




From: brad@cs.utexas.edu (blumenthal @ home with the armadillos)
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 89 17:10:09 CST
Subject: Origami trip, part 1.

This is part one of a report on my trip up to the Home Office of the
Friends of the Origami Center of America.  I spent the morning there
on Thursday 16 November, and this is just an overview of what I saw
and who I talked to.  In the near future, I'll write some more details
about some of the people and some of the things they told me.

To those of you who are regulars at the Home Office, these messages
will probably be old hat.  Boy do I envy you, though!  To those of you
who are in the northeast and have not seen this place, Go!  The Office
is an incredible resource for origami information of all sorts, and
it's inhabited by one of the nicest groups of people I've ever come
across -- many of whom went 'way out of their way to help me see the
place.  It's worth an all day trip just to see it.  For everyone else,
all I can say is that you should definitely make the effort to get by
there when you are in the northeast.

The Home Office is in the Museum of Natural Science on West 77th in
NYC.  It's on the 4th floor between the Mammoths and the display on
plate tectonics.  It's hidden behind a non-descript door, and the only
hint from the outside is a small sticker with the FOCA sailboat logo
next to a buzzer button on the outside.

Since I thought I was going to be in NYC on the third Wednesday of the
month (which is the monthly folding meeting), I called ahead and
reserved a space.  When I found out that I couldn't make it in time, I
called and talked to someone at the office (I don't think I ever got
her name) and explained that I would like to see the place, but
wouldn't be able to until Thursday (the office is usually staffed only
on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).

To make a long story short, I received a nice phone call from Michael
Shall (president of the FOCA) and some very helpful email from
Martin and Laura Kruskal (who are on the list -- Thanks very much to
both of you!).  It seems that Michael's 40th birthday party was that
same Wednesday night, but everyone was trying to find some way to help
me get in to see the Home Office on Thursday (I told you these people
were nice).  Michael and the Kruskals gave me some phone numbers to
call, and I talked to Mark Kennedy who gave me some very interesting
information about origami in general, which I'll pass along in a
future note.

I wound up talking to Alice Gray who is one of the most admirable
people I've ever met.  Despite the fact that she is recovering from
all sorts of nasty fractures, and the fact that she was at Michael's
party the night before, she met me at the Museum on Thursday morning
and let me in to see the Home Office.

Imagine a 4.5 ft high Statue of Liberty folded from one piece of pale
green, very stiff paper -- torch, book, spiked hat, the works.
Imagine two Christmas trees covered with origami strawberries,
dinosaurs, birds, flowers, armadillos, dragons, kangaroos, baskets,
knights in armor, stars, and much more.  Imagine a couple of dinosaurs
about 2-3 feet long.  Imagine a 10 ft. long bookshelf with four
shelves of nothing but origami books.  Imagine a display case holding
some of the most intricate folds you've ever dreamed of, including a
biplane with about a 3-4" wingspan.  Imagine a basket of origami fruit
just sitting out as decoration.  Imagine 3 or 4 filing cabinets full
of envelopes containing origami models and folding instructions.
Imagine stacks of 50 or 60 large-ish custom shoe boxes filled with 3D
models.  Imagine a cart *full* of paper of all different sizes and
colors.  Imagine origami *everywhere* you look.

Imagine all of this in a room about 35 ft. long by 15 ft. wide by 15
ft high, and you'll have an idea of what the Home Office is like.

In addition to all of the models, I got a chance to look through the
catalogs of paper that you can mail order through the FOCA.  In
talking with Alice and Michael, I found out about a number of other
specialized materials for origami.

I'll write about all of these wonderful people and things Real Soon
Now.  Sorry if I sound like I'm gushing, but the Home Office is my
idea of a candy store, and the people there just couldn't have been
any nicer.

For those of you who still haven't joined, here's my almost ubiquitous
plug -- the address and phone number of the FOCA:

Friends of the Origami Center of America
15 West 77 Street
New York, NY  10024-5192
(212) 769-5635

I'm not sure what a membership costs these days, but it's around $20.

More soon.

Take care,
brad





From: Greg Newton-Ingham <gni@sys.uea.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 89 09:07:24 GMT
Subject: Dragons, Unicorns and Greg@sys.uea.ac.uk

	A while ago Brad asked me to introduce myself, so here I go. I
am a research associate with the Declarative Systems Project here at
the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. I do most of the system
administration and infrastrucutre work. We have SUNS and Macs which we
use for our research.

	I started folding when I was about 13 but my enthusiasm faded
when the only one I *REALLY* wanted to make was the almost the hardest
one in the book (an elephant) :-). Recently, in the last year I have
been folding alot more, and have bought a few more books, and managed
to fold the elephant. My favourite pieces are animals, preferably
mythical.

	There are two animals I've seen mentioned in this list that I
would like to find the folds for, Dragons and Unicorns these are two
of my favorite animals and I would be very grateful for any info. I
have tried all the book shops I can in my area but to no avail. If
anybody has info about good books/shops in the UK or Organisations in
the US that will do international mail then I'd be interested in
hearing from you.

	One of my other interests is kites, and I recently received
this address for a shop that stocks washi paper, but most importantly
runs origami classes. They refer to themselves as the "Japanese Paper
Craft Shop", the address is not of much use to me :-) but I thought it
worth cross posting here:

	Kobokami-ya
	1280 Centre Street
	Bay 2
	Newton Massachusetts 02159
	617-964-5665

	Does anybody out there store folds on their PC or MAC in a
drafting package ?? This might be a good way of swapping folds, if I'm
not reinventing the wheel. ?

	thanks for the help,

		 Greg!

