl cellulose, the main component of tapestry glue. Again something you can get at the next hardware store. Mulberry paper is really beautiful and thin but strong. And the big advantage of it and especially of the even thinner tissue paper is, that you can create color-changing paper as required for your model. You just have to make sure to use non-bleeding tissue paper.
But back to what Origami means to me. For a start, it's a hobby beside others, like paper-crafting, scale model building (mostly 1/12 multi-media car kits) or photography, depending on the mood and occasion.
Origami puts me into a relaxing mood, though sometimes it's quiet despairing to understand a complex folding step. Especially if after several attempts, the paper becomes soft or starts to tear. Something you can only fight with experience and patience, I guess.
I mainly fold models from square paper, no cuts, no glue, except for shaping with MC. Normally I don't paint my models afterwards. But maybe I will use it one day to highlight details, like adding shadows etc.
My preferred models are complex ones, for the challenge. Though I'm also interested into more simple ones, which have a different, more abstract kind of expression. Take the works of Giang Dinh as the other extreme.
Why I came to this forum? Well, I'm looking for an exchange of ideas and inspiration. I've already seen so many fantastic models from users of this forum. The level of detail, accuracy and simply style is just impressive.
At the moment there is not much I can offer in exchange. But my aim is to at least present some of my models to the community later on and support new Origami followers.
I hope my introduction was not too excessive.
Regards
Bernd
I've been lurking around for several months now, so it's about time to introduce myself. My name is Bernd, 41 years old from Germany, father of two children.
My interest into Origami started in my youth, when I discovered a book from Robert Harbin on my parents book shelf. Later on, other books followed, but at that time I still considered Harbin's book to contain the most interesting models for me.
As I became older, leaving school, I focused on other hobbies and interests. Probably also, because I didn't see any advance or new challenges in my Origami skills.
It was many years later, actually just about two to three years ago, when I digged up the old books again and checked the internet for additional literature. That's when I came across Robert J. Lang's Origami Design Secrets among others. A must have, I knew immediately.
A completely new approach and level of understanding opened up to me. It seemed, as if the world of Origami has turned very fast in the last 20-30 years. But in fact, it already developed drastically several decades before my birth with the work of Akira Yoshizawa. I simply wasn't aware due to the lack of international communities like this forum at that time.
Discovering models like Ryujin or the lich king made my eyes pop and created the wish to build those for myself. As a child I had to learn, that some wishes will never be granted. Let's see if this is still true...
While I have no problem to follow the diagrams of many complex models, the biggest challenge for me at the moment is the accuracy and the final shaping of the model.
I did finish Nguyen Hung Cuong's Eagle, for example, but it more looked like a capercaillie cock than an eagle :o). One reason could be that I folded it with Biotope paper. Probably not the best choice. But I'm still learning and getting better at it, I think...
What I learned was, that you should not expect to get a complexe model perfect on the first try.
As soon as I have improved my skills, the next big step will be to understand and collapse crease patterns. This is still a mystery to me. Whether I will ever be able to realize my own ideas and create new models, I don't know.
Another topic that opened up to me was the choice of paper. Or to be more precise the variety of paper. In my early days, I only used copy paper and maybe some Kami. For those medium level models, it was sufficient, though not very beautiful.
Thanks to globalization, today one can get nearly any type of paper from around the world. When I came across Nicolas Terry's shop I felt like a child in a toy store. Papers like Biotope, thin Kraft or Nicolas Terry's Tissue Foil offer so much more folding pleasure and possibilities.
I tried various papers, but in the end I came back to paper, that I could have used already in my youth. I just never got the idea to use it for folding Origami. I'm talking about tissue paper and mulberry paper (called "Faserseide" in Germany). I can get these papers from the local handicraft workshop in various colors. The key is to treat the paper with MC. It took me a while to understand, that "MC" stands for methyl cellulose, the main component of tapestry glue. Again something you can get at the next hardware store. Mulberry paper is really beautiful and thin but strong. And the big advantage of it and especially of the even thinner tissue paper is, that you can create color-changing paper as required for your model. You just have to make sure to use non-bleeding tissue paper.
But back to what Origami means to me. For a start, it's a hobby beside others, like paper-crafting, scale model building (mostly 1/12 multi-media car kits) or photography, depending on the mood and occasion.
Origami puts me into a relaxing mood, though sometimes it's quiet despairing to understand a complex folding step. Especially if after several attempts, the paper becomes soft or starts to tear. Something you can only fight with experience and patience, I guess.
I mainly fold models from square paper, no cuts, no glue, except for shaping with MC. Normally I don't paint my models afterwards. But maybe I will use it one day to highlight details, like adding shadows etc.
My preferred models are complex ones, for the challenge. Though I'm also interested into more simple ones, which have a different, more abstract kind of expression. Take the works of Giang Dinh as the other extreme.
Why I came to this forum? Well, I'm looking for an exchange of ideas and inspiration. I've already seen so many fantastic models from users of this forum. The level of detail, accuracy and simply style is just impressive.
At the moment there is not much I can offer in exchange. But my aim is to at least present some of my models to the community later on and support new Origami followers.
I hope my introduction was not too excessive.
Regards
Bernd