




Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 05:52:43 -0400 (AST)
From: Jean Villemaire <boyer@videotron.ca>
Subject: FR (UK TRANSL.) Pliage en rond  -  About circle folds

Il y a eu une bonne discussion, il y a quelques temps, sur les relations
entre l'origami et les cercles (plis, formats de papier...).  Peut-etre
certains seront-ils interesses a visiter ce site ou on trouve une page sur
Geometric Paper Folding de David Huffman.  Tres surprenant.  Je me demandais
si Didier Boursin, grand createur francais, avait fait des etudes dans ce
sens ?  Ou quelqu'un d'autre ?

        http://www.sgi.com:80/grafica/huffman/index.html

Just to add  to the discussion some had about circles in origami (folds,
sizes if paper...), I've found an interesting site with a page about
Geometric Paper Folding of Dr. David Huffman.  Surprizing work.  Has anyone
else been experiencing in this field?

Jean Villemaire
Montreal, QUEBEC
boyer@videotron.ca





Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 09:18:55 -0400 (AST)
From: Maarten van Gelder <M.J.van.Gelder@rc.rug.nl>
Subject: Re: Uploading to the archives

m> > Up to now you could upload diagrams and other stuff to the archives without
m> > my intervention. But some people have used the archives upload directory to
m> > store files that were not related to Origami. And this last time even
     pirated
m> > stuff.
m>
m> One possibility would to remove read permission from the directory.  That
m> way people could upload anything they like, but no one could download them
m> until you have move them to there proper spot.
m>
m> Kim Best

I've opened the .incoming directory again as Kim described.
In fact you can still download files from that directory, but you have to
know the name of the file. You can't browse through the directory.

But I still don't like other people to put there large amounts (300 M byte)
of pirated stuff.

Maarten van Gelder,           Rekencentrum RuG,  RijksUniversiteit Groningen
M.J.van.Gelder@rc.rug.nl                         Nederland





Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 09:57:41 -0400 (AST)
From: Kevin Kinney <kkinney@med.unc.edu>
Subject: possible origami sighting?

Did anyone watch (or tape) the episode of "Murphy Brown" that aired last
night? (1/6/96).  Murphy and her new boss (lily Tomlin) were reviewing
past events (excuse for a clip show), but at one point I'm pretty sure
Tomlin was holding some sort of proto-figure that looked origami-ish (it
*might* have just been acrumnple-gami, but it looked to regular).
Unfortunately, I didn't tape it, and it flashed by too quickly to be sure.
Anyone have faster eyes than me...?

Kevin
kkinney@med.unc.edu





Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 11:46:04 -0400 (AST)
From: Arjen Broeze <ab@nedap.nl>
Subject: Origami software

Hi All

I'm new to this list, so I hope I'm sending this to the right address....

I've been 'origamiying' since 1984 when I saw animal-folds in the hall of
the hospital in my home-town.
Since then I've been hooked on origami and after folding lots of animal
models, I even designed some
models of my own. I've been trying to get these models on paper to share
them with other animal-origami
enthusiasts, but I can't draw at all.

So, I was wondering if anyone knows of software that's written especially to
draw origami-designs.
If so, please let me know (including pricing information...).

Thank you very much in advance for any help

Arjen Broeze
--
Arjen Broeze
Nedap NV, afd VeeCode, Groenlo, Nederland, (+31)544-471426

If you explain everything so clearly that nobody can misunderstand, somebody
will...





Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 12:57:33 -0400 (AST)
From: Lisa_Hodsdon@hmco.com
Subject: Thx [Re: Origami in Orlando?]

Thanks for the responses so far. I thought it so obvious that we couldn't
possibly go to Orlando with 6 children and *not* visit "the mouse" that
it wasn't worth mentioning. That, indeed, is the main attraction of
our visit. Since EPCOT isn't high on anyone else's priority list (we all were
rather disappointed by it the last time we went) a trip to the Japan
pavilion may indeed provide an excuse to escape from the kids for an
hour. I'm not sure I have any use for Disney character paper, but I
know several kids who will appreciate the gift...

As long as there's a bookstore nearby with a decent sci/fi collection,
I'll be just fine as I sit by the pool avoiding a sunburn. (I've already read
half the books I bought for the trip... Silly me.)

Lisa
Lisa_Hodsdon@hmco.com





Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 13:52:07 -0400 (AST)
From: Steve Theil <theil@htonline.com>
Subject: Re: Early Chronology

Hi,

I'm new to this list and love it!