             Greg Newton-Ingham                 |Post:
                                                |   School of Info. Systems
             Greg@sys.uea.ac.uk                 |   University of East Anglia
      JANET: Greg@uk.ac.uea.sys                 |   The Plain
   Internet: Greg%sys.uea.ac.uk@cunyvm.cuny.edu |   Norwich, UK
EARN/BITNET: Greg%sys.uea.ac.uk@UKACRL          |   NR4 7TJ
       UUCP: Greg%sys.uea.ac.uk@ukc.uucp        |Phone: +44 603 56161 Ext 2691
	





Subject: pegasus
Date: 07 December 1989, 12:22:28 EST
From: CL249613@ULKYVM.bitnet

I have seen neither the dragon nor the unicorn but I did recently happen
across a fold of a pegasus the othere day.  It was in a book by Isao
Honda but I can't recall the exact name of the book.

David
David Gossett                            To err is human
cl249613%ulkyvm.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu    To forgive is divine





Date: Thu, 07 Dec 89 15:20:04 EST
From: Anne R. LaVin <lavin@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>

Re:  Gre Newton-Ingram's mail...

>	Kobokami-ya
>	1280 Centre Street
>	Bay 2
>	Newton Massachusetts 02159

weeeee!
I didn't know about this, thanks...I've been looking for a place to get
some good washi (for origami, misc. paper projects and ink painting...)
 This sounds terrific!  I'll be sure and report to the list (not that
it will do most of you any good...oh well.)

Off the top of my head I know of at least two folds for dragons; one is
in _Creative Origami_ by Kunihiko Kasahara, the other is a modification
of that done by someone in the (possibly defunct, I haven't tried to
contact them in ages) Boston origami group.  Oh, hmmm, there's another
dragon (kind of stylized) in _The Great Origami Book_ by Zulal
Ayture-Scheele.  There's a horse in _Origami_ by Toyoaki Kawai, that is
easily modifiable into a unicorn (I've done it myself...)

Now, I'd be happy to violate all sorts of copyright laws (even
international ones, probably) and send off copies, though mail to the
UK might be a bit expensive.  How about a trade?  The offer holds true
for anybody else on the list (I've been e-mailing back and forth to
several folks about the cranes...)

I'd love it if there were a way to send origami via email...whatever
happened to that discussion?  Unfortunately, I think, origami
instructions are by their very nature so...graphically oriented (and
VERY hard to draw well, I've tried that too) that it would be hard to
beat pen and paper...

Anne





From: mfci!murphy@uunet.UU.NET (Tom Murphy)
Subject: Re: your mail
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 89 18:41:12 EDT

> Now, I'd be happy to violate all sorts of copyright laws (even
> international ones, probably) and send off copies, though mail to the
> UK might be a bit expensive.  How about a trade?  The offer holds true
> for anybody else on the list (I've been e-mailing back and forth to
> several folks about the cranes...)

I'd love to get directions to a dragon. I just bought my first book today.
It's Living Origami by Takuji Sugimura. There are many marvels in the book to
me, they may be unimpressive to you. I am interested in hearing of your
experiences teaching origami. My wife is interested in teaching second grade
level appropriate stuff.

Tom Murphy                        internet: murphy@multiflow.com
Multiflow Computer, Inc.          uucp:     uunet!mfci!murphy
12 Del Rio Ct                     fax:      (415) 943-1574 (call voice first)
Lafayette, CA 94549               voice:    (415)943-6293





From: brad@cs.utexas.edu (blumenthal @ home with the armadillos)
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 89 17:39:16 CST
Subject: FOCA trip, part 2:  the people

This is part 2 about my trip to the Friends of the Origami Center of
America Home Office.  Last time I sort of gave an overview; this time
I want to talk about the people I met.  As I said before, it was one
of the friendliest groups of people I've ever run across.

In particular, I was flattered by the way that everyone seemed to bend
over backwards to offer hospitality.  One of the folks I talked to
all but invited me to stay at his home while I was in the area.  As I
mentioned last time, Alice Gray went out of her way to meet me at the
Museum on Thursday morning.  Laura Kruskal sent me a charming note
inviting me to lunch or to fold or just to visit (unfortunately, I
couldn't make it).  Michael Shall talked to me at length and asked
what the FOCA could do to help out with the list.  In all, they just
couldn't have been any nicer.

Alice Gray is one of the most venerable people I have ever met.  It
would be grossly inaccurate to call someone with her spirit and
enthusiasm "old," despite her years.  I met her in the lobby of the
Museum, where she was asking one of the staff for a wheelchair because
her electric cart was broken.  The chair was not to ride in, mind you,
it was "no more than a wheelbarrow" to carry her bag, which she
insisted on doing despite my offer to help.  She knows all of the
shortcuts through the museum, so we took the freight elevator up to
the fourth floor and walked to the Home Office.  There we sat and
chatted for over an hour, and she told me about all kinds of people
and events in her experience with origami.

Some examples:

On John Montroll:  "I've been getting after him to stop making
elephants with pointy feet, but he just won't listen."

On Michael Shall  [After I had mentioned Patricia Crawford's grand
piano fold]:  "I've seen him fold one of those while roller skating.
I've seen him fold one small enough to fit on your fingernail."

She told me about Ligia Montoya who had a marvelous collection of
origami which is stored in a foot locker and waiting for someone from
the FOCA to pick it up in Buenos Aires.  If anyone wants to take a
representatitve of the FOCA down there to pick it up, they would love
to get it.

On herself and Lillian Oppenheimer: They are both very verbal, but
they are "terrible diagrammers."  Lillian Oppenheimer can teach
origami to her grandchildren *over the phone*.  According to Alice,
there is a technique to teaching origami verbally which can be
learned.  They try to teach people how to teach that way at the FOCA
since some classes are too big for everyone to get a good view.  If
anyone has the opportunity to see Alice or Lillian teach, I'd love to
hear how the do it.  We may be able to use these techniques in
describing folds on the net.

