Origami USA - Origami By Children

OrigamiUSA - OBC Gallery

First I will apologize for writing this article so late after the event. This is about my success in having my model to be selected as one of the 52 models worldwide for the Origami by Children(OBC) Gallery.

I decided to give it a shot after I received an award at the Origami Palooza 2013 at San Francisco JapanTown. I entered Satoshi Kamiya’s famous Divine Dragon, and I won a prize for “Complexity”. You can find that blog post here. Soon after, I submitted one of my own designs, the Mounted Knight, for OBC. This year's models can be found here.

I designed this model by using traditional bases and altering it to work for my model. I combined two bases: the frog base and the bird base. From this, I split flaps, sinked flaps, and created the model.

Origami USA is a non-profit, and volunteer based organization that is devoted to origami. Every year, the host the largest origami convention in the world, OBC being one of the galleries in it. The Paper, their magazine, says, "OrigamiUSA's mission is to share the joy and appreciation of paperfolding, preserve its history, nurture its growth, bring people together, and encourage community among paperfolders." You can find their website here.

When I received the letter informing me that I my model had been selected, I had some mixed feelings. I didn’t feel surprised, because I was confident that my model had been good enough to be selected. I also felt happy mainly because of the year-long membership that came with it.

OrigamiUSA membership gives me two origami magazine subscriptions, The Paper and The Fold. Also, I get discounts when buying stuff at the Origami Source. I can use the Lending Library, which pretty much means I can borrow books from people, and I can do a lot of stuff others cannot.

This success has inspired me to keep working hard on origami. Also, I am extremely happy and proud, and have been enjoying membership benefits. I will continue to innovate, and of course, brag to all my friends about it.

Origami Alien Version 2.0

     Last Week, I had designed a new origami model. My friend, also an origami enthusiast, told me that my first origami alien's major downside was that it couldn't stand. Here is a picture of it:

 I thought this might be due to the short and puny hind legs. In order to fix this problem. I decided that if I incorporated less paper to the head, and more to the legs they can be longer. So instead of using paper of 1/4n^2, I used 1/9n^2, where n is the side length.

Along the way, I discovered, that by making some changes, I could add toes. The front arms become smaller, but by using a trick I discovered, I can make them a bit longer. The body is also too long, so I shortened it by making three pleats, which shortens the model, adds detail, and allows the model to be curved. So the finished result looks like this:

I think it's pretty good. The lighting in the photo is bad, so the arms isn't so clear. For this model, I used metallic shadow paper, I do not know what type of fibers/technique this paper is. Most people who I tell them that I designed it, they say either that I am lying, or I used a computer. Those people don't know me so well. 

Thank you for taking your time to read this, or taking your time to skip the boring parts, and thank you for staring in awe at the picture and not believing that I designed it. Thank you very much.