Accomplishment at last!

Whew! I just finished my first Origami flower... a begonia from Origami Flowers by Hiromi Hayashi.
I was thinking that it would be kinda neat to specialize in some of these flower folds; but they are incredibly difficult for me. In fact, upon looking through this originally after I got home from the library, I pretty much shelved it. I am no where NEAR the point where I could do that.
In high school, I remember that I was discouraged from taking Horticulture because my parents said "It's just a science class." (Even though I did very well in science class) But then, I saw these people that were just making flowers out of floral stuff; and THAT was their so-called assignments for class. I'm kinda bummed I missed out on that, but o well it's too late now.
O no I think I'm rambling again.. less talking, more folding then. I told you I must be going nuts to be doing so much origami.

I didn't forget

I know, I've neglected my duties here a bit, but I promise, there will be more postings soon. Origami can be very frustrateing sometimes. So, I retired it for about a week. Anj is frustrateing... he either seems to get it very easily or not at all. I try and get him to work with me on folds, but we both have been very busy lately.
This past week, I got the paperwork that I have to bring Eric to court for contempt charges in November. So, I have been doing a lot of legal research on him, plus some for Anj. It's amazeing how much work is involved in the court process. It's going to be a long road to Law school.. geez

Mingei Exhibit in Balboa Park, San Diego

Mingei Exhibit in Balboa Park, San Diego

showing his manhood

Well we ended up going to Barnes, and buying one of those kits that has a book and some origami paper. It wasn't a bad deal I s'pose.. 3 books, and 96 sheets of 6in origami paper.
I have to confess, I've never used actual origami paper, and so it was an experience in itself. Anj, being the perfectionist that he is.. o all powerful asian know-it-all... was meticulasly repetitive and anal about his folds. So, of course, his came out, but mine didn't. I was stuck on a new fold in the book, and had otherwise been doing pretty good with it; while across the table he was struggling. When he finished his, he came to assist me with mine, and thats where it went awry.
He made me redo the thing from the beguinning. Then after I had gotten it back to that same point I had left at with the last piece, he told me once again that I hadn't done it perfectly and that I needed to do it again...
It was ridiculous! I would never have expected my first attempts at a piece to come out perfectly anyway, and here he is (not even someone that enjoys it) demanding perfection.
Alas! Maybe he is a man after all...

takin the Good with The Bad... eh its a part of Learnin I guess;-(

Andre and I got some books from the library, and every once in a while, we sit and do some together.
There looked to be a nice looking, not so difficult book; so I picked it up to try and make some of them. But the diagrams are HORRIBLE. They try and show you through what it would actually look like if you were to do it; unlike most diagrams that use more of a photoshop like diagram... its hard to explain. But trust me, it sux.
Not only do they not use the traditional origami terminology throughout most of the book in some parts they do and its like out of nowhere... because the terminology hasn't really been explained if at all!

ex: some directions:

2. Fold the short edges in to the center, crease firmly and unfold. 3. Inside reverse fold these two flaps. -Super Quick Origami Animals by Nick Robinson

But it also seems like they skip steps (like telling you to turn the paper over or which way to turn it)... making it even more confuseing in some areas, because you practically have to guess at what to do next.
This book looked pretty, but beware of ones like it... i doubt that most beguinners would be able to figure it out.

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I'm going to the art supply store here in town to get some real origami paper later this week with Anj, and then to the book store to see if i can get some better books there. I'll keep you posted as to what ones are actually decent...
Until then, I leave you with a few links that I started learning on:
http://dev.origami.com/diagram.cfm?CurrentPage=1&complexity=S&pdf_sort=title

and they have done some AMAZING things with origami here (theres also a "University" on there that will teach some basic folds and show some basic techniques... very helpful and fairly easy to understand)
www.oriland.com

Turnin Japanese...

Well Andre started a fire , and now I'm going origami mad here!
For the record, No I'm not Asian (just aspireing to be.. lol) So yes, I know it sounds silly that me, an ordinary howlee (white) girl would be devoteing an entire blog devoted to my new lil' Asian addiction (and no I'm not talking about Anj.. tho thats another one its true its true.. lol)
To start off here, we were looking at his friend's website from Hawaii, and there was a picture of a bento (a little Japanese lunch) with a paper crane.
I didn't exactly know what it was at first, but then Anj told me the story about sadako and the thousand paper cranes
http://www.sadako.org/sadakostory.htm

He showed me pictures of what people do with these paper cranes...

you can make 1000 paper cranes and send them as a sign of peace to Hiroshima, Japan... (I'm thinking about doing it and sending them back with a friend I met here who is here temporarily from Osaka, Japan... I have until December)
here is a link with some instructions on how you can go about doing it:
http://www.sadako.com/howtofold.html

in this link you can see pictures made of Tons of paper cranes... they make them with gold foil origami paper and then make designs with them. When you look at the pictures, keep in mind that they were designed with a thousand paper cranes arranged just so they look like the bigger picture you see. Andre said that it is a tradtional gift given to Asian families for a wedding present. They also make money leis and give them to married couples. Some pretty interesting stuff on there from those "island folks" back out in the Pacific. I swear I learn something more everyday from Anj....
http://www.origami-tsuru.com/crane6.htm

There was an origami exhibit (it says it was the world's first major origami exhibit) at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego... and I saw some awe inspireing pieces there... everything from cranes, to abstract designs to modular (more math based) designs, to dragons... yes friggin dragons made out of origami. It was my first time in that museum, but it was really neat; they have some asian pieces there as well... furniture and utensils and little neat things like that.. but it was really neat..I was really inspired by seeing all of this, and so I've decided to do some Origami in my artistic endevours...

I'm finding that Origami does Wonders for stress too!

Anj says he doesn't understand how it is that I can do
it and keep my cool, since my tolerance for patience is almost
non-existant;)

It's relaxing and challengeing to me though; thats why I like it.
Origami is also supposed to help you with math as well, since thats actually what it's based on. Some of the more complicated models use specific angles, etc, as directions in their pieces... making it a very precice science almost. Me? I could definately use the math boost; especially if Im not going to bore myself to death with it.

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So folks, I've said I was going to do it (and some of you have teased and mocked me because of it) But..

To HeLL With All You People! So there! HA!

Here's where I'm going to show all the neat lil' things that I've made with my hands... And who knows? Maybe you'll look at this and call me a loser... or maybe.. just maybe... you'll jump on the train too. But I have a feeling that your curiousity will get the best of you... or maybe one of those other voices up there will (we all know there's a dork inside us all that wants to peek out every once in awhile;) ... and you'll be back for more. Until then, happy foldin:0)