Michael Shall walked into the Home Office at about 11, complaining of a
hangover from his 40th birthday party the night before.  He was
wearing one black tennishoe (that's "sneaker" to you yankees) and
one white one, and a FOCA t-shirt.  He was accompanied by some of his
family who were also very friendly.

Some things that he had to say:

On himself [Explaining why he was the president of the FOCA]: "I'm the
biggest mouth in origami."

On making money doing origami:  "Here I am: jewish; I hate Christmas
trees, and I'm doing eight of them this season."  [The ones at the
museum were truly wonderful.  Apparently, he's doing one down in DC as
well.]

On the FOCA and the name:  Lillian Oppenheimer started the Origami
Center of America about 13 years ago to sell books and paper.  She
donated her origami library to the Smithsonian Institute of Design
which packed them away with no plans to make them publically
available.  Michael promised Lillian that he would make the library
accessible so he started the Friends of the Origami Center of America
with Alice and Lillian and some support from the Volunteer Lawyers for
the Arts.

I wish I had more written down from the chats we had.  This is just a
sample of some of the conversations, and I promised Alice that I would
be discreet.  Next time, I'll talk about some of the strictly
origami-related things I saw and learned about including a description
of some of the papers available, some folds you might be interested
in, and some of the origami ethics I learned from talking with these
folks.  Until next time...

Take care,
brad





From: andrew@research.att.com
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 89 00:19:34 EST

Hi,
	I am new to this list; my name is Andrew Hume
and I work at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Computer
Science Research.
	I have been folding intermittently for about twenty years;
I started with a five minutes show done by an english gentleman
(name perhaps was hardin?). I get my books and paper from a japanese
book store in manhattan.
	I have done visualisation stuff related to origami. This work
was concerned with a polyhedral database I built. The solid form
of each polyhedron was formed by folding a planar net. I made a movie
with high quality computer graphics showing about 18 solids, folding
about 12 of them. The 16mm movie lasted about 3.8mins.
	I am interested in notation techniques for origami, leading to
automatic generation of instructional movies. This will be joint work
with a colleague (Shoji) who is very interested in origami. (He is
motivated by the fact his father had some signature folds that died with
him because he had no way to record them.) I would appreciate any pointers
to work on notations etc. The verbal descriptions brad mentioned sounded
promising but surely other notations have been described.

	andrew hume
	andrew@research.att.com





Date: Wed, 17 Jan 90 16:20:29 EST
From: poole@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Stephan L. Poole)
Subject: FOCA

This will be very brief as i don't have much time.  Over the
December break I managed to get into New York and see the
Origami Tree at the Museum of Natural History.  I also found
the headquaters for Foca upstairs (no easy feat let me asure you.)

All I can say is that the place was spectacular -- an origami wonderland.
IF you ever get the chance, and you feel lucky enough to find the room,
then stop at the FOCA headquaters.  It is on the fourth floor at the end
of the Mamoth exhibit.  Look for a small buzzer and a sticker with a
sail boat.

-Fold on  Stephan





Date:         Sat, 20 Jan 90 17:22:57 EST
From: "Alecia T. Devantier" <34L4PCN%CMUVM.BITNET@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject:      bio

Greetings all--

I am new to this list, and brad said I should tell you all about myself.
I am Alecia Devantier (34L4PCN @ CMUVM.BITNET) at Central Michigan Univ.
I am a graduate student and a graduate assistant in the math department.
I don't have time for many hobbies... in addition to trying to learn a
little bit about origami, I am learning to speak the international
language - Esperanto, I am in the church choir, and I teach 1&2 grade
Sunday school.  Nothing too out of the ordinary.

I am not too talented at creating the beautiful pieces of art I am sure the
rest of you create with origami.  I have a few books.  My husband can make a
few easy things - if he has a good set of directions, a lot of paper, and a
few hours.   :)

I think origami is very interesting and that's the main reason I joined
this list.  I am hoping my university offers a summer class in origami -
they have the past few summers.  Maybe with some classroom instruction I
won't be hopeless.

Happy folding--

Alecia Devantier
34L4PCN @ CMUVM.BITNET





Date: 22 January 1990, 11:10:06 EST
From: CL249613@ULKYVM.bitnet
Subject: Honda, Puritanism

Recently I checked a book out of my local library on Origami by Isao
Honda and found it to be good for a beginning book but there was one
thing that confused me about it.  In several of the folds there were
directions to cut certain parts of the fold.  Now it was my impression
that cutting utensils were never to be used in origami.  Have I been
wrong all this time or is Mr. Honda committing a gross error...or has
there been a duality in origami all along?
Thanks
To err is human        David Gossett
To forgive is divine   CL249613%ulkyvm.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu





Date: Wed, 23 Jan 90 09:45:52 EDT
From: poole@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Stephan L. Poole)
Subject: origami paper

Sorry that my reply is coming so late but I haven't been logged on
in quite a while.  The stained glass paper that I spoke of can be
purchased from Merrimack Publ. Corp., 85 Fifth Ave., NY 10003.
It is called their Deluxe Stained Glass Origami (Highly original huh :-)
If you would like I could send you a piece through the slower
channels.

Interesting note: The Franklin Institute here in Philadelphia has
taken on a whole new light in my eyes.  The gift shop in this museum
has numerous origami books, including one by Montroll that I haven't
seen before.  I'll be heading back there with a little bit more cash
next time.

