"electric word, life / it means forever and that's a mighty long time"

[larryhammer]

Realization while talking with branna: I've been folding origami for 40 years. My usual personal marker for no longer being a youngster is my time online (35 years, starting with dial-up BBSs) but this is an even longer measure. And in its way more impressive.

Since, however significant this may be to me, that's not enough to make a post, here's a couple recent results of all that practice:



Folded from a 10" (25cm) square, no cuts: three long necks with dragon heads, four legs, wings, and a tail. This was something like the 5th or 6th time I've made this model, and despite it being several years since the last one, it was not the technical challenge I remembered -- just long and complicated. Huh.



A tiny apatosaurus* folded from 3" (7.5cm) paper from memory, by way of stretching myself. I can hold about a dozen models in my head at any given time, and this is the most complicated one I've ever memorized. With TBD old enough I don't have to pocket a tissue pack everywhere I go, I now carry small folding papers. I managed this model without resorting to a toothpick or the like, for working the smaller folds. And then repeated the feat in light green (not shown).

---L.

* AKA the Artist Formerly Known As Brontosaurus.

Subject quote from "Let's Go Crazy," Prince.

Comments

[sovay]

Since, however significant this may be to me, that's not enough to make a post, here's a couple recent results of all that practice

Both of those creatures have a lot of personality.

[larryhammer]

I'm especially pleased by the look of the second.

[cmcmck]

These are fun! :o)

[larryhammer]

They are!

[thistleingrey]

Wow--being able to keep models in your head is especially impressive. I can usually follow an intermediate diagram, but unaided, I can barely remember the steps for a basic cup or boat. :P

(35 years! Congratulations(?). I bought a friend's slow modem 25 years ago and met BBSes that way. (Actually slow: 1200 or 2400 baud in the age of 14.4k meant being able to read text as it came up on the screen.))

[larryhammer]

Fold something enough times, and I can start to remember the sequence. At least, if it's short enough. This was one of the few times I set out to work a model into memory by doing as much as I could till I got stuck.

35, yeah. And yeah, congratulations -- I feel no ambivalence about that.

[thistleingrey]

Even so! I've made the basic shapes enough times that something ought to've sunk in, but no. :P I think I feel worse about it because my mother remembers the basic boat from when she taught elementary-school students to do it in 1970, and I've never done it without some sort of reminder. *shrugs*

*salutes you*

[asakiyume]

Very, very impressed. I wouldn't have thought it was possible to fold paper so as to create the three necks of that first model without cutting. Wow! And the apatosaurus from memory is very impressive too.

[larryhammer]

The way the necks get created is very clever. Even better, it's essentially done by a sort of pleating, rather than folding over and over, so it's never a thick crease.

OTOH, the trade-off for making such long, independent necks is folding a LOT of paper into the center, so the body is very thick and the flaps that become the wings and legs are stubby and hard to detail. The end result is a little less than half as long as one side of the starting square.

[asakiyume]

I figured that it would have to be a lot smaller than the initial sheet of paper--I nearly wrote in my initial comment that you'd probably have to start with a large sheet!

If we ever meet up, I'd love to see you in origami action.

[larryhammer]

One day!

ETA: For an example of something that started with very large paper: the last pic in this post. The result is about 8" high, and based on techniques that I know had to have gone into it, my guess is the original was about 1m square.

[asakiyume]

That last pic surely can't be all one piece of paper though? And must have involved cutting? Looking at the bag strap and her hands....

[larryhammer]

The strap is not a. complete loop ...

It's a single piece of paper without cuts, I pretty darn sure. Advanced origami techniques can produce amazing effects.

[asakiyume]

Okay: mind = blown