Classes - Previews

This is a vertex unit for a modular tetrahedron (so made from four units). Designed for a request by Rona Gurkewitz.

This is a Dogwood blossom designed for metal fabrication (in collaboration with Kevin Box). It appeared in a 30' bouquet at Atlanta Botanical Garden. (We'll make ours from paper.)

A variation of the traditional butterfly that shows with just a few more folds, we can get a very butterfly-like butterfly.

This model is designed with Tato technique. We will make an origami accessory out of it.

Origami, the traditional paper-folding practice, has gone beyond its artistic and cultural roots to become a powerful tool in various STEM fields. Origami engineering, a relatively new discipline, has found applications in diverse industries, including aerospace, medicine, structural engineering, art, and our everyday lives!

Do you ever feel constrained by the limited color options offered by traditional origami paper packs? In this class, you'll learn how to paint sections of origami paper for beautiful visual effects & gradients. In class, we'll be working with a variation of sonobe units, but techniques can be applied to any modular design. If you'd like to make a larger model (30 units or more), you might want to come to class with units pre-folded. We'll be doing 6 or 12 unit models in class.

If you've never created diagrams, and were wondering where to start, this is the class for you. An introduction to creating origami diagrams, some things to consider before picking up a pen, how to approach diagramming, and a few simple tricks to get you started.

This workshop will go over various materials and approaches to taking your flowers to the next level of realism. The focus will be on origami orchids but the techniques discussed can be applied to other types of flowers. The class will also include how to fold a simple orchid with leaves and stem but the focus will be on taking your flowers to the next level.

I will bring some basic supplies for the workshop. Each attendee will be able to make a small orchid to take home with them.

I'll show how to fold curved lines over a set of pleats. The technique allows "drawing" by creating lines and curves while leaving the pleated sheet mostly flat.

Origami Memories author Jason Schneider will teach the Warbler, an intermediate-level bird from his book!

Folding concentric accordion pleats results in a shape that collapses into a approximation (called a Hypar, by Bauhaus architects who folded it in the early 20th Century) of a saddle shaped surface (a manifold mathematicians call a hyperbolic paraboloid). A cycle of four edges traces out a Hamilton Cycle of a tetrahedron's edges. Thus, a square-based hypar fits well inside a tetrahedral frame.

Most origami designs are singular creations: the designer lays out a distinct sequence of steps that lead directly to the finished product. Peter Engel’s system for designing over 10,000 different bird species, inspired by Darwin’s theory of natural selection and employing random processes to replicate the role of genetic variation, produces not one but multitudes of different models by varying the sizes, shapes and colors of the birds’ bodies, heads, beaks, wings, and tails.