First, let me make it very clear that anything I say here about Marc's work is my interpretation, and not necessarily what Marc thinks.wolf wrote:So, what's your view on how to best finish a design? That'll make for an interesting discussion topic, I think.Joseph Wu wrote:Then again, Marc and I have very different views on how to finish an origami design, so this is definitely a case of two different styles clashing.
It appears to me that Marc is more interested in the design of the base than in the design of the model. He is technically inventive, coming up with intriguing bases for the models he wishes to develop. However, he doesn't seem to want to go beyond that. Once the base is developed, he forms the major features of the figure, and then he stops. A good example of this is how he does heads for human figures. Flipping through Paper in Harmony, you'll see that many of the head are simply the opening up of a flap to give a rounded shape. Looking at the diagrams, the bulk of the steps for any given model describe the formation of the basic structure; few steps are devoted to finishing details.
Marc's use of tissue foil as his preferred folding material exacerbates this lack of finishing detail. Foil allows for rough sculpting, and many of his models are squeezed here and there in lieu of folding the finishing details. The fact that he makes his tissue foil out of unryu tissue also means that his models tend to be fuzzy, adding to the unfiinished look.
Compare this approach with many of the Japanese designers. Most of them fold with paper, and details are folded in. Looking at a typical set of diagrams from a JOAS or Origami House publication, you'll see that at least half of the steps for a given model describe the figure's details. Compare Hojyo's shibaraku to Marc's drummer and you'll know exactly what I mean.
My preference is for well defined folding for most models. I like clean lines, and I want the finished piece to look like it was made out of paper. Anyone who's ever taken a class from me will know that there are all sorts of fiddly little detail folds at the end. For some, that's just a lot of tedious folding, but for me, that makes the design.
There are times, however, when lots of fiddly little details are not appropriate. For example, many of Yoshizawa's masterpieces involve gentle shaping. Even there, though, the idea is to use the shaping to generate a finished form, suggesting details that turn the origami from a mere model into a piece of sculpture. I don't see that in most of Marc's models; they simply look unfinished to me.
Marc's style does sometimes work exceptionally well. Last year at the JOAS convention in Tokyo, Eric Joisel pointed out Marc's model of a Model A Ford. The rough, fuzzy, crumply nature of the tissue foil, together with Marc's rough, unfinished-looking style, made for a model that captured a sense of age and whimsy, almost a caricature of the car. It was perfect.