Bottlenosed Dolphin

What do you do with a nice big light grey 20" square of thick paper suitable for wet folding? A dolphin of course! I've folded enough 4 legged animals and multi appendaged insects. The dolphin in action pose struck me as a unique and interesting subject to attempt to capture in a wet folded model. The paper is actually almost TOO think, as the rigid layers within make it difficult to shape.

"Bottlenose Dolphin" by Quentin Trollip

Wet folded from one uncut 20" square

of home made paper.

Behind the torch once again

We awoke this morning to about 5 inches of snow on the ground! It's not even Halloween yet. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was putting away the summer hobbies... but it sparked some motivation for Beth and I to get back into the glass studio. It's been a few months since we did any real lampwork due to summer schedules and activities. We are a little rusty, but after a few practice beads it's like riding a bike.

We've had several requests for Euro-style beads (Pandora etc). First we have been requested to produce a handful of breast cancer awareness beads. I have also have requests for sculpted pigs, cows, turtles, and dogs. It seems the fine detail stringer work is in high demand.

With the kiln stocked to the hilt, we take a break to play with the kids in the afternoon, and maybe even make some paper to fold!

Upgrade to 20" squares

The set of equipment I had been working with to make paper was about 9"x16". I made some great sheets of paper, but found that the aspect ratio was all wrong. I could get one nice 9" sheet, but then I'd have to basically junk the rest of the sheet.

Solution: Build a square set of equipment... and why not upgrade to 20" while I'm at it?!?

  

Here you can see the 20x20 deckle and screen frame just about to get its first batch of pulp. This is of course all made from scrap wood I found laying around the garage, leftover from a previous project. We didn't have a 20" square rubber maid bin to work in, so I made my own.. mocked up from some scrap lumber and a sheet of plastic, as I had seen in photos of the Orgamido studio. This is several advantages. One is it's cheap and easy, and thats for me. I have enough expensive hobbies to soak up any available money!

Here's the first sheet that measures about 19" square drying on the flannel blotters on the kitchen floor. shortly thereafter it was transferred to a drying rack.

Since my wife, Beth, helped me to patiently with the first pull, we made a second pull just for her. We pulped white kraft paper, and she creatively used shards of pink paper sprinkled about, and green cake decorating sprinkles which soaked tiny green spots into the pulp.

Aside from needing to acquire a new set of 20" blotters, I'd say this setup gets a thumbs up! Looking forward to wet folding this one!

Wet Folding

I sat down early on this evening frustrated with a massively complex origami eagle, which is supposed to take up to 6 hours to fold. The problem is, this is my second attempt and I screwed it up on the same step as last time.... somewhere around step 110. Ugh. 

I needed something new to refresh my motivation. I stumbled upon two models that peaked my interest- not for their complexity, but for their apparent simplicity. These models require very few diagrammed steps, but have a very artistic sculpture quality to them. They are little works of art.

The first was "Panther Mask" by Michael Lafosse. I folded this using the paper made during my last post. The paper was maybe a 9" square. it was thick and had some denim cotton content. As I started to fold this model, I noticed the thick paper seemed to soak up the force of my fingers as if it knew what I was asking it to do. I'm not saying I was creating some revolutionary masterpiece- far from it. But the paper felt like clay in my fingers.

I spent a good hour working this model, rounding in the shapes of the face- the nose, the cheeks, the upper lip. I just kept working at it until I was happy with the shape. I think I just found a whole new universe within Origami.

The next model I stumbled across is called "Cat" by Vietnamese artist Giang Dinh. This is the first time I did a "true" wet fold- where I used a damp sponge to wet the areas as I worked. For this model I used a 9" square of thick home made paper made from Kraft stock that had been treated with Methyl Cellulose. Though this first attempt is far from a masterpiece, it has considerably more shape and life than the mask did. It definitely requires much more artistry than technical folding talent. The diagrammed steps number less than a dozen! It really is too bad I'm not a cat person!

