Welcome

The end of the year is upon us, so to inspire you into a new year of origami here are a few creative thoughts, and possibilities, to ponder about for London Origami in 2006.

1. Finish our CDRom - we still need a marketing person.

2. Contributions for BOS Mag - articles, diagrams etc.

3. Yearly challenge - this will be coming to an end in March 2006 - Can we make a last boost to our Gerry Anderson collection - we still have no Thunderbird 3 or 5, Lady Penelope, Parker, we've had nothing for Space 1999, no UFO to go with our Skydiver and interceptor check the list for inspiration.

3. Yearly challenge 2 - What shall we do next? Do we want to continue the yearly one? I have an idea which I will send around shortly to London members. This is something which has not been done before with origami, it is varied in subect mattter, and potentially could be very interesting. It requires team work and will streach our creative imaginations - watch your email box in the new year!

4. BOS Convention 2006 - It would be good to have a display of London members work at the next convention - showing results of some of the challenges. Let me know in advence if you will be bringing any models, or if you are not going, whether you would like models taken.

5. World Origami Day 24 October 2006 - Should LondonOrigami do something? any ideas?

6. Red Nose day 2006 - Could we do something for this?

Have a think about these items and if you have any thoughts drop me a line.

We have decided to make it an annual event to release some new free diagrams to all our readers. It's a thank you for continuing to share with us our monthly adventures in the world of origami.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

Paul Hanson

Next Meeting - Saturday 14th January 2006 at 2.00pm

The next meeting is on the second Saturday of the month. This will be in the foyer of The Queen Elizabeth Hall, which is located immediately adjacent to The Festival Hall, on The South Bank.

See details of location

December meeting report

Appropriately Christmas or Christmas 'bah humbug', was the theme for this months challenge. Dennis Walker sent us a photo of his snowflake, Shatron Turvey created an Angel (if you click on the photo below you will see an enlarged version). Both Ben Calder and Paul Hanson created 3D Christmas trees, each uniqely different in their approach. Diagrams for both these designs are available later in this newsletter.

At the meeting we folded the Stellated Octahedron by Sam Ciulla (from Art of Origami by Gay Merrill Gross), Santa on a Sleigh by Martin Wall from The BOS Libraryand Bright Star by Kasahara.

There was a general discussion about Nick Robinson's offer for LondonOrigami to produce the contents for the June issue of the magazine. this was met with enthusiasm by all those attending the meeting. We were pleased to see Peter Buchan's diagrams for his Snail for the BOS mag. We are, however, lacking on diagrams for this venture and would like to encourage all London creators to submit diagrams. Any offers for contents for the magazine should be sent to our usual address.

Folding challenge No. 21 - Holland

This is to coincide with the visit of Paula Versnick (creator of the 2-Fold Santa); to January's meeting. Holland means something related to the country, but does not include rabbits.

If you are not within the LondonOrigami area, you are still welcome to have a go at the challenge. Send us your results as described below.

If you would like to have a go at the challenge but can not make it to the meeting we would still like to see your model. Either email us with a photo or you can post it to Steve Brown (address in the BOS mailing list). Only packages which can be posted through a standard UK letter box will be accepted. Do not send your only copy of a model as they can not be returned without an S.A.E. Alternatively model diagrams, to meet the current challenge, could be sent to us (email or post). Such diagrams will not be posted on the website etc. your copyright will be respected.

We have compiled a list of subjects for future challenges. If you have an idea for a challenge - email. us now!

Have a go, even if you do not normally create models — this may be the inspiration you need.
The following provide useful information on designing models.

David Petty's - Creating Origami
Lionel Albertinos lessons from Design in Origami
David Brill on creativity from British Origami Society Magazine 101
Martin Wall on creativity from British Origami Society Magazine 102
Robert Lang on creativity from British Origami Society magazine 128
Interview with Eric Joisel from British origami Society magazine 189

Book - Creative Origami by Kunihiko Kasahara Chapter V - (15 page guide to creating)

Book - Origami from angel fish to Zen by Peter Engel - (This book delves deeply into the thought process behind creating origami designs and compares this to the creative process in other arts)

Book - Origami Design Secrets - by Robert Lang (This book is the most complete description of origami design principles)

Free Christmas models from LondonOrigami

We have decided to make this an annual event - free Chrimas themed models. This year we have two very different variations of the Chistmas tree. We have also created diagrams page which includes last years angel and all other models we have made available.

See diagrams

The Annual Challenge - Gerry Anderson

This challenge is due to end in March 2006, there is still time to add more models. No one has come up with a design of Thunderbird 3 or 5, the Mole or Firefly; can you do it?

The annual challenge is based upon a well supported monthly challenge and expanded with the idea of producing a display for a BOS convention. A theme will be chosen each year which was both well supported and has further potential for expansion. The first theme will be Gerry Anderson. London members are invited to add further models to the theme and all the models will be brought together under the heading of LondonOrigami on the convention display tables.

We have created a list of models already completed and subjects for further models. If you would like to contribute send us the name of the model you wish to make and we will add it to the list. This is to avoid more than one version of a model being made. See list

Viper Jet (Angel aircraft) from the New Captain Scarlet

BOS Book Library

To make members more aware of the range of books available from the library the librarian, Pauline Trew, has commenced visiting the local meetings.

