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With the right mixture, you can actually create durable sheets of gelatin and then fold them. My Jello Americans, a blog hosted by gelatin artists with impressive abilities, has a video that shows you how. Even if you don’t want to make it, be sure to check out their main page to see some amazing works.
Link -via That’s Nerdalicious!
The following is an article from the newest volume of the Bathroom Reader series, Uncle John’s 24-Karat Bathroom Reader.
Sending a sick person a thousand paper cranes, each one folded from a single square of paper, is a tradition that originated in Japan and has spread all over the world. Here’s the story of a little girl who helped turn it into an international phenomenon.
CHILDHOOD, INTERRUPTED
In the fall of 1954, an 11-year-old Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki came down with what her family thought was a cold …until they found large lumps on her neck and behind her ears. That was enough to terrify any parent, but Sadako’s family had a special reason to worry: They lived in Hiroshima, and and were just a mile from ground zero on August 6, 1945, when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city in the closing days of World War II.
Sadako, two years old at the time of the bombing, had escaped the blast with only minor injuries. But she and her family were caught in the shower of “black rain” -radioactive fallout- as they fled the city. Now, nearly a decade later, as Sadako’s condition worsened her parent’s thoughts turned to “A-bomb disease,” the catchall name that many Japanese gave to radiation-induced illnesses. In early 1955, doctors confirmed the Sasaki’s worst fears: Sadako had leukemia, most likely caused by exposure to radiation. She had less than a year to live and needed to be hospitalized right away.
THE GIFT
Sadako’s parents could not bring themselves to tell her what was wrong or what her prognosis was. They just told her that she would have to stay in the hospital until her lumps went away.
more …
In The Lord of the Rings, the Nazgûl were among the most dangerous foes our heroes encountered. Jason Ku, a mechanical engineering student at MIT, rendered a frighteningly realistic one in paper. He’s been active in the craft since the age of five and has clearly mastered it.
Link -via My Modern Met
Instructables user General Eggs has step-by-step instructions on how to make a model of the double helix. Besides a fun crafting activity, it’s a learning opportunity for biology students. Then it’s only a short step to breeding a race of genetically engineered workers.
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Now your traveling band will always have a Ukulele present, thanks to this folding uke kit created by Brian Chan. Inspired by origami, this DIY kit takes about half a day to build and comes in standard or mini versions.
The simplicity of the design and the way it so neatly folds into the box form is brilliant and downright convenient! So it doesn’t matter where you go, the sweet sound of the ukulele can come with.
Link –via Geekologie
Logan’s Run is a dystopia in which people live to the age of thirty, and not a day longer. On Last Day, they attend Carrousel, where they believe they re-enter the cycle of death and reincarnation. Carrousel is a lie, of course, as Logan 5 and Jessica 6 discover. Jess Hemerly is a big fan of the movie, so for her thirtieth birthday, she held a Logan’s Run-themed party. She wore a dress like the one actress Jenny Agutter wore in the movie and made this neat origami arrangement that looks like Carrousel. Check out her Flickr set at the link.
Link -via Boing Boing | Hemerly’s Website
Previously: Enormous Logan’s Run LEGO Diorama
This fist-sized beetle by Shuki Kato is ten inches across and kind of scary. Once you’re done changing your pants, check out this photo from his Flickr photostream which gives us a hint of the preparation and planning necessary to make a piece of origami this complex.
Flickr photostream -via Colossal
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I love these fairy tale recreations by artists Larry Moss and Kelly Cheatle of Airigami.com. Kelly would use Photoshop to alter the images to look more 2D and Larry did the actual bending and twisting of the balloons. See more over at Environmental Graffiti.
Update: Kelly contacted me to let me know they both created the balloon sculptures.
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Origami Napkins – $8.95
Are you looking for a fun way to entertain your dinner guests? You need the Origami Napkins from the NeatoShop. This fantastic pack of 40 white paper napkins is printed with 4 amazing origami patterns. The 4 origami styles include:
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more unusual Party Supplies.
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Anja Markiewicz creates amazing, tiny works of origami. This crane was formed from a 9mm sheet of paper. Link -via Colossal | Artist’s Website (Google Translate)
Previously: The Tiny Origami of Mui-Ling Teh
I can’t find out much information about Nguyen Hung Cuong, but his origami work is simply amazing. He’s got a whole series of lovely insect pieces at the link. Link -via Colossal
Everyone recognizes M.C. Escher’s famously impossible staircases, angles that inspire confusion and wonder. His most famous works have been referenced in pop culture since forever, and now the challenge to recreate these works in three dimensions has origami artists doing incredible things with paper. A rendition of Escher’s Relativity is shown above, but Kuriositas has a gallery of others. Link
Image credit: Crackpot Papercraft
A beautiful video clip that shows tiny origami creations being unfolded on water.
Flotilla is a video of micro-origamis (2 ou 3 centimeters long) which are opening slowly onto the surface of the water by capillarity.
Craft introduced me to a great Flickr pool called Geekigami, which is filled with well-made pieces of original origami. This piece by Flickr user -sbel- isn’t geeky, but it is neat.