Till another time
Stephan





Date: Tue, 23 Jan 90 09:33:49 -0800
From: storm@smaug.nas.nasa.gov (Steve Storm)

Well, here is my opening letter to the origami mailing list.
My name is Steve Storm.  I keep the networks limping along
here at the NAS, a high powered research facility belonging
to NASA.  I have been idly folding paper for years and several
years ago began acquiring a few books and learning to follow
instructions.  With patience and good instructions I can make
a few objects that look halfway decent.  I can even improvise
a fold or two to vary a figure or work around vague, blurry
instructions.  This has been a source of great pride, so far,
but I'm not even close to creating my own figures yet.  My
greatest claim to fame is folding the basic crane out of odd
materials that come to hand: waitresses at bars get cranes made
out of the napkins (with the logo showing if I'm lucky), out of
envelopes, and my latest was out of the crinkly paper cup from
a box of chocolates.  There is a legend that to fold a thousand
cranes will grant you peace in your life.  I'm working on it, slowly
but surely.

Now to reply to the last letter I saw, concerning cutting paper
during origami.  As far as I'm concerned, it's cheating!  But then
again, I believe in cheating.  Besides, the origami police won't
come by and arrest you.  However, origami purists will probably
tell you that origami is folding and nothing but folding.  They are
right, and that is usually how I play the game.  However, this is
art, and in art rules are for breaking.  My advice is do what you
think makes something that looks nice.  And have fun.

As we endure storms,     |  storm@smaug.nas.nasa.gov
So we receive rainbows.  |  (415) 604-4334





From: brad@cs.utexas.edu (blumenthal @ home with the armadillos)
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 90 06:08:55 CST
Subject: some overdue replies

My goodness.  So many things to reply to; so many things to say.  I'm
on the tail-end of an all-nighter, and this is the only subject
interesting enough to keep me going while I wait for my experiments to
run.  Pardon me if I ramble mumble gibberish :-).

> >From lavin@ATHENA.MIT.EDU  Wed Nov 29 19:14:29 1989

> This January I will be teaching a class here at MIT (as part of the
> Independent Activities Period, not a real course...that'd be the
...
> I *highly* recommend teaching origami!  It's lots of fun, and I still
> can't believe the number of people who show up each year.  I'd be happy
> to talk about it more, if anybody's interested.

I'd like to know any tricks/hints/etc. that anyone has for teaching
origami.  The Student Union here sponsers short courses and one of
those is in origami.  The same guy has been doing it for several years
now, and I've chatted with him about it a few times.  He's pretty
relaxed about the whole thing, so there's not much structure to his
classes.

There's a bookstore mini-chain here called "Bookstop" which is several
cuts above your average mall bookstore (although they were just bought
out by the B.Dalton/Barnes and Noble gang -- B&N is one of my
favorites, so I'm fairly optimistic).  Anyway, they generally have a
pretty good selection of origami books, and tend to get most of the
more easily available ones at one time or another.  They also stock
paper (albeit just one kind).  The point of all this is that I have
been talking to one of the stores about doing a Saturday promotional
class -- i.e. I'll come in and teach cranes and simple flowers and
such for a couple of hours; they'll sell a few books, and maybe I can
shag a couple of more people who might be interested in starting some
sort of organization down here (I've been talking to two or three
other experienced origamians about such a thing).

So, as I said, any suggestions for how to run this class or what
models to teach or whatever would be greatly appreciated.

> From: Greg Newton-Ingham <gni@sys.uea.ac.uk>
> Date: Thu, 7 Dec 89 09:07:24 GMT
> Subject: Dragons, Unicorns and Greg@sys.uea.ac.uk

> would like to find the folds for, Dragons and Unicorns these are two
> of my favorite animals and I would be very grateful for any info. I

There are a couple of good dragons in Takahara's _Origami Omnibus_.
There's a pegasus in John Montroll's _Origami for the Enthusiast_.

> anybody has info about good books/shops in the UK or Organisations in
> the US that will do international mail then I'd be interested in

Well, I'm pretty sure that the FOCA does international mail orders,
but you'll probably have to get US currency.  The British Origami
Society might be a good place to check.  I don't have an address, but
there re a couple of members of the BOS on the list who might help you
out.  Try sending mail to Bob Roos (rroos@smith.bitnet), or better
still, try Stephen Carter (stevedc%syma.sussex.ac.uk) who is member 17
of the BOS.

> 	Does anybody out there store folds on their PC or MAC in a
> drafting package ?? This might be a good way of swapping folds, if I'm

Apparently a fair number of people who write origami books are
starting to use computers for the drawings.  There was an article
comparing the advantages and disadvantages of paint, draw, and layout
programs in a recent FOCA newsletter.  We discussed this for a while,
but noone has come up with any easy way of getting the drawings in.
Maverick (shoopak@topaz.rutgers.edu) has done some introductory stuff
with postscript and has promised more.

> From: mfci!murphy@uunet.UU.NET (Tom Murphy)
> Date: Thu, 7 Dec 89 18:41:12 EDT

> It's Living Origami by Takuji Sugimura. There are many marvels in the book to
> me, they may be unimpressive to you. I am interested in hearing of your

Actually, that series of pocket books is surprisingly good.  There are
some easy models to get started with and some surprisingly complex
ones.  I started with one of them (Japan's Creative Origami), and I
still find fun things to do in there.

> >From andrew@research.att.com  Sun Dec 10 20:46:51 1989

> I started with a five minutes show done by an english gentleman
> (name perhaps was hardin?). I get my books and paper from a japanese

Probably Robert Harbin.

> to work on notations etc. The verbal descriptions brad mentioned sounded
> promising but surely other notations have been described.

I have a copy of an article from the British Origami Society
newsletter on the Origami Instruction Language which is a formalized
notation for describing folds.  I think figures could be generated
automatically from O.I.L., but generating O.I.L. is hairy.  Send me
some mail if you'd like to know more.