Final Sail of the 2011 Season

Well, we logged quite a few hours over the last few months, sailing late into the season and loving every (cold) minute of it. Since the blog is new, I thought I would post a link to this video which shot by a friend, Mike, as we sailed on Sacandaga Lake in mid October.

Here's a GPS map and some stat's from our afternoon's voyage:

Trail Map recorded while sailing on Sacandaga Lake.

First try with Denim

I started out this evening thinking I'd attempt to make stronger paper with longer fibers from denim. Thats right, scraps of old jeans. I cut up a handful of 1" squares, soaked them in water, then tossed them in the blender.

The result was a nice soft even pulp. As it passed through my fingers it tended to clump up, so I added white Kraft paper to the mix. This seemed to disperse the cotton a bit and reduced clumping.

I pulled a sheet using only 1/2 cup of pulp to see how it performed. It turned out quite thin. I ended up coating with Methyl Cellulose in the end to stiffen the paper up. We'll see what we can fold with that.

Next I pulled a sheet with almost 2 cups of pulp. I had wet folding in mind when I did this, and I knew 2 cups would be about the limit. The paper did turn out quite thick.I can't wait to try a mask or something else as soft and curvy!

 

Folding do it yourself "Duo" paper

"Duo" paper is simply dual colored paper- one color on the front, another color on the back. Store bought origami papers are colored with ink which can fade and break down over time. Using Methyl Cellulose, it is quite simple to glue one color of high quality paper to another.. making your color and paper choices limitless. Here are a few examples I've folded recently:

"Great White Shark" by Quentin Trollip.

Folded from a 9" square of 

Grey and White "Duo" paper.

"Border Collie" by Quentin Trollip.

Folded from a 9" square of

Black and White "Duo" paper.

One major point I'd like to make is that rich colors may bleed into the other! When making the Black and White Duo, I had trouble with the white becoming almost as jet black as the Black lokta. I overcame this problem by giving each sheet a thin coat of MC and letting them dry individually. Next, I brushed a thin coat on the white and pressed it to the black, and left to dry.

That's all for tonight. Happy Folding!

Recent Folds

Since I have just begun to blog, I thought I might post pictures of a few of my recent folds. These designs are the artistic work of Michael LaFosse, Quentin Trollip, and the great technical works of Satoshi Kamiya. I've been learning to fold for 6 months now, so I hardly consider myself to be pro. This is all just for fun!

"Squirrel" by Michael Lafosse. 

Folded from one 9" square of grey lokta paper, 

back coated with white acrylic paint.

"White Rhinocerous" by Quentin Trollip.

Folded from one 9" square of home-made paper.

"Ancient Dragon" by Satoshi Kamiya

Folded from one 18" square of handmade

red paper, marbled in black and gold.

"The Wizard" by Satoshi Kamiya.

Folded from one 18" square of 

white artists drawing paper.

Hobie Cat Hibernation

I spent the weekend preparing to store the sail boat. It's turned out to be a demonstration in procrastination. The boat is not even two months old yet, she's sailed all but 3 weekends since labor day, and I'm just not ready to put her away. However it's getting cold now, and I'm afraid that despite the incredible fall winds there are no longer enough boats on the water to make further adventures safe.

We have a fairly large two car garage- large enough to fit all of the kids bicycles, lawnmowers, snowblowers, etc plus a minivan and car- but not large enough to fit all that and a 17-foot catamaran.... or so one would think! Enter my grandfather- the great sailor, the father of tinkerers. I remember as a small child going to my granparents house and peeking into the garage door to see his sailboat suspended from the ceiling, high above the cars. He had built neat shelves to house the mast, the sails, life jackets, and all the other goodies associated with sailing.

So rather than leave my poor little boat out to freeze her rudders off for the winter, I've decided to follow suit. We have 10foot ceilings in our garage which make it near perfect for the task. Right down the center is a great runway on which to bring her in for take off by pushing the trailer in by hand and line everything up.