Link via Craft | Flickr Pool
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Japanese artist Takayuki Hori created a lovely series of origami animal figures with printed skeletons. When displayed under the right light, they look like folded x-ray images. Here’s how he does it:
each translucent sheet is first printed with either the images of fragments of an animal’s skeleton, or, on some pages, human-made discarded objects that are often ingested by the animals in the wild. using the ancient tradition of folded paper, hori assembles the pages into a three-dimensional model. once the paper is folded, the printed components are united as a whole, telling the visual story of the animal’s plight to survive in an increasingly polluted and hazardous ecosystem.
Link via Geekosystem | Photo: Design Boom
Vietnamese-American artist Giang Dinh creates wonderful paper sculptures using a wet fold origami technique. It’s hard to believe his animal creations were once a single sheet of paper! Link -via Metafilter
El Paso-based artist Isaac Salazar folds and cuts the pages of books to create word and images. Here’s the story of how he started in the craft, as told by his wife Veronica:
In 2000, we went house hunting and saw a model home that displayed some book art. They were very simple, kind of like the Readers Digest Christmas Trees, but a bit different. We loved them… so i immediately went home to make our own for the guest bedroom. We have since moved and I needed some new art for our guest bedroom when my husband asked if we can fold “WELCOME” into the book. I thought it was too complicated and told him ~ “I don’t know, why don’t you try”… and viola… he creates the masterpieces and I list & manage our Etsy shop.
Link via Dude Craft | Etsy Shop
Artist Brian Chan, who made the Iron Man Origami featured on Neatorama a while ago, also created this super awesome Batman Origami.
Take a look at his Origami page for more examples of his fantastic artwork: Link
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Michael LaFosse and Richard Alexander have got one of the best shops EVAR: it’s all about origamis! Guy Kawasaki of Alltop visited Origamido Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, and snapped some awesome photos: Link (My favorite is the mathematical origamis above) | More at Origamido’s website
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German artist Frank Bölter sailed the Thames River in London in a very unusual boat: he folded a life-sized origami boat out of paper!
Named “To The World’s End”, Frank Bölter’s paper boat was part of the Drift 10 art exhibition, in London. It was created out of giant sheets of paper that he and the public at the Canary Wharf Docks folded, using origami techniques. Reinforced with metal poles, the unusual sailing craft didn’t seem to sink, and its creator was so relaxed that he laid back and read a newspaper, while the public stared at him in awe.
Oddity Central has more: Link
You’ve got an iPhone, so surely you deserve an iPhone stand that speaks of your high social status. No cheapie stand for you – so, how about one that costs $100?
Enrique Pardo explains how to make your very own origami iPhone stand out of a $100 bill (yes, technically you can also use a George Washington, but where’s the fun in that?)
Hit play or go to Link [embedded YouTube]
Psst! Need something to do while you’re going to the bathroom? Why not try your hand in the ancient art of paper folding – it’s easy with this Origami Toilet Paper from the NeatoShop.
Best of all, you can … er, dispose of the mangled practice runs to clean yourself! Link
See also: Benjamin Toilet Paper | Word Search Toilet Paper
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Origami Iron Man by Brian Chan, Photo: J0nB0n [Flickr]
How can origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding be improved? Add a dash of geekery! Here’s a neat list of the geekiest origamis on the Web: Link
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Who says that newspaper is out of style? Yuliya Kyrpo created this stunning dress, complete with a flowing peacock train, from 1,000 paper cranes folded from old newspapers: Link – via Inhabitat
Origami’s Hunter is a series of three lamps that look like mounted heads of a rhino, a deer, and a goat – if they were made out of origami. The lamps are a project of Chilean designer Verónica Posada of Due Amigos: Link – via Oh!Gizmo
Researchers at Harvard are trying to create programmable matter — meaning matter than can take any shape on command. At this very early stage of development, they’ve come up with a flat sheet of material that can fold into different forms:
Based on the ancient art of origami, the sheets are edged by foil actuators–thin, solid-state motors–that contract or expand when they receive an electric current from flexible electronic circuits embedded in the sheets. After they achieve their preprogrammed shape, the sheets are held in place by tiny magnets on the edges of the fold joints.
This video provides an overview of how to make an origami hang glider, and how to propel it around a room by creating a wave of air. The project apparently was developed as a teaching tool for students in school, but it is so “neat” that it should also appeal to adults. Those wishing to access detailed instructions for these hang gliders (and a wide variety of other “science toys”) should visit the link below.
Origami artist Joel Cooper made the above mask, entitled Delphus, out of one sheet of elephant hide paper. It’s 16 cm tall and 5 cm deep. We last looked at his amazing works about four years ago, and he’s only added greater precision and detail to his portfolio. At the link, you can see progress photos showing how Cooper does it.
Link via Make | Artist’s Blog | Photo: Make
deviantART user orscobrusco specializes in origami. He’s put pictures of impressive pieces in his gallery, such as this cobra. It was made from a single sheet of paper with no cuts or glue. Here’s his description run through Google Translator:
Original model of the undersigned, created in ’98.
This in particular is made of paper “elephant skin” patterned wet-folding, sheet starting about two meters long. The paper has been applied to the wounded colored with a dark wood stain and ink.
Artist Won Park makes origami figures with paper currency. He made this koi fish with a one dollar bill, with no cuts, glue, or tape. The way that he arranged for a curl to serve as an eye is particularly impressive.