> From: CL249613%ULKYVM.BITNET@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu
> Date: 22 January 1990, 11:10:06 EST

> thing that confused me about it.  In several of the folds there were
> directions to cut certain parts of the fold.  Now it was my impression
> that cutting utensils were never to be used in origami.  Have I been
> wrong all this time or is Mr. Honda committing a gross error...or has
> there been a duality in origami all along?
> Thanks
> To err is human        David Gossett

The answer to this really depends on how much of a purist you want to
be.  Eric Kenneway talks about this in _Complete Origami_.  Some of
the other purist constraints which you can ignore if you like include:

  -- Only use square paper between 3 and 5 inches on a side
  -- Only use your hands - no tools (toothpicks, etc.)
  -- Only use one piece of paper; no compound or modular folds
  -- Never use tape or glue (if you ignore the one-piece of paper
rule, this makes things interesting -- all pieces must interlock
naturally).
  -- Never undo a fold, thus the model always gets smaller as you work
(this is for the real purists).

> Date: Tue, 23 Jan 90 09:33:49 -0800
> From: storm@smaug.nas.nasa.gov (Steve Storm)

> materials that come to hand: waitresses at bars get cranes made
> out of the napkins (with the logo showing if I'm lucky), out of

Even better:  pick up a few money folds and leave tips folded as bow
ties, cats, rings, etc.

> envelopes, and my latest was out of the crinkly paper cup from
> a box of chocolates.

The wonderful thing about origami is that paper is everywhere.  Foil
wrappers are good too -- from mints and whatever else.  Some of it is
even square already.  Speaking of candybox paper, see my next posting
on paper, specifically Pergamino.

> There is a legend that to fold a thousand
> cranes will grant you peace in your life.  I'm working on it, slowly

But who counts :-)  I've had a lot of fun folding flapping cranes for
2-5 year olds.  They're not sure what to make of it at first, but
it's usually a lot of fun for both of us.

> come by and arrest you.  However, origami purists will probably
> tell you that origami is folding and nothing but folding.  They are

No purist here.  I avoid cutting because I'm terrible at it.

Hokay, that more or less catches up on the past mail.  Coming up -- some
new topics: paper, APA's, and the FOCA takes notice.  But for now, I'm
gonna go get some sleep.

Take care,
brad





From: poole@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Stephan L. Poole)
Date: 25 Jan 1990
Subject: origami paper

Sorry that my reply is coming so late but I haven't been logged on
in quite a while.  The stained glass paper that I spoke of can be
purchased from Merrimack Publ. Corp., 85 Fifth Ave., NY 10003.
It is called their Deluxe Stained Glass Origami (Highly original huh :-)
If you would like I could send you a piece through the slower
channels.

Interesting note: The Franklin Institute here in Philadelphia has
taken on a whole new light in my eyes.  The gift shop in this museum
has numerous origami books, including one by Montroll that I haven't
seen before.  I'll be heading back there with a little bit more cash
next time.

Till another time
Stephan





From: atu@newton.physics.purdue.edu (Arnold Tubis)
Date: 25 Jan 1990

I have been an origami enthusiast since around 1964. Although
I have had sporadic binges of modeling creativity, my longtime
consuming interest in origami has been focused on collecting
every book, journal, and article about origami I can get my hands
on. My origami book collection (including all the classics and
and a great deal of trash) includes over 800 books in 13
languages. A listing of some of my books in English has
appeared in several issues of the privately circulated a.p.a.
journal FOLD. For further information on FOLD you may wish to
contact Bob Roos (rroos@smith.bitnet or roos%sophia.dnet@unixl.
umass.cs.edu). I would like to receive contacts from similarly
addicted collectors of origamiana for the purpose of swapping
books and obtaining information on new and hard-to-find old
origami books. In real life, I am a Professor of Physics
who is presently serving a several-year sentence as Head of
the Physics Department of Purdue University (B.S., MIT, 1954;
Ph.D. MIT, 1959; research areas at various periods of my
professional life: theoretical atomic, nuclear and elementary
particle physics; physical and musical acoustics; and most
recently, since 1981, the biophysics of the auditory periphery).





From: brad@cs.utexas.edu (blumenthal @ home with the armadillos)
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 90 00:22:09 CST
Subject: paper thin....

Here are some more notes on my visit (last November) to the FOCA Home
Office.

One of the neat things in the office is a pair of notebooks containing
samples of all of the paper sold by the FOCA.  I took some notes on
this stuff.  If you write to th FOCA for their supply list, you'll
find some of the following (prices may be a little out of date -- they
are for approximations only):

Chyo.  This is the *smoothest* paper I have ever felt.  It's
positively sensuous.  (41 sheets / $4)

Maxfield.  This is very thin, waxy paper (50 sheets / $3)

Pergamino.  This is Italian "candybox" paper, sort of like the paper
flaps you pull back (as opposed to the paper that the candy actually
sits in.  Both this and Maxfield are good for making stars and other
semi-transparent stuff to put up on windows and lampshades.  (100
sheets / $7)

"Textured foil."  This is very thin foil. (3" -- 50 sheets / $2, 6" --
13 sheets / $2)

"Textured metal."  This is a matte finish copper metalic paper with a
speckled paper backing.  (10 sheets / $4)

Oro/Argento. Matte gold (oro) and silver (argento) paper, slightly
waxy on the back.  (50 sheets $5.50)

Righine.  Very pretty striped paper. (35 sheets / $4.50)

Fantasia.  Fantastic paisley pattern. (40 sheets / $5)

For very large pieces of paper, you might try getting in touch with
Alufoil on Long Island.  They sell wholesale by the roll.

Hampton Paper Co, Maine, NJ sells a "shine-through" paper which is
good for making stars.  Alice suggested hanging these in a window or
inside of a lampshade for good effect.

Some of the models in the FOCA Home Office were made with *very* stiff
"bindery paper."  This stuff is practially hard plastic, and may take
pliers to get a good crease.

Clear folding paper is available as "Canal plastics" from someplace
down on Canal St., NYC.  This is the stuff the David Brill bottle in
Origami for the Connoisseur is made of.

