July 31, 2011 – Origami Weave

Origami paper is one of my bad habits in Japantown. It is so cheap and the packets of paper just speak to me. They actually say, “Buy me, you’ll figure out something to do with me.” Technically speaking, if you don’t want to make origami, the paper can be problematic. It’s rather thin and most of it buckles when you play apply glue. But I am not to be deterred. My new trick is to gesso the back for strength and then work with the paper. It seems to do the trick. These blue and white pieces, folded, woven and varnished ended up looking a little more like fabric than paper. On to more experiments….

June 1, 2011 – Cosmos Pliage de Papier

I know just enough French to know better, but not that much to know French.

On my most recent Japantown excursion I bought some groovy, outer space-themed, foiled origami paper. It’s the sort of thing that will always come in handy. Oddly enough all the Japanese is translated quite literally into English and French. The product is described as Japanese Folding Paper. Obviously the translator was unaware that origami is an English word now too. There are some important cautionary warnings on the package in Engrish. My favorite is, “No horseplay with the folded paper.”

What caught my eye this morning was the French translation for origami paper — Cosmos Pliage de papier. It stirred my imagination and I quickly imagined some dashing, aristocratic French playboy circa 1959. Cosmos Pliage de Papier would be the sort of jetsetter who’d be racing cars, hobnobbing in Monaco and training to be France’s first man in space. He’d finish a quick last cigarette. Then climb aboard the rocket that would blast off from a base in Nouvelle Guinée. I can imagine the black and white footage and I can nearly hear the Serge Gainsbourg tune about Cosmos Pliage de Papier. All that from a package of origami paper….

January 13, 2011 – To fold or cut?

I love collecting origami paper. I have a big pile of it for future projects. I collect a lot of things for my collage fodder boxes. I am really no different than sewers who buy fabric they may use one day. My mom has quite the fabric pile in the attic. Now, I do appreciate the spectacle of a huge hanging mass of origami cranes, but honestly, I don’t have the patience for all the folding. It’s a funny thing to say considering the labor-intensive quality of so much of my work. But the paper is fun to cut up and use and other things. My hands can handle the exacto knife, but all that folding is just not going to happen.