Cowboy Hat

So about 12 years ago I made the mistake of telling a friend, Liam that I could make just about anything in origami.  In my defence I had just finished making all the models in a book I had but there is no excuse for such things.  So he quite fairly asked for a cowboy hat.  I was floored.  About 6 years later I finally got it.  There is an image of it in the shop window on top of the black knight earlier this month.  

I was told that the Japanese folders just publish their crease diagrams and that this was quite annoying because it was almost impossible to figure out the folds from it.  I am thinking about doing a how to series on this design but have yet to do so but I have done a crease diagram and it is quite pretty, sorry. 

Chess Pieces

Here are the individual pieces.  I had trouble with ataching all the images to one post.

Chess Set

So I have this image of an origami chess set made from one piece of paper.  This is a bit of a lie but it is also strangely true.  

I guess I should start with credits.  I came up with the consetina design after looking at a set of drawings from students at the Dessau school.  The Dessau art school was a major part of the Bauhaus movement in Germany pre WW2.  I was actually involved in hanging the Albers and Maholi-Nagi show at the Tate and started to see a strong origami element in the work.  Especially the work of Konrad Puschell.  

Anyway, while looking through some books I flipped past a page that looked a bit like my first picture ( I am still looking for the picture I am talking about, but no luck yet).  I am not sure if the drawing was of an origami model or not but I made it out of a single sheet of uncut paper later that day.

Then a few weeks later on a work trip in Germany I was stuck in a hotel bored and folding and I came up with the idea of making a chess set by changing around the consetina object to make each of the pieces.  This was made easier by the use of a digital camera to capture an image of each piece without me having to remake each piece.

Out of lazyness I then just photoshopped the pieces together using the negative images of the pieces to represent the opposing colour. Thus the chess set out of one piece of paper (and many photographs of it collaged together).

 I have actually changed the designs a bit since then but I have included a photoshopped image very similar to my original idea here.  I actually prefer the collaged set to the real thing which took me a year os so to get around to making. 

Photographs

Here are a few photos of the front window as it was at 12.30 yesterday.  Yes colour photographs.  I promise it wont happen again.  The object under the stairs was an Odradek not that anyone could recognise it and the 2 part black and white thing is a knight from my chess set design with a stetson hat on.

The window display has been taken down now. 

Showy

Well  the opening happened last night and it was fun.  Thank you Rachael, Louise and Rosemary for having me. Thank you for the tunes Jaime, and thanks to those who came along, and thank you to Dave and Ellie for the help too.  So much thanks.

So... here's what I learned yesterday.  I know very little and I need to read,  listen and think more.

These are great things to learn.  I failed in my initial promise to make the whole thing an accessible paper folding foray and got nervous and show-offy and put a bunch of pieces that I am actually quite happy with on display. I plan more butterflies I promise.  

I sidelined my butterfly to show off and in a way I had to do it.  I was nervous and excited and self conscious.  While at the opening Larry showed me an origami butterfly (need more info to put link in here) which frankly did more with less and became a bear... so cool.  It also taught me that you can make a flapping version of my butterfly by folding back its wings and pressing on its spine.  

My shambling bat upside down looks like scooby doo and I am looking into ways to make the butterfly more a part of the shop and show.

Yes Simon I will put in photographs of the show soon.

Show

I have a show at Prick Your Finger opening next Wednesday. I have a staircase and an Odradek to show as well as lots of other things. I am excited and a bit nervous.

Oh and I also am demonstrating some work at the Origin craft fair at Somerset House on Sunday from 2 till 4.