The FOCA officers have a policy of not endorsing any particular
product, so they really couldn't tell me where they got some of their
paper while they were at the FOCA office.  If anyone has any more
information about bindery paper and plastics, I'd like to hear about
it.

Take care,
brad





From: brad@cs.utexas.edu (blumenthal @ home with the armadillos)
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 90 09:17:02 CST
Subject: origami groups

Well, I got a sample of FOLD, an origami APA, courtesy of Mark
Kennedy.  APA stands for Amateur Publishing Alliance, and it is
essentially a pmail version of this mailing list.  Bob Roos is the
official editor or FOLD.  Since it is distributed on paper by post,
there are some differences.  First of all, they include a fair number
of diagrams (of course).  Some are original, some are passed on.
Second, since copying costs are an issue, the membership is usually
limited (30 seems to be about the limit).  As a result, there are
membership requirements -- namely that you write two pages every other
month month or four pages every fourth month -- and if you don't
participate, you get dropped (N.B. I'm not suggesting anything like
that here.  I'd love to see more participation, but there's no reason
to get forceful about it :-).

The issue I got contained a description of a display that Mark Kennedy
did for a local library.  Among other things, the display had a fish
tank filled with origami fish suspended from the top.

Speaking of origami groups, Jan Polish from the FOCA called me up last
Saturday.  Apparently, they've seen some of our stuff at the Home
Office in NYC (courtesy of the Kruskals among others), and they may
want to print some of it in the FOCA Newsletter.  They will directly
contact you if there is something of yours that they want to print.
I'm going to pass on the roster and archives to her.  The best part of
this is that our list is now recognized by the FOCA as an origami
club, so we get to exchange literature with them, which means we'll
get all of the announcements of activities from them (I have been
anyway, but from now on, I'll try to be better about posting this
stuff).  Would anyone like to suggest a name for our group?  "The
Internet Origami Mailing List" seems awfully dry.

If the FOCA can get their hands on a modem (they already have
a Mac and an IBM-compatible), then I imagine we can get them on one of
the public access unix boxes in NYC and add them to the list.  We
shall see.

Apparently there are also some FOCA members working on sending
diagrams electronically.  I'm going to try to get in touch with some
of them and see what progress they've made.

Meanwhile, if anyone cares, our membership is hovering in the low 60's.

Take care,
brad





Date: Fri, 16 Feb 90 08:32:19 PST
From: claris!netcom!teraida!ratvax.DNET!antonucci@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mark Antonucci Ext 3574 Page 0705)
Subject: Origami Biography

Mark Antonucci					2-16-90
Boston, Ma.

Back in Junior High school I was interested in seeing the different items
people could make with a sheet of paper and a study period. The hopping
frog was my favorite! Me and me friends would fold up many sheets of paper
trying to improve the frogs jumping ability. We even made one out of
about 6 pieces of 8 1/2 x 11 paper ,taped together.
  I didn't get interested in origami again until College. I saw a book on it
and decided it would be fun to learn how to make a few other interesting
objects. I did manage to do quite a few things and learned about the basic folds
but then I had to return the book. I dropped the subject until I saw
this users group and decided to see what it was all about.

						Mark





Subject: Origami Intro
Date: 28 Feb 90 07:54:17 EST (Wed)
From: mwj@icc.com (Mike Jenkins)

My name is Michael W. Jenkins and I am a software engineer for a company here
in my home town of Cincinnati.  I have been interested in origami since about
1972 (I was age 8 at the time).  I first was exposed to origami in grade school
and from there I went to a local library and picked up a book and learned it on
my own.  That book was the "Secrets of Origami, Harbin" which I later bought as
my first book in my own personal collection.   I have been fascinated by origami
and what beautiful and creative things can come from a simple piece of paper.
I consider my self to be a "traditionalist", in that I do not use glue,
scissors, or any other of the illegal items.  My favorite author is Montroll
with a love for his completeness to his models.  I love doing money folds and
I am always looking for new models.  My favorite money fold is "Bunny Bill"
and is a fold I often leave as a tip at restaurants.  My current collection
of books to date is between 80 - 100 books and a couple magazine articles.  I
have books in English, Japanese, Spanish, French.  I hope to some day obtain a
book in origami in all languages around the globe.  I am currently writing to
8 different countries around the world to hear about origmai in their country.
My first response came from Moscow, Russia where they are just starting up a
chapter.  I spent 3 months off and on this past year in Tokyo, Japan on
business.  I did have a very busy work schedule when I was there but I did
get a chance to go to an origami shop in outer Tokyo (Origami KaiKan).  I
bought some hand made paper and some books.  I was amazed to see that alot
of the books on the shelves where ones I already had.  I did contact Mr.
Akira Yoshizawa before I went over there via mail.  He said he did not
usually allow people in his house (excellent story about  him in "Folding
the Universe from A to Z") but when I was in town I could give a local
member a call and try to get together.  Well I was never able to make that
phone call.  But It was quite an experience though.  I love to trade and
exchange models and stories with others and I am always looking for new
people to contact.  I have my list of books and articles in machine readable
text format and can send the list to you if you want to get my list for a
model exchange or just for pure interest.  I am a member of FOCA (in New
York City) and also an off-and-on member of a local origami chapter.  Please
e-mail or postal mail to me so we can exchange whatever.





Subject: Origami Book List
Date: 1 Mar 90 07:21:49 EST (Thu)
From: mwj@icc.com (Mike Jenkins)

   Well I have had a request to post my personal collection.  This is most of it
except for a few titles in Japanese that I can not translate.  I was also asked
to have a comment about each but I currently don't have that in my list.  If you
are interested about any of the titles listed, e-mail me about the one(s) you
would like to know more about.