Particularly Kristine Thomlinson's historical info and her analysis of the
link between magic and religion. Alchemists were the West's first
magicians, weren't they? And they were definitely religiously motivated!

Also very interested in the history of cut paper. Would this include the
"German" (or "Swedish") star made of four long strips of thin paper? Or
does that come under a different heading? There is a tradition at Old
Economy Village in western Pennsylvania that the Swabian Pietists who
founded the commune made these cut paper ornaments. The group arrived in
the U.S. in 1804. Is anyone aware of this tradition previous to that date
in Germany? Or was the ornament brought to the community at a date later in
the 19th century?

Any suggestions or advice would be most welcome.

Linda Theil
theil@htonline.com





Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 18:57:20 -0400 (AST)
From: Contractors Exchange <contract@pipeline.com>
Subject: Re: Origami software

At 11:46 AM 1/7/97 -0400, Arjen Broeze <ab@nedap.nl> wrote:

>I'm new to this list, so I hope I'm sending this to the right address....

Welcome to the list, Arjen!

>
>I've been 'origamiying' since 1984 when I saw animal-folds in the hall of
>the hospital in my home-town.
>Since then I've been hooked on origami and after folding lots of animal
>models, I even designed some
>models of my own. I've been trying to get these models on paper to share
>them with other animal-origami
>enthusiasts, but I can't draw at all.
>
>So, I was wondering if anyone knows of software that's written especially to
>draw origami-designs.
>If so, please let me know (including pricing information...).

Many of the people who use software for diagramming use general purpose
commercial software. This is generally more than adequate for origami
diagramming purposes, as such diagrams do not require too many fancy
features. These programs (such as Freehand, Illustrator, Corel Draw!), cost
hundreds of dollars. They allso have a bit of a learning curve (even
higher, if you are not comfortable with drawing in the first place). A few
people (many of them on this list), have developed their own drawing
programs, which have been made available free to the public
(you can ftp over to ftp.rug.nl and look on the /origami/programs
directory). The only problem is that these programs tend to have an even
higher learning curve.

My recommendation is just to draw rough diagrams by hand. Unless you are
looking to be published, the quality does not have to be high. You can do
this by tracing the outline of your model. I sinplify this by placing tick
marks at each of the model's corners, and then just connect the dots (I do
not even bother to use a straight edge). I have loads of tricks for tracing
interior edges, but guessing is often accurate enough. I think it is worth
a try, and if your models are good enough, someone else might be willing to
do a better job for you.

Marc





Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 20:39:06 -0400 (AST)
From: Pat Slider <slider@stonecutter.com>
Subject: Re: Origami software

>Many of the people who use software for diagramming use general purpose
>commercial software. This is generally more than adequate for origami
>diagramming purposes, as such diagrams do not require too many fancy
>features. These programs (such as Freehand, Illustrator, Corel Draw!), cost
>hundreds of dollars.

For those who are want to try the commerical route but are counting their
pennies, I would recommend watching the computer software listings in
ebay.com. CorelDraw is a frequent item up for auction. I've also seen the
Adobe products, but these are a little more unusual. If you watch the
"feedback" ratings of the sellers, I find ebay a relatively safe way to buy
used/discount software over the internet; although lately it can be really
slow due to its current success.

Here's the current url for graphics software:

http://www.ebay.com/aw/list-55.html

Mac graphics software tends to turn up here though:

http://www.ebay.com/aw/list-54.html

I think the list numbers change daily though.

(Just peeked and saw that there are currently multiple copies/versions of
CorelDraw up for auction today.  Before you bid though, always find out what
the latest upgrade offers are. (I also recommend keeping in mind the
competitive upgrade offers going on. If what you really want is the latest
copy of "x", you might be able to save quite a bit by buying a cheap, old
copy of "y" :->.)

Hope this of use to someone!

pat slider
slider@stonecutter.com





Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 21:17:28 -0400 (AST)
From: Pat Slider <slider@stonecutter.com>
Subject: Practical folding....

Seems to me that someone once posted to the list an origami fold for closing
bags of potato chips, etc....Can anyone help with this? I've searched the
archives at Alex Bateman's site with multiple keywords to no avail.

I've been having fun experimenting with everyday, practical folds. Small
excuses to fold while doing chores. Took me 5 minutes today to rewrap a
stick of butter this morning :->.

