Origami For Kids

. . . . . What is it men in women do require The lineaments of Gratified Desire. What is it women do in men require The lineaments of Gratified Desire. -- Wm Blake Great old word that, lineaments, no longer much in use. An outline hinted at, is how we would put it today—except that outline suggests too much of contour and silhouette, not enough of the body lines. Lineaments: the lines, the main structure, the suggestion of it, the indication and idea of it, projectable from the surface, leaving aside almost the body itself, the skin and bones and flesh and motion and the very soul—all there but abstracted. What besides origami accomplishes this, hovers so precisely between idea and entity? Intelligence not quite incarnate, still hinting, suggesting, but obeying for all that its own strict laws. . . . . .

I am thrilled to announce here that beginning August 17, and running through the end of the year 2007, there will be a large museum exhibition of artistic origami in my country. The exhibit, “Treasures of Origami Art” will be shown at the “Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art”, in the scenic port city of Haifa, Israel. The Tikotin houses the most significant collection of Japanese and Asian art in this part of the world. The show’s theme is the emergence of origami into a full-fledged sculptural art. About 100 origami installations will be in it, representing works by some 25 artists and designers from 10 countries. These include: Akira Yoshizawa, Robert Lang, Tomoko Fuse, David Brill, Michael LaFosse, Joseph Wu, Roman Diaz, Brian Chan, Linda Mihara, Giang Dinh, Tomohiro Tachi, Joel Cooper, Ronald Koh, Arnold Tubis, Nguyen Hung Cuong, Saadya, Eric Gjerde, Christine Edison, Ray Schamp, Christiane Bettens, Fernando Gilgado, Bernie Peyton and Xander Arena. There will of course be expert worksho...

I’ve been asked more than once by people who see my curved things: do you wet the paper? And occasionally: do you press the paper into a mold? The answer to both questions is of course no. And as to wetting the paper, I don’t often practice wet folding (though a bit more so of late) but instead like to glue the paper to a stiff aluminum foil before starting out. But it took me a while to understand what people were really asking here; and also to realize that even some of those who have heard of wet-folding may have a mistaken idea of what it entails. People think when they see a curving surface (especially one curved in two directions), that since paper in its natural state is flat, its surface properties must have somehow been altered: that the paper has in fact been stretched . And they think that moistening a sheet of paper is what lets this happen. The question about ‘pressing into molds’ is contemplating the reverse: that the paper is being compressed. This of course is wrong. A ...