   As for myself I would like to hear from those who have text or diagrams on
money folds.  I have been into folding money for the last couple years and find
it fun since it can be done anywhere.  I have left money origami as tips, folded
them while I wait in a restaurant, or on the airplane.  So any sources or text
information would be appreciated.

	 I recently became a member of the origami e-mail list and was reading through
the archive of e-mail.  I read in there that some people have a freeware origami
computer program.  I too have a copy of a freeware program, but I am not sure if
it is the same.  It was written in BASIC.  So if you have a origami software
program please contact me.  I also was reading about O.I.L (Origami
Instructional Language), and it has intrigued me.  Can anyone point me in the
direction of where to learn more about it.   Well that's all for now.  I hope
to hear from others soon.  I want to get active in this group.

   See file lists/books.txt in the archives

Michael W. Jenkins          Intercomputer Communications Corp.
Software Engineer           8230 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati, OH  45236
Micro/Mini Products         (513) 745-0500 * FAX (513) 745-0327
                            DDN: mwj@ICC.COM  UUCP: ...!ukma!spca6!icc!mwj





Date: Thu, 1 Mar 90 22:22:22 -0500
From: ingr!savagewe@uunet.UU.NET <Bill Savage>

Hello!

Brad, did your French question ask me what "Konichiwa" meant?
I don't understand French, and understand only a few Japanese phrases.
I am considering, however, taking a Japanese course in Huntsville this
spring.

I can not "ftp" to your machine.  I only have a USENET address.  You need
an Internet login to "ftp" right?  Anyway, I don't seem to have the ability
to do that, so could you PLEASE E-mail the archives to me in chunks?  I
would greatly appreciate it, and gladly take you to a Sushi place the
next time you are in Huntsville!

Below is my little biog for the mailing list.  Fold and cut at the dotted
line.  Thanks again for putting me on the list.  I know it will be a
lotta fun!!!!!!!

                      Bill "I'm a Novice...Help!" Savage

Hello everyone!  Konichiwa!  Although I have been curious about the art of
Origami for many years, I never decided to give it a serious thought until
this year.  It started while looking for Japanese animation videos.  I
saw some really excellent Japanese animation at a science-fiction
convention in Chattanooga, Tennessee in January.  I beginning quite interested
in obtaining, viewing and learning more about Japanimation (as some call it).
A friend suggested I go to the only Japanese grocery/gift shop here in town
and see if I could find some there.  As it happens I did find some videos,
but even more interesting was the lady working at the store.  She was
making a Origami swan, and it was a treat to watch her!  Moments later I
was looking at the Origami book that was on sale there, bought it, and
also bought some Origami paper!  Too neat!
Still a novice, though.  The first few things I have made look like swans to
me, look like crumpled paper airplanes to others.  Just need time, right?

When I'm not crumpling pieces of paper, I'm either at my job (I am a
technical writer at Intergraph in Huntsville, Alabam) or pursuing one of
my other interests.  Some of my other interests include: Japanimation;
sciencefiction; Doctor Who (the British Sci-fi show); music---progressive
rock (Smiths, Cure, TheThe)---classical (Wagner, Mozart, etc); writing
and drawing my own cartoon strip (as yet unpublished).

So, if anyone would like to contact me, via E-mail, U.S. mail, or the phone
use one of the addresses below.  I hope to hear from some of you soon!!

B Cing U

Home address:                    Phone;

Bill Savage                      (205)-539-8917 (Home)
1507-B Randolph Avenue           (205)-730-6825 (Work)
Huntsville, Alabama 35801





Subject: Sending Origami Diagrams
Date: 5 Mar 90 08:41:22 EST (Mon)
From: mwj@icc.com (Mike Jenkins)

I was making a response to Bill Savage about sending models around and I
came up with an idea.  Has anyone brought up the idea of FAX'ing models
around?  It would be a easy way to get them transferred.  Of course, this
means you have to have a fax.  Let's hear some replys about this.

Michael W. Jenkins          Intercomputer Communications Corp.
Software Engineer           8230 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati, OH  45236
Micro/Mini Products         (513) 745-0500 * FAX (513) 745-0327
                            DDN: mwj@ICC.COM  UUCP: ...!ukma!spca6!icc!mwj





Subject: Origami Wedding Folds
Date: 6 Mar 90 17:48:28 EST (Tue)
From: mwj@icc.com (Mike Jenkins)

I am planning a wedding for this August and plan on making origami
centerpieces for the tables.  Does anyone have any suggestions or
models they can recommend.  I have my own thoughts but I would like
to hear what you think.  I would also appreciate titles of books
where the models are or copies of the models if possible.

Michael W. Jenkins          Intercomputer Communications Corp.
Software Engineer           8230 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati, OH  45236
Micro/Mini Products         (513) 745-0500 * FAX (513) 745-0327
                            DDN: mwj@ICC.COM  UUCP: ...!ukma!spca6!icc!mwj





From: brad@cs.utexas.edu (blumenthal @ home with the armadillos)
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 90 17:13:14 CST
Subject: weddings, fax machines, and parallel computers

Bill Savage:  I still want to know what Konichawa means.

Michael Jenkins:  There are lots of things that would go nicely on
tables at a wedding.  Flowers of course spring to mind, and there are
any number of flower folds sprinkled throughout the literature.  I'll
let others suggest favorites.

There is a nice bride and groom fold in, I believe, _Origami Made
Easy_ by Kasahara.  I've done these with white for the bride and
black/white paper for the groom and they work out very nicely.  In
addition, there is a "jingle bell" fold (two bells) which looks great
when it's done from foil.  Depending on how elaborate/silly/obscene
you want to get, you could do some bedroom furniture from _Origami
Omnibus_.  A car from _Omnibus_ could be painted up with "Just
Married" signs.

