A Bit of Origami Silence

If you have something to say, then say it. If not, enjoy the silence while it lasts. The noise will return soon enough.

Quoted from IGNORE EVERYBODY, and 39 other keys to creativity. Author -Hugh McLeod

Photo © Leyla Torres

Here and Now

This entry has to do with origami

only to the extent that it is about a square,

but not a square of paper, but one of time.

My recent birthday

was a square of seven sevens:

FORTY-NINE

I am at the same distance of being twenty-eight

as I was when I was seven

and as I am today of being seventy.

Looking at such  chunks of time,

it shrinks.

Life seems to be just a blink.

I realize in bewilderment

that this is the first week

of my fiftieth year,

- mi año CINCUENTA.

A Wise Soul advises me to do away

with this habit of keeping numbers.

I will pay attention!

I have decided

to focus on the “Here and Now”.

I must keep no count

and forever live in the present moment…

SIN-CUENTA.

A message from a pair of folding hands

On several occasions in past years I have suffered from pain in my shoulders or my hands. Two years back, when I had a painful wrist that kept me from work for several weeks, I found a book titled  The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders,  written by Dr. John E. Sarno, who presently practices medicine at New York University Medical Center. He describes what he has called Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS), or pain caused by emotional stress.

Following the recommendations in his book, my wrist pain disappeared then, and I could resume working. Thanks to Sarno’s theories, many people

Origami for (and by) the People

I believe that many practitioners of origami, just like me,  like to leave  origami models in public places for someone to find them.
In the Fitful The Flog, a blog by Philip Chapman-BellOrigami, he invites us to play with the concept of leaving paper models at public places and document it with photographs. The game consists of the following:

• Fold an origami model.
• Leave it in a public place.
• Take a photo at that site.
• Become a member of flickr.
• Upload the picture on the flickr “Origami for the People” group.

The only rule only rule they have is that you geotag your photo before you add it to the group. This allows people to see the contributions on a map.

Last Saturday, while waiting for my husband who was racing up to the summit of Mount Washington (NH) on his bicycle, I left one of my  origami hens on the summit sign, took a photo and put it in the flickr group. You may  locate it here on the map.

I love the idea and, being from Latin America, I’d love to see many tagged photos of origami left in public places of Latin America!

A Jewel in a Paper Bag

One afternoon, when I was about four years,  my mother came from the university where she was studying and handed  me a paper bag. It weighed very little. What would be inside? A candy? A small little toy? I opened it with curiosity and saw a huge black insect.

“It is a walking pin” my mom explained to me. She took it out of the bag and placed it on my sweater like a fine jewel. I observed it as it crawled on my chest and my arm. I grabbed it carefully from its firm body and looked underneath, its slender legs moving and trying to grasp the nothingness in the air. It tickled when it walked on my hand. I played a long time with my walking pin and finally, at bedtime, I left it on a chair in the dining room. The next day I went to play with my pin and, of course, it had walked away.

Thanks Ro for the black beetle and for this warm memory!

The origami beetle, shown in the first photo, is another model whose process is not too intricate, but the result is very effective. I particularly liked one of the last folds to shape and give volume to the wings.

Photos © Leyla Torres. Model created by Greg Bubniak. Folded by Leyla Torres.
Diagrams: Origami Kit For Dummies by Nick Robinson.
Crease Pattern: Polish page Origami.art.pl

Highlights from the OUSA Origami Convention NYC-2009

Above are some of the models that I learned at the OUSA convention in 2009 . Below are photos/names of the people who taught them to me and names of the creators of each model (from left to right and top to bottom).

-Dollar-Bill Skull (T: Andrew Hans C:?) – Whale (T: Jennifer Gerring C: Joseph Wu) -Modular Star “Franziska-Stern“ (T: John Lapko C:Carmen Sprung) -Graduation Cap (T: Maureen Miller C: Gay Merrill Gross)  -York Rose (T: Jean Johnson C: Juan Gimeno) -Storigamy grasshopper (T: Mileva Loo) -Spiral Elephant (T:Ray Schamp C:Tomoko Fuse) -Boxes (T: Tricia Tait C:unknown) -Biz-card Orb (T: Alfred Kwan C:Alfred Kwan)

Here I highlight some of my memories from the 2009 origami convention  (in no particular order of preference):