Anyone have any favorite folds in this genre? One I've been trying to
develop is a nice fold for the ends of coin wrappers or other forms of paper
tubes. I would love to hear that someone has figured out a nice "lock" for
this. Something to puzzle and confuse a bank teller.

pat slider
slider@stonecutter.com





Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 22:25:18 -0400 (AST)
From: Mike and Janet Hamilton <mikeinnj@concentric.net>
Subject: Re: Origami software

Preaux cyrille wrote:
> I can't manage to do two of them. "manthis.ps" and the "kawazaki rose"
> Can one of you tell me if we can ask such help to the origami-l list (
> i.e. is it in the rules).

People quite frequently ask for advice on this list when they are stuck
on a model.  If you specify the model you are working on, where you got
it from (sometimes different models have the same name or the same model
can be diagrammed differently in two books), and the step you are stuck
on, someone may be able to help.

Janet Hamilton

--
mailto:Mikeinnj@concentric.net
http://www.concentric.net/~Mikeinnj/





Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 00:41:52 -0400 (AST)
From: Marc Kirschenbaum <marckrsh@pipeline.com>
Subject: Re: FR (UK TRANSL.) Pliage en rond  -  About circle folds

At 05:52 AM 1/7/97 -0400, Jean Villemaire <boyer@videotron.ca> wrote:

>Il y a eu une bonne discussion, il y a quelques temps, sur les relations
>entre l'origami et les cercles (plis, formats de papier...).  Peut-etre
>certains seront-ils interesses a visiter ce site ou on trouve une page sur
>Geometric Paper Folding de David Huffman.  Tres surprenant.  Je me demandais
>si Didier Boursin, grand createur francais, avait fait des etudes dans ce
>sens ?  Ou quelqu'un d'autre ?
>
>       http://www.sgi.com:80/grafica/huffman/index.html
>
>Just to add  to the discussion some had about circles in origami (folds,
>sizes if paper...), I've found an interesting site with a page about
>Geometric Paper Folding of Dr. David Huffman.  Surprizing work.  Has anyone
>else been experiencing in this field?

I remember Tom Hull had a model that featured curved folds on display at
the recent OrigamiUSA convention. I rememer he said it was a difficult
model to execute. I would think the easiest way to fold such a model is to
use extra thick folding material, and score the curved edges with a knife
prior to folding.

Since curved folds are so out of the norm, they are especially interesting;
thank you for the URL.

Marc





Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 01:04:01 -0400 (AST)
From: Joseph Wu <origami@planet.datt.co.jp>
Subject: Re: FR (UK TRANSL.) Pliage en rond  -  About circle folds

On Wed, 8 Jan 1997, Marc Kirschenbaum wrote:

=>      http://www.sgi.com:80/grafica/huffman/index.html
=>Just to add  to the discussion some had about circles in origami (folds,
=>sizes if paper...), I've found an interesting site with a page about
=>Geometric Paper Folding of Dr. David Huffman.  Surprizing work.  Has anyone
=>else been experiencing in this field?
=
=I remember Tom Hull had a model that featured curved folds on display at
=the recent OrigamiUSA convention. I rememer he said it was a difficult
=model to execute. I would think the easiest way to fold such a model is to
=use extra thick folding material, and score the curved edges with a knife
=prior to folding.
=
=Since curved folds are so out of the norm, they are especially interesting;
=thank you for the URL.

There's more to it than that, Marc. Huffman, as any computer science student
knows, was a leading researcher in data compression at one time. In the last
few (as many as 10?) years, he's shifted his focus to folding paper. He's been
very elusive, working by himself, and, according to what I've heard, avoiding
the origami community. That URL is the first I've seen of his folding, and is
really quite a special find.

          Joseph Wu           Faith: When you have come to the end of all the
  origami@planet.datt.co.jp   light that you know and need to step into the
 Webmaster, the Origami Page  darkness of the unknown, Faith is knowing that
http://www.datt.co.jp/Origami one of two things will happen: either there will
 Webmaster, DATT Japan Inc.   be something solid to stand on or you will be
    http://www.datt.co.jp     taught how to fly.                --Anonymous





Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 01:37:43 -0400 (AST)
From: Rjlang@aol.com
Subject: Re: Aura Goggles Group Buy ???

I thought the original post was totally unrelated to the purpose of this
list, but then I realized the person must be into aura-gami. <rim shot>





Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 11:32:32 -0400 (AST)
From: Kristine Tomlinson <ktomlinson@platinum.com>
Subject: Re: Early Chronology (Swedish star and cut paper)

>>On 7 January 1997, Linda Theil wrote asking about the Swedish star
and cut paper.<<

Linda, personally I classify the 4-strip Swedish star as "weaving", but
like others, tend to overlook this and include it as origami (you do, after
all, have to fold the strips to weave them :-).  So, I don't consider it cut
paper.  Is the ornament you wrote about the woven star??