Something a little more traditional might be 1000 cranes -- talk about
your labors of love.  If your friend is a computer scientist, you
could always make that b1000 (= d8).  :-)

Of course faxing models around is a great idea, if you have access to
a fax machine.  I'd like to hear if anyone does it regularly --
especially if it can be used to collaborate on creating a fold.

Apropos of nothing, an article in the New York Times a couple of
months ago quoted a researcher in parallel computing who described the
process of adapting serial software for parallel machines as
"computational origami."

Reminder: The annual origami convention in NYC is 27-29 April.  From
what I've heard, this is an incredibly good time that is not to be
missed.  I'm thinking seriously about going (I have this free
round-trip from having been bumped off of a flight); is anyone else?

Take care,
brad





From: brad@cs.utexas.edu (blumenthal @ home with the armadillos)
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 90 09:42:27 CST
Subject: Re: Misc. Origami

Well, hey, you didn't tell me it was *your* wedding.  Congrats.  If
you have big pieces of paper, one of the fun things to do is to make
crane boats.  There's a thing on this in Kenneway's _Complete
Origami_, and I believe in Peter Engel's _Folding the Univers_.  The
idea is to cut the paper so that it has two strings of little squares
attached at the corners of a big square.  Then you can fold all of the
squares into cranes and you can make a big crane with a lot of little
cranes all holding wings.

This is a really crude representation of the paper.  The idea is to
make the cuts so that they almost, but not quite, go all the way to
the edge of the paper (cuts with a "+" go all the way to the edge).
Then put squares A and A' together and fold them into one crane (treat
the two squares as one).  Do the same with B and B', and maybe a
couple of more, then fold the rest of the small squares and the big
one into cranes.  It works best of the single strand is beak to tail
and the two strands and the big crane are wing to wing.

       _______+_______+_________
       |      |       |        |
       |A |B      |       |    |
       +--+-------+-------+ ---+
       +---               |    |
       |   |              +--- |
       | --+              |    |
       |   |              | ---+
       +-- |              |    |
       |   |              +--- |
       | --+              |    |
       |   |                ---+
       +-- +-------+-------+---+
       |   |       |    B' | A'|
       |       |       |       |
       --------+-------+--------

The result looks something like this (again, this is really crude).

                        V
                        V
                        V
                       V  V
                      V    V
                     V      V
                    V        V
                    \        /
                     \      /
                      \    /
                       \  /
                        \/

Enjoy!

Take care,
brad





Date: Sat, 24 Mar 90 16:13:08 EST
From: cs00elm@unccvax.uncc.edu (e. morgan)
Subject: Eric's introduction.

 My name is Eric Morgan.  I am an origmian of sorts.  Hello!

 I have been doing origami since about 1979 when I needed
an in-class demonstration of aesthetics in sculpture for a
philosphy class.

 Since then I have been folding off and on.  I have shown some
cub scouts about origami.  I have created origami scenes for a
few libraries.  One time I sold about sixty various animal figures
for someone's Christmas tree.  I thinque I got 50 cents
a piece :-).

 Although I can fold just about anything from a book, I have
difficulty creating my own folds.  I can't seen to say to myself
"I want to fold a dog." and then create a folded dog that does
not come from a book.

 Nevertheless, I enjoy origami.  It teaches: patients,
systematic thinking, creative thinquing, hand-eye
coordination, a bit of history....

Who are y'all? (I live in Charlotte, NC.)

 Tell me more about this group of people?

 How do I access the "archives"?

 Eric Lease Morgan





Date: Mon, 26 Mar 90 11:45:30 EST
From: actnyc!jeff@uunet.UU.NET (Jeffrey Poretsky)
Subject: modular works

Hello all,

Of minor interest to those who enjoy modular work:

I am about to start work on the 900 unit multi-modular sphere
that is shown in _Origami for the Connoisseur_  Kasahara & Takahama.
There is a picture of the 900 unit sphere on p46-7. I am using a standard
Sonobe module, and plan on having it complete in time for the convention.

You ARE going to the convention, aren't you? :-)

Brad,  Mark Kennedy says "Hi", and thanks you for the archives.

Keep the fold alive,

	Jeff





Date: Fri, 30 Mar 90 20:51:20 EST
From: Stan_Mendenhall@um.cc.umich.edu

Robin's introduction
GGreetings!  My name is Robin Wilt Medenhall.  I have been folding origami for over 30 years, but this is the second time I have used a computer.  I never had a good enough reason to want to use one until now.
    After folding alone for years, it has been a great joy to find like
fascinated people in the Friend of the Origami Center of America.  I we
my first monthly meeting in my home town, Ann Arbor, Michigan in January of 1989.
There I was introduced to the wonders of modulars, Fuse's boxes as well as
so many great folders.  THere is quite a few members from AASO (Ann Arbor
Society 4 Origami) who are coming to the convention.  I can't wait to see
many folders in one place.
I find Origami so appealing.  Some thoughts that come to mind as to why are:
     - I can take it with me anywhere there is paper
     - It is a challenging puzzle
     - It is a universal language
     - It makes people smile.
     As I said before I am very new to doing anything on a computer, let alone
using "E mail".  What & Who exactly is a "basic unmoderated internet mailing
list"?  What is(are) the "archives"?   May I access it? and How?
  Hope to see at least some of you at the convention in New York.  Robin





Date: Sat, 31 Mar 90 11:46:17 EST
From: cs00elm@unccvax.uncc.edu (e. morgan)
Subject: Re:  modular works

I can't say I am going to New York for the Convention, but I hope
y'all have a good time.  Maybe someday my wife and I will go.

Brad, would you like some help on the modular piece you are building?
I have the book _Origami_for_the_connoisseur_.  I could probly make
a few parts.  Maybe "we" the electronic orgimians, could be represtented
with this model ... just a thought.

Eric Lease Morgan