• Favorite model I learned: York Rose
• I heard a great storigami by Mileva Loo (on the response that the grasshopper had to the question of whether the Moon was a sphere, or was flat.)
• Joyce Saler, Tricia Tait and I talked about ways to improve methods of teaching origami.
• José Tomás Buitrago showed me a fraction of his fabulous collection of origami-related postal stamps. I am encouraging him to prepare a presentation on that subject for a coming convention and to publish them on a website!
• The classes I taught were sold out, yay: a snail and a frog feeding on a fly. I had two very good groups of students.
• James Peake and I chatted about Froebel’s  forms of beauty.
• A doorman of the dorm building folded a traditional boat, which he named “TITANIC” (see it here). I loved such a grand name for such a humble model. That is ambition!
• I loved the tiny thousand cranes beautifully folded by Lilian Ramírez (Mexico) and  shown in the exhibition. (See photo here.)
• Gay Merrill Gross loved the models by Simon Andersen that I took to the exhibition.
• I bought the DVD  for “Between the Folds”, the documentary by filmmaker Vanessa Gould (Green Fuse Films).
• Several people mentioned warmly their visiting this blog. Thank you and cheers!

Finally, to keep a promise, here I post photos  of the work of Latin American children who participated in the exhibition “Origami by Children”.

Ricardo Braughton, 12, Mexico (Pegaso/Satoshi Kamiya)
Mariana Cardoso, 16 años, México. (Chef Rat/C.H. Nguyen).
Valentina Rascón, 14 años, México (Unicornio/Román Díaz)

Taking the Origami Train to New York City

Now I’m ready! Tomorrow morning I take the origami train to travel to the OUSA convention in New York. Yay!

I plan to teach some origami models. I had this idea for a composition-assembly using  Román Díaz’ origami frog, Angel Encija’s origami fly and an origami frog tongue of my own creation. The result was this “Frog feeding on a fly”.

I committed a little “origami sin” as I made a small cut in the mouth of the frog to insert the tongue, but the idea seemed so much fun that I went for it. And no glue is used!

I will also teach a snail by Robert Lang shown in a previous entry of this blog.

Teaching is the best way to learn. Now I know these models inside out, by heart.

——

Another of my plans at the convention is to participate in the  Artist Trading Card event.  Here I share the card I prepared. It is called Full Moon Owl.

I used a simple owl model by Robert Neal. Diagrams for this owl are found in a book by Gay Merrill Gross called “Zoorigami. The background was made using photoshop and printing it out on the cards. The moon was colored by hand.

Photos © Leyla Torres

Origami Surprise From Denmark

A couple of days ago I received a box full of origami surprises created and folded  by Simon Andersen, a very prolific paper folder from Denmark.

I couldn’t wait to open it, and when I did… Wow!! I felt like a little child in Christmas. The only difference is that I took the models out slowly to savor every piece. I wanted to prolong my joy as much as possible.

The simplicity and beauty of his models go straight to my heart. Using the water-bomb base and a few folds, he has created these abstract and expressive origami models. Some of them are inflatable. I also loved Simon’s letter, written on the cardboard box, and his use of humble and unconventional papers… including sand paper!
His work is definitely an invitation to play, explore and learn. Little by little I will steal time from my work projects and reverse engineer every one of his pieces.

In his beautiful website, Hans Dybkjær (Denmark) has the following links to diagrams and photos of Simon Andersen’s origami work:

• Inflatable origami chicken -diagrams and photo
• Masks photos
• Step-folds for a Mask created by Simon
  

Thank you Hans for facilitating the connection between Simon and myself!

Here is a related post in this blog.

Photos © Leyla Torres. Origami models created and folded by Simon Andersen (Denmark).

An Origami Snail Whispers… –Summer!

For several years a banana plant has lived with me. She spends the winter inside, in my studio, and the summer on my deck.
This morning an origami snail came and whispered to her that all the trees outside are dressed in green. No dangerous frost will kill her leaves or her heart.
My banana plant and I will have the illusion of living in the warm temperatures of our tropical homelands for the next five months. Now we both are allowed to go out to the deck and sunbathe again. Yay!!!

Photos © Leyla Torres. Origami snail created by Robert Lang. Folded by  Leyla Torres.  Diagrams: Origami Kit For Dummies by Nick Robinson.

Origami in Bermuda, for Pleasure or for Business?

An events company recently invited me to give an origami demonstration in Bermuda at a trade show. Traveling to this island for a purpose other than tourism meant that the company that invited me had to request a special work permit from the authorities in Bermuda. A few days before my trip I was told that everything regarding this temporary permit was in order.
When I landed at the Bermuda International Airport, the customs officer receiving me was appropriately stern and solemn, exuding all the authority expected of any immigration or customs official.