Linda's comment and question about the Swabian Pietists in western
Pennsylvania and paper ornaments is most interesting.  If the ornament
*is* the woven Swedish star, that makes a tremendous amount of sense.
Can you tell us more about the Swabian Pietiets (any connection to
Moravia)?  Lately, I've been leaning towards thinking that the star came
known there.  Just a gut reaction, no proof.  By the way, I am
Pennsylvania Dutch and want to learning more about their (religious)
paper cutting tradition.  Some of it, was related to fraktur (calligraphy) I
believe.

[off-topic paper cutting]

Cut paper has several different varieties.  Off the top of my head some
are: single fold paper which when cut and opened creates a symmetrical
image, more than one fold with cuts -- like the Japanese family crests
(mon) or snowflakes, single or multicolored paper cuts, silhouettes,
negative or positive images, or layered multicolored paper from several
sheets like those from Poland.  I'm not well versed about this craft, and
can check my new book for time frames in Germany and among
Pennsylvania Germans in the U.S. if interested.

Kristine
ktomlinson@platinum.com
Waltham, MA, USA





Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 11:57:57 -0400 (AST)
From: reeds@openix.com (Reeds family)
Subject: Re: paper shapes, sizes--TAN

More on paper shapes & sizes (and the international ramifications of lack
of standardizaiton), see this interesting site that my brother just alerted
me to:

http://www.ft.uni-erlangen.de/~mskuhn/iso-paper.html

It's about all the standard paper sizes. There's a note to North American
paper users toward the end.
Karen
reeds@openix.com





Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 12:20:00 -0400 (AST)
From: Jeannine Mosely <j9@concentra.com>
Subject: Re: Huffman's folding

   =>   http://www.sgi.com:80/grafica/huffman/index.html
   =>Just to add  to the discussion some had about circles in origami (folds,
   =>sizes if paper...), I've found an interesting site with a page about
   =>Geometric Paper Folding of Dr. David Huffman.  Surprizing work.  Has anyone
   =>else been experiencing in this field?
   =
   =I remember Tom Hull had a model that featured curved folds on display at
   =the recent OrigamiUSA convention. I rememer he said it was a difficult
   =model to execute. I would think the easiest way to fold such a model is to
   =use extra thick folding material, and score the curved edges with a knife
   =prior to folding.
   =
   =Since curved folds are so out of the norm, they are especially interesting;
   =thank you for the URL.

   There's more to it than that, Marc. Huffman, as any computer science student
   knows, was a leading researcher in data compression at one time. In the last
   few (as many as 10?) years, he's shifted his focus to folding paper. He's
     been
   very elusive, working by himself, and, according to what I've heard, avoiding
   the origami community. That URL is the first I've seen of his folding, and is
   really quite a special find.

Sorry, but I don't think it's the same Huffman.  "David Huffman" is a
surprisingly common name, as a trip to Alta Vista will reveal.  The
Huffman of "Huffman Coding" published his original paper in 1952.  If
the fellow pictured folding paper in the URL above is the same man, he
was either *extremely* precocious or is in remarkable shape for his
age.

Huffman has been folding paper for quite a bit more than a decade.  He
published a paper in 1976 called "On Curvature and Creases: A Primer
on paper", in the IEEE Transactions on Computers. It is a very
scholarly work, and not likely to make sense to anyone without a
degree in math, or comparable background.

He gave a talk about folding at MIT in the late seventies or early
eighties.  I missed it, but heard about it from a friend who attended
it.  He was doing the same kind of tesselations then that Tom Hull,
Jeremy Schaefer and Chris Palmer have been doing for the last few
years.  My friend showed me one of his tesselations, and had a poster
for his talk that pictured more.  For some reason, she kept this is
her closet and wouldn't let me get a close look at it.

        -- Jeannine Mosely





Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 14:42:32 -0400 (AST)
From: RA Kennedy <kennedra@isdugp.bham.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Practical folding....

> Seems to me that someone once posted to the list an origami fold for closing
> bags of potato chips, etc....Can anyone help with this? I've searched the
> archives at Alex Bateman's site with multiple keywords to no avail.

I have a recollection that Edwin Corrie had a fold for closing a cylindrical
packet of biscuits (=cookies, US?) published in a recent issue of the BOS
magazine. I'll have to check my back-issues to come up with more information.