We encourage you to make use of this opportunity. You can request any book(s) by contacting Steve Brown. Preferably make contact by email – s.brown.accts@hermes.co.uk - or via the contact details in the magazine. Do so at least 7 days before the following mini-meeting. The library catalogue is available for review at the mini-meetings.

Confirmation will be returned once availability for the following meeting is established. Otherwise, you will be advised when Pauline expects the book to become available. This is also seen as a way of reducing costs. 

Requests can still be made to Pauline, directly, to obtain rapid access to books via the postal service. Furthermore, if there is an origami book title you would like to see in the library let Pauline or myself know. This form of request will be, readily, considered and we will inform you when the book becomes available for loan.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have further questions regarding this service. Please be advised that this service is only available to current BOS members.

Many hard to find books are available from the BOS library

From The BOS Model Library

The British origami Society maintains a model library, containing thousands of models, many of which have not been published. LondonOrigami have decided to delve deep into this valuable archive and present a model a month.

Members of the British origami society can borrow diagrams from the collection. Contact Pauline Trew, who administers requests.

M306 Santa on a Sleigh by Martin Wall

Some tricky pleated folds and some judgement in positioning is required with this model. A second attempt produces a better result once the resulting proportions of the judgement folds are known.

Example folded by Steve Brown.

More from the LondonOrigami BOS library review

Creased Lines

Many of you may have seen Rikki Donachie's origami cartoons - however, some of you may not have seen them before. Can we encourage him to do a series 2?

So we are turning to you - only those with the heart of origami can save the day. If you have a gag idea for Ricky to draw, send it to us. And we will consider reviving the series.

Send in your ideas

Artwork © Rikki Donachie

Muzak for origami

Do you listen to music when you do origami? Are you soothed oor even inspired to create in a mellow melodic whisper of rippling creases? LondonOrigami would like to exclusively uncover this hitherto unspoken folding phenomenon. Here we present a selection of specially chosen music. Would you like to tell us of your own favourites? email us with your reviews.

Enya - Amerentine

Enya's latest album has just been released. She is renowned for popularising a unique sound of using sampled female vocals to act as instruments. Although the first artist to use this technique was Claire Hamill, Enya’s tunes were more acceptable to the general music buying public. Claire’s work was much more experimental and was used for a UK Channel 4 TV series ‘The Art of Landscape’. 

Amarantine a poetic name for a mythical, everlasting flower made me reach for the dictonary, bu tthe closest was Amaranthine which interestingly is defined as the following:-

am·a·ran·thine - adj

1. undying or unfading, like the legendary amaranth [flower] (literary).

2. of a dark reddish purple colour.

Spelling appart, essentially the message in the albums title is – love never dies. Interestingly the colour of the dress Enya wears on the album cover, matches the second definition of the album title. It is also interesting strategy to release this album close to Christmas with the cover having colours close to colours associated with Christmas (with green only missing). There are no Christmas themed songs, but one is associated with snow. This is all clever marketing. But now to the music.

The opening track is powerful if a bit repetitive. Repeat listening does however make this a grower. The title track is next and this is faultless. The remaining tracks weave in and out of traditional Enya style, from the rhythmic sampled vocal instrument track, to the slow angelic soothing melodies. For this album Enya has defiantly been able to capture the magic she brought to her first two albums without the style seeming in any way tired or repetitive.

The perfect last minute Christmas present to a loved one who does origami, you will be sending the message that love is amaranthine. 

And true love never dies. 

Paul Hanson

What would be your origami playlist?

iTunes the popular digital audio software launched the idea of creating your own playlist from tracks in your music collection. The iTunes site currently includes playlists of famous people, this got us thinking - what would be our favorate playlist of music to fold along with? So we would like to hear from you on this one. Send us your playlist together with a brief description of each song or piece of music and we will publish it here. You do not need iTunes to do this, we are just looking for a list of your ideas of an ideal musical background to a folding session. The length of the music should last at least 30 minutes, and remember we need you descriptions of the music and why your playlist works for origami.

The entry which the London Origami newsletter editorial team believe is the best, will recieve a FREE copy of the LondonOrigami CDRom. Closing date is 1 March 2006. Send entries by email.

• If you are a beginner it is useful to see how other people fold models.
• If you are having difficulty with a model perhaps someone else can help.
• We are fortunate in the London area to have a number of enthusiasts who design models; therefore a new model appears at most meetings together with diagrams.
• If you design models yourself the meetings are an opportunity to test diagrams and receive feedback on your design.
• Perhaps you would like to create your own models but don't know where to start - others will be able to give you some advice.
• Borrow books from The British Origami Societies library - a selection of books will be brought along to most meetings.
• Order a book to borrow from the Librarian and collect it at the meeting.
  
• Ultimately Mini meetings are an opportunity to meet other origami enthusiasts.
  
  We hope to see you there.
  
  If you have any questions please contact Steve Brown (Tel. No. is in the BOS Magazine), or send an e-mail.
  
  

Websites created by London members

In this section we are featuring the web sites of members in the London area. If you have a web site please send us the link.

Imperial College London Origami Society

Robin Glynn

The Fire Engineer - Adventures in fire safety (includes Lisa's origami page) by Paul Hanson

Mark Bolitho's Creaselightning

The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect those of the British Origami Society.

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