“Good afternoon. How long are you staying in Bermuda?” he asked in a burocratic tone.
“Two days” I replied.
“For business or pleasure?”
“For business.”
“What will you be doing?
“I will be giving an origami demonstration”
“Ori … what?”
“Origami: The art of folding paper.” I clarified for him.
“Who are you working for?”
“I will be working for the new events promotion company.”
“One moment please. I need to check the list.”

The customs official disappeared behind an office door. Forty-three seconds later he returned, with the same authoritative air of superiority, and no expression.

“I’m sorry,” he said “but origami is not allowed in Bermuda!”

The blood drained from my face, and I froze, stunned.
“Origami is not allowed in Bermuda…?” I repeated.

“That’s right, Origami is not allowed in Bermuda.” He confirmed.
I was silent, looking directly at his eyes.

“Ha! Got  you, didn’t  I?” said the man with a mischievous islander’s smile.

I breathed a sigh of relief, and smiled back at his devilish prank. He then stamped my passport with an officious thump, and pointed me to the exit.

“Welcome to Bermuda!” he said.

Illustracion © Leyla Torres

Decorating Paper to Make Origami Butterflies

These photographs show results that I obtained by  experimenting with the decoration of onion skin paper, which is originally white.

Before folding the paper, I applied crayon shavings on each square. Then I placed another piece of paper over the shavings, and melted them onto the onion skin paper by passing a warm iron for a few seconds.Onion skin paper is strong, thin, crisp, translucent and folds easily.

Read these two other related posts on this kind of paper:

• Onion Skin Paper Uses
• Onion Skin Paper vs. Tracing Paper

Photos © Leyla Torres.

Origamy Buterfly created by Michael LaFosse,  folded by Leyla Torres.

Gnomes Find Fascinating Origami Mushroom

Three gnomes called Seb, Carl and Miro are feeling very joyful after discovering an origami mushroom. Their fascinating find happened yesterday on the windowsill of Leyla Torres’s studio, where the gnomes have lived for about seven days.

In an exclusive interview for The Braid, which today celebrates its second anniversary, the gnomes have confirmed that they plan to sit in the shadow of the paper mushroom and read their favorite books about mushrooms, fungi and mycology in general.

………………………………………………….

Photo © Leyla Torres.

• Instructions to make the gnomes: “Resurrection Fern” blog of Margaret Oomen.
  
• Video to make the mushroom –Vincent Floreder.
  
• Diagrams to fold the books: Origami Omnibus –Kunihiko Kasahara (pag, 284).

Resurrection

As a child, when I lived in the tropics, the idea of resurrection was to me a distant myth of languid crucifixes and dogmatic churches. In the tropics, I had no tangible reality with which to relate this myth.
In the thick green of tropical foliage, leaves and flowers are dying and regenerating constantly, without you ever noticing. In the vicinity of the Arctic Circle, here in Vermont where I live now, it is different.
On these days of April, after five months of total desolation and inexistent foliage, all of a sudden from the last snow on the ground, tiny flowers sprout. Buds appear on tree branches. Life emerges from dry trees.
The miracle of Spring happens under my own eyes. It is a visible re-emergence. It is a clear resurrection. Life returns to my soul too.

Photo © Leyla Torres. Origami Model: Primula –Mitsunobu Sonobe. Folded by Leyla Torres, using hand-painted onion skin paper.

Diagrams: Sarah Adams –Happy Folding

I Love Origami

Yesterday I received by mail a very unexpected package whose contents, no doubt, make me very happy: origami paper, origami pins and a love note. It was sent by none other than Betsy, my dear doctor of women’s affairs.

How about this brooch! Fabulous, isn’t it?

I love origami.
I love packages with great surprises inside.
I love people who send them!

Thank you Betsy!

A Clandestine Passenger

In recent days,  I have been folding repeatedly and with delightful satisfaction, this origami frog designed by Román Díaz.

Today, as I was folding this model, I remembered a day long ago when I was a mere six or seven years old,  wandering at break-time through the hallways of my elementary school.

Suddenly, two girls –older and intimidating at the advanced ages of perhaps eleven,  approached me. One of them stretched out her arm and removed something from the top of my head.  She carefully opened her hand, and there in her palm sat a tiny, wet, green, and very much alive, frog. “Look what you had on your head!” she said.

I stared in innocent amazement at this clandestine passenger, and could not imagine how, or where, or when,  she might have hopped  aboard.

The girls walked away with my frog, and looking after them I was sad that I couldn’t keep this new-found friend. But even so I never had a doubt, until just a few years ago, that on that day these self-appointed monitors of public order  had discovered a stowaway, traveling blissfully with me through the hallways of my elementary school.

Origami frog, created by Román Díaz

Diagrams: Origami Kit For Dummies by Nick Robinson