Richard K.
(R.A.Kennedy@bham.ac.uk)





Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 16:24:52 -0400 (AST)
From: Steven Casey <scasey@enternet.com.au>
Subject: Re: Huffman's folding

At 12:20 PM 8/01/97 -0400, you wrote:

>Sorry, but I don't think it's the same Huffman.  "David Huffman" is a
>surprisingly common name, as a trip to Alta Vista will reveal.  The
>Huffman of "Huffman Coding" published his original paper in 1952.  If
>the fellow pictured folding paper in the URL above is the same man, he
>was either *extremely* precocious or is in remarkable shape for his
>age.
>

There's a feature article on David Huffman in Scientific American dated
September 1991 on page 27. When he created his data compression he was aged
25. The article covers his early history and achievements and then goes on
to mention his interest in paperfolding mainly with spiral forms. If you
check out the archives under spiral folds posted by myself (8/12/96) you'll
see a brief profile.

It is indeed the same person (I checked out the URL).

cheers

Steven Casey
scasey@enternet.com.au
Melbourne Australia





Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 17:55:54 -0400 (AST)
From: "James M. Sakoda" <James_Sakoda@brown.edu>
Subject: Re: Huffman's folding

>   =>  http://www.sgi.com:80/grafica/huffman/index.html
>   =>Just to add  to the discussion some had about circles in origami (folds,
>   =>sizes if paper...), I've found an interesting site with a page about
>   =>Geometric Paper Folding of Dr. David Huffman.  Surprizing work.  Has
>anyone
>   =>else been experiencing in this field?
>   =

>
>Huffman has been folding paper for quite a bit more than a decade.  He
>published a paper in 1976 called "On Curvature and Creases: A Primer
>on paper", in the IEEE Transactions on Computers. It is a very
>scholarly work, and not likely to make sense to anyone without a
>degree in math, or comparable background.
>

>       -- Jeannine Mosely
My son sent me the article by David Huffman titled Curvature and Creases, A
Primer on Paper,  many years ago.  I couldn't understand the mathematics or
even the topic being discussed, but the diagram of a series of
quadrilaterals fitting into one another caught my eyes.  It was referred to
as the iterated metwork and consisted of series of mountain and valley
folds,  which came together to form an apex, which followed the rule that
opposite angles added up to 180 degrees, the same rule that I used for my
Hikari-Ori.  At each apex three mountain folds meet with one valley fold,
and each apex could be folded flat.  What made his arrangement different
from mine was that mine were generally flat creations, while his was
arranged so that the outer edges formed a spiraling circles.  When folded
flat the structure resembled a donut with a hole in the middle.  When
opened out it formed s spiraling vase-like affair, with folded edges
connecting the different layers.
      From a paper folder's point of view it is interessting to see how
straight lines can be combined to form circles.  Somewhere in the article
there must be a formula involving sines and cosines which determines the
angles needed to fold a particular circular pattern.  Once the pattern is
put on paper, showing the mountain and valley folds, the folding takes
patience, but is not difficult.  One can start at one corner and fold an
apex, flatten it and go on to the next one, or one can precrease all of the
lines and then start to fold them flat.  James M. Sakoda





Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1997 09:57:46 -0400 (AST)
From: Alex Bateman <agb@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk>
Subject: New page of tesselations

Dear all,
         I have just created a new web page of tesselations. The images
are of a much higher quality than before. Please come and have a look.

http://www.mrc-cpe.cam.ac.uk/jong/agb/Tesselation/tesselation2.html

Bye for now
Alex

--
- Alex Bateman
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
- agb@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk
- Phone: (01223) 402479
- http://www.mrc-cpe.cam.ac.uk/jong/agb/origami.html





Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1997 12:30:57 -0400 (AST)
From: DLister891@aol.com
Subject: As Long as the Emperor's Foot?

I am most grateful to Karen Reeds for drawing our attention to her brother's
Web site about standard paper sizes. It's a subject that has interested me
for many years and although I have built up a moderate body of information
about it, there is much in Karen's brother's pages that was new to me. I
recommend everyone to give the page a visit at

http://www.ft.uni-erlangen.de/~mskuhn/iso-paper.html

What Markus Kuhn does not say is that A4 paper, being 297mm along its longer
side is actually the length of an ancient Roman Foot!