It was a fairly simple task, in theory. It ended up taking me an entire day due to a few mistakes and oversights on my part (lets just say I now recommend spending a few extra bucks on the full-quality pulleys!). But in the end, the boat was raised up half way where it could be packed and prepped for storage at its full altitude. The dual trampolines of the Hobie Getaway make a perfect place to store sailing related equipment and maybe even a little more. The sails, rudders, trapeze harness, life jackets, etc will all fit nicely with room to spare.


For those of you engineering-types, the boat weighs about 350lbs fully rigged. My plan was to suspend it from four ropes due to the size, each rope carrying about 90 lbs. The lines holding the front of the boat are tied to the fore beam using a trucker's hitch knot in order to easily adjust the height of the nose. They each go through a pulley directly above and head toward the rear of the boat where they join the lines coming from the aft beam.

With the boat fully down on the trailer, I tied Appalachian butterfly knot in each aft line and tied the front lines to the rear lines using a bowline knot. Now the aft lines are each carrying the load from the corresponding side of the boat. The lines head over to the wall where they turn downwards through another set of pulleys and meet on a load ring. A come-along winch mounted at floor level will pull this load ring down as it raises the boat up to the ceiling. I mounted a 2x4 to the wall to help take the compression load between the come-along and pulleys. Everything is well-lagged into the studs, including two "safety hooks" which I can place the load ring over to take the load off of the winch and eliminate it as a source of failure. In the end, the garage roof has a fairly distributed load about equal to two men standing withing 5 feet of the side of the attic.

Job done. Now to find something to do on the weekends until spring...

Starching Origami Paper

There are several reasons why you'd want to starch paper for folding... also a couple of different ways to do it. Starch makes your paper stiffer so it creases great for detailed or complex models, and can be used to glue two colors together to make "duo" paper (Not Foil!).
I start out with 1tbsp of cornstarch dissolved in about 2 cups or water over heat until it begins to boil, simmering/stirring for about 15-20 minutes. After the mixture cools, I put it into a spray bottle to be misted evenly onto my target.
I use a 2ftx2ft sheet of lexan I had laying around, though many people use glass. The lexan has the added benefit of being SAFE to move about in a house with small children. I spray the lexan down first, then carefully lay my Lokta or other paper out being careful not to get wrinkles. I spray more starch on top until the fibers are evenly soaked. The next thing I do is cover the paper in plastic wrap, then use a rolling pin to carefully push the bubbles and excess starch out of the paper. I remove the plastic wrap and the paper begins to dry.

I suppose you could leave it out for about 8 hours to dry in the open air, but I am way too impatient for that! I set the edge of the lexan on the floor and lean it up against the wall over a hot air duct from the house heating system. I don't see why you couldn't also use a hair dryer if you were motivated enough. In about 10 minutes the paper is usually dry to the touch, and peels off the lexan very nicely.
The result of this process is a crispy-stiff sheet of paper that is glass smooth on one side (the bottom) and paper textured on top.
If you read Michael LaFosse's "Advanced Origami" book, you will note that he recommends using a starch called Methyl Cellulose in place of corn or wheat starches. The MC works in much the same way as cornstarch, but it requires no heat and must be left to dissolve for 4-12 hours. Corn or wheat have the disadvantage of growing mold and other microbes which eventually can cause deterioration in the paper. A bottle of MC powder will run you about $20 at a good artist supply store or online. This is a purified chemical that does not deteriorate paper, and is commonly used in document preservation for archives.
So far I have found that the the corn starch makes the paper stiffer for creasing, where the MC is a bit more flexible. The preservation qualities of the MC are not something I'm quite worried about yet! I don't really consider my origami to be a fine work of art that should last generations. Right now its all about paper texture- and for the price, I'll stick with cornstarch for all but my very best work.