A while back in this discussion (9 Oct 2014) Dave Mitchell wrote > I do feel that much of modern origami is driven by (several different kinds > of) dissatisfaction with what just folding paper can do rather than an > acceptance of its inherent limitations (which are what make origami > different and special). That is surely why we use foil, dampen the paper to > mould it, glue (or soak it in glue), crumple and strive
That reminded me-- When I used to live on the ground floor and would get bus-tourists to my house--elderly, art-loving but origami-ignorant visitors--a question I could count on getting at least once from each group was, "surely you made these figures by pressing the paper into a mould". It took me a while to see what was being imagined here: That if you moisten the paper, it somehow allows it to be stretched, "moulded", and that's how the protuberant shapes emerge. That’s actually triggered a line of investigation I am working on now. I.e., instead of being bemused/peeved by this response I am actively courting it. I want a form to grow out of an A4 sheet a little miraculously—to look maybe as if it were pressed into a mould, but with just enough more to unsettle even that explanation. You can see some results of these experiments here: http://origami-aesthetics.blogspot.co.il/2014/11/bas-reliefs.html Origami? Not origami? It's something 'anyone can do' with an uncut sheet of copy paper. HEART of origami? Heavens, no. I am pressing one EDGE of paperfolding. In particular, I'm curious to see just how much smooth, detailed, unlined, protuberant, papery form can be milked out of a single edge of a sheet of paper. Cheers, S