As will be generally known among subscribers to Origami-L, the ratio of the
sides of papers in the International A and B series is one to the square root
of two. (This ratio has been given the name of the Silver Rectangle on the
analogy of the Golden Rectangle.) Such paper has the characteristic that if
it is folded into half across the width, the resulting half sheet also has
the identical ratio. The A series is used much more than the B series, the
sizes of which are intermediate between the A sizes. To put it shortly, the
largest of the basic A series is A0, with dimensions of 841 X 1189mm.  A1 is
half that at 594 X 841mm, then A2 at 420 x 594 mm, A3 at 297 X 420, A4 at 210
X 297 and so on. Incidentally, these are not the precise dimensions which
would be derived from an exact mathematical calculation. They have been
rounded up or down to the nearest millimetre to make the sizes more
commercially workable. So don't expect your A4 to be exactly of the ratio one
to root two.

How were the dimensions of A0 arrived at?  The area of a sheet of A0 (the 0
stands for zero, not the letter O) is one square metre  distorted into a
shape of the ratio one to root two.

As is generally known, the devisers of the metric system originally
calculated the length of a metre as one ten-millionth of the length of  a
quadrant of of the circumference of the Earth measured from the equator to
the pole. With the instruments and techniques of the day, they didn't quite
get it right, but the metre  was formalised as the length of a metal rod kept
in Paris and was later redefined as 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of the
orange-red line in the krypton-86 spectrum. (I have often wondered why they
didn't take the opportunity of rounding it off a bit! But I expect they had
their reasons.)

Subsequently (for Britain at any rate - I don't know whether other
English-speaking countries followed suit,) the yard was defined in terms of
the metre.

All this is very scientific, so what is all this about the Roman Foot? It
must be admitted that it is not easy to be precise about the exact length of
a Roman foot measure. However, according to Pliny the Elder, a Roman Stadion
had the same length as a Greek Stadion and contained 625 Roman Feet. The
Stadion has been calculated at 185 metres, which gives a length of 296.9
millimetres for a Roman foot. I may say, that there are other ways of
arriving at a Roman foot, but they all give very approximately the same
figure.

So, a Roman Foot at 296.9 millimetres is extremely close to the 297
millimetres of  the length of A4 paper. It must be borne in mine that the
length of A4, having been rounded up is itself only approximate. But more to
the point, in an age when measures varied widely and when measuring
techniques and instruments were comparatively primitive, it is very
improbable that the ancient Romans were capable of defining their own
measures to anything like an accuracy of one tenth of a millimetre.

The conclusion is that A4 is indeed the length of a Roman foot. Now isn't
that an extraordinary coincidence? So much so that some people think that the
length of A4 was chosen because it was the length of a Roman foot! But if you
start at the opposite end with a Roman foot, you still arrive at A0 having
the precise area of a square metre.

David Lister.

Grimsby, England.

DLister891@AOL.com





Date: Thu, 09 Jan 1997 13:04:55 -0400 (AST)
From: Edward Crankshaw <ejcranks@hiwaay.NET>
Subject: Circular folds

------------38661B9D623E1

With the discussion of Huffman and the recent threads regarding circular
paper, I had some thoughts. Mr. Sakoda said "From a paper folder's point
of view it is interessting to see how straight lines can be combined to
form circles." Another person mentioned that once we fold a circular
piece of paper, it no longer is a circle. I would be interested to see
what kinds of model could be created which combine these two thoughts.

Just a though...

Edward Crankshaw

------------38661B9D623E1

<HTML><BODY>

<DT>With the discussion of Huffman and the recent threads regarding circular
paper, I had some thoughts. Mr. Sakoda said &quot;From a paper folder's
point of view it is interessting to see how straight lines can be combined
to form circles.&quot; Another&nbsp;person mentioned that once we fold
a circular piece of paper, it no longer is a circle. I would be interested
to see what kinds of model could be created which combine these two
     thoughts.</DT>

<DT>&nbsp;</DT>

<DT>Just a though...</DT>

<DT>&nbsp;</DT>

<DT>Edward Crankshaw</DT>

</BODY>
</HTML>
------------38661B9D623E1--





Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1997 15:42:57 -0400 (AST)
From: Steve Theil <theil@htonline.com>
Subject: Re: Early Chronology (Swedish star and cut paper)

Kristine Tomlinson said: < Linda's comment and question about the Swabian
Pietists in western Pennsylvania and paper ornaments is most interesting.
If the ornament *is* the woven Swedish star, that makes a tremendous amount
of sense. Can you tell us more about the Swabian Pietiets (any connection
to Moravia)? >

Thanks so much, Kristine, for your reply. The star I am referring to is
most likely the four-strip "woven" "Swedish"' star. I was introduced to it
as a German star, and only heard the Swedish reference later. It is made of
four strips of paper cut in a ratio of approximately 1:50, i.e. a
5/8-inch-wide strip would need to be about 27-inches long to complete the
weaving. The completed star has eight points on the horizontal plane with
four points on each side into the vertical plane, creating a three
dimensional star of sixteen points.

Re: Moravia
My knowledge of historical geography is not good enough to know anything
about how Moravia is situated vis a vis Swabia, BUT the Moravian star I
have seen represented in the Des Moines Register (Dec. 9, 1988) DOES NOT
look like the German (or Swedish) star I am referring to. This "Moravian"
star looks more like sixteen cone-shaped pieces of paper formed into points
and glued to a central sphere.

The "German" (or Swedish) star is a common Girl Scout craft and all of my
friends in the nineteen-seventies had made them when they were girls in the
fifties. I was introduced to the project at Old Economy Village, a
Pennsylvania historic site in Ambridge, Pennsylvania in the late seventies.
At the time, the star was being presented as a craft that the Harmonites
(German Pietists) would have done, although truthfully I don't know if this
was supported by documentation, or only being presented as representative
of nineteenth century crafts. OR TWENTIETH CENTURY crafts, for that matter!

Anyway, I was fascinated by the idea of turning four flat strips of paper
into this star. (I don't suppose I have to explain this fascination to all
of you!) I did discover, however, that the description of how to fold the
star (from the class I took at Old Economy) was insufficient to actually
FOLD (or weave) the star, and each time I wanted to make one, I had to
unfold an old one to remind myself of the process. I determined then to
make it a life goal to describe the process on paper so that it would
always be available. I was aced in this goal (as in so many others) by
Martha Stewart, who published a very lucid description of the process in
her LIVING magazine several years ago under the title of How to Make a Star
Ornament.

What I DON'T know is if this weaving was actually of German origin (hence
my original question). Did the Harmony Society bring this fold to the U.S.?
Don't know. As you can see from the info above, the link is tenuous.

With that caveat, here (at long last) is what I know about the Swabian
Pietists who came to the U.S. in the early nineteenth century. The Swabian
Pietists were a German reformation group influenced originally by Luther
(one would suppose) and Johan Bengel, Jakob Bohme and other spiritual
thinkers (some say Swedenborg, to some extent) in the eighteenth century.
The Harmonist group led by George Rapp was formed in mid-eighteenth century
and came to the U.S. in 1804-1805 to escape proscription in the fight
against Napoleon's army. They settled initially in Harmony, PA; moved to
New Harmony, IN in 1817 (and subsequently sold their property to Robert
Owen --see Communistic Societies of the U.S.: from Personal Observations of
Charles Nordhoff, Dover Press) and moved to Oekonomie (Old Economy), PA in
1825. After the dissolution of the community, early in this century, their
property became a state memorial in 1917 and sat untouched until
mid-century when it was opened as a state historical site.

There is a web site devoted to PA hist. sites with more info re: Old
Economy:
http://www.state.pa.us/pa_exec/historical_museum
or address comments and questions to webmaster@state.pa.us
The Galen S. and Jessie M. Young Center for the study of Anabaptist and
Pietist Groups at Elizabethtown College also maintains a web site on the
subject at http://www.etown.edu/home/web/youngctr.html

I apologize profusely for the length (and rambling nature) of this post. I
will be most happy to continue any discussion privately should it be of any
interest to individual list-members.

Linda Theil
theil@htonline.com





Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 00:38:47 -0400 (AST)
From: jimdep@juno.COM (James E. Deppeler)
Subject: Re: Aura Goggles Group Buy ???

On Mon, 6 Jan 1997 12:10:34 -0400 (AST) "Brett Askinazi"
<brett@hagerhinge.com> writes:
>I once ordered some X-RAY glasses from the back of a comic when I was
>in
>grade school . . . but they didn't work.
>
Mine worked fine ;)......Well up until I was able to guess that Mary Lu
Slackmires
underwear had flowers on them. After she told her big brother he took
them (and tried  to remove my ears at the same time)

there is a form of artwork called "aura art " it involves a high-voltage
machine that produces the equivalences of a controlled  lightning strike
when the lightning passes thru two pains of glass with a pigment mixture
between
after the strike radiating outward from the center is a changing color
pattern that is unicke (sp:( ) to each strike.





Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 12:56:48 -0400 (AST)
From: Doris.L@t-online.de (Doris Lauinger)
Subject: Re: (partly NO) Early Chronology

Due the description of Linda, the star is known in Germany as "Froebel Star",
named after the founder of the kindergarten. Froebel thought, paperfolding is
     one
part of education children to improve their creativity (a very short
explanation).

In history the word "Swabia or Swabian" doesn't mean only the part of the German
land Baden-Wuerttemberg (federal state)  "Swabia" or in German "Schwaben", but
also all German speaking people emmigrated to the Eastern parts of Europe e.g.
     to
Hungaria, Czech and Slovak, Romania, Russia. During the rule of the Austrian
Empress Maria Theresia (18th century) and her son Joseph II a lot of German
speaking people emigrated to the East. They were promised to get ground. The
Eastern part of the Empire was not very cultivated, because there lived only a
few people. To get people settling down in these unknown countries the promise
     of
getting ground was very important for this poor people. The first emigration
     came
from "Swabian" living in southwest Germany. They settled down along the Danube
River. They brought there own language with them. From that time on every German
emigrating to the East was called a "Swabian". Their language was called Danube
Swabian.
Also in Moravia (since 1918 part of Czech) German speaking people did live.
     After
the Napolean's wars and the industrial revolution a lot of them emigrated to the
US and brought their religion and culture with them.

I didn't have any information if Friedrich Froebel was a member of Pietists
religion. But I think he was one of the spiritual thinker of the movement.
Because you can find in his doctrine a lot of the pietists' religion.

Happy folding the Froebel Star for the next X-mas.

Doris





Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 15:07:12 -0400 (AST)
From: Nick Robinson <nick@cheesypeas.demon.co.uk>
Subject: BOS site update

A Happy New Year to all our readers!

The BOS site has been updated over Christmas, with revised pages & a
natty new flapper image on the conventions page. Can I urge all non-
members to have a look and consider joining? I know I'm biassed, but I
reckon the BOS ranks with the best in the world....

Just a reminder to alter your address books with my new email
address....

all the best,

Nick Robinson

personal email  nick@cheesypeas.demon.co.uk
work mail       nick@rpmrecords.demon.co.uk
homepage        http://www.rpmrecords.co.uk/nick
BOS homepage    http://www.rpmrecords.co.uk/bos/
DART homepage   http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/oip/dart/
RPM homepage    http://www.rpmrecords.co.uk





Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 17:49:14 -0400 (AST)
From: mplewinska@earthlink.net (Magdalena Cano Plewinska)
Subject: Re: Early Chronology (Swedish star and cut paper)

On Thu, 9 Jan 1997 15:44:40 -0400 (AST), "Steve Theil"
<theil@htonline.com>  wrote:

> The star I am referring to is
>most likely the four-strip "woven" "Swedish"' star. I was introduced to =
it
>as a German star, and only heard the Swedish reference later. It is made=
 of
>four strips of paper cut in a ratio of approximately 1:50, i.e. a
>5/8-inch-wide strip would need to be about 27-inches long to complete =
the
>weaving. The completed star has eight points on the horizontal plane =
with
>four points on each side into the vertical plane, creating a three
>dimensional star of sixteen points.

I was taught this star by a Hungarian lady but my mother tells me they
used to make them in Poland, too, so I think of it as the European
Star. I make then by the dozens for Christmas decorations and use a
length/width ratio of 25/1. But then I use forceps - if I didn't,  I
would probably want longer ends.

   - Magda Plewinska
     Miami, FL, USA
     Email: mplewinska@earthlink.net





Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 22:18:13 -0400 (AST)
From: Jean Villemaire <boyer@videotron.ca>
Subject: A star is born (was  Re:  Early Chronology)

Doris Lauinger wrote:

> Due the description of Linda, the star is known in Germany as "Froebel
> Star", named after the founder of the kindergarten. Froebel thought,
> paperfolding is one part of education children to improve their creativity
> (a very short explanation).

And Magda Plewinska replied:

> I was taught this star by a Hungarian lady but my mother tells me they
> used to make them in Poland, too, so I think of it as the European
> Star. I make then by the dozens for Christmas decorations and use a
> length/width ratio of 25/1.

Bonjour, Doris,

Is this one of the stars ("csillag") I can found in Zsuzsanna's Origami 2
(all Christmas foldings, pp. 4 & 5)?  God, no, I just found out these were
her own according to the K.Zs. sign.  But maybe is there an origami star
tradition in Hungary?

Jean





Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 22:43:30 -0400 (AST)
From: reeds@openix.com (Reeds family)
Subject: Re: As Long as the Emperor's Foot?

>I am most grateful to Karen Reeds for drawing our attention to her brother's
>Web site about standard paper sizes.

Small correction: my brother simply directed my attention to the website on
page sizes (he's fascinated by issues of metrification). We can't thank him
for putting it together.
Karen
reeds@openix.com
