Origami- old traditions

Probably one of the most popular paper sculpting designing there is, majority of people have tried or heard about it. I looked into this style of sculpting as just to see an insight on how it could relate to any of the ideas I had in mind. The delicate art of folding small paper to give it character and turn it into an object of meaning is fascinating, but i do think that this style of design wouldn't work with my plans for development stages would work. The ideas I have are lot more architectural. 

This image is blooming of colours and the clever paper folding has made it to look like a blossoming flower. 

I found that a lot of Origami is heavily influenced by natural forms like flowers. Like I stated before a lot of the worked done is intended to give character and life to paper. Majority of work is all based on natural forms which are living, so this gives the paper a fantasy of life. As the saying goes "Brings it to life"

The other reason I looked into this style of designing is that there is a lot of repartition and repeated patterns as you can see. 

Yet again here we have more examples of natural life forms. BARR the unicorn but it is a fantasy life form modelled down into paper. It is really inspiring work.

Through looking at Origami I have discovered that it isn't the style I want to design in but it is the methods and thinking behind the work which i'm after. I want to create a sculpture which has such character and and life simulating elements within the design I create. By this I mean if I considering taking the core structure of buildings and designed paper sculptures which were influenced from this I would want them to have lots of character and personality so that people could relate to them. 

Workshop 2

In this workshop we were shown by Sweeney how to score the paper and fold it into sculptures. Following on from the first workshop we used some of the same methods but were asked to think about exsisting forms and sculptures and how we could replicate them. Once I created a structure which I was happy with I photographed them on a white box this gave the designs a much better professional look to them, by doing this I started to get a grip of the techniques and ways of which I could shoot the sculptures. 

I really like this design I've done, the curves and the three legged tripod structure which holds the dome like shape works well. The idea was based on a canopy at festivals.

Same sculpture, just playing around with the angles which I took the photo.

This angle really shows off the curves and the fluency of the structure. By keeping to the task in hand of repeated patterns I have achieved this as each section is influenced by the other and repeats it but it isn't identical.

Also in the second workshop we worked with other skills than just folding and scoring. We took some elements out of the first workshop by cutting stripes of paper and folding them into sleeves made. This time Sweeney showed us how the cut off could be more controlled and neater. This design you can see the attention to the strips and the direction I wanted them to fold on it self.

This idea didn't work how I wanted it to, the vision in my head looked a lot better. But you win some and lose some.

Sculptures following natural forms

Following on from my primary research I started to make designs which related to natural forms. I mainly looked at the patterns made and i replicated them and got handy with my scalpel. 

Here imitated the ripples made in sand and also the swell of the tide in the sea. I combined them together and I reckon I've captured this in within the paper. 

The images above are  the winter trees , as I mention in the primary research the bare branches on the trees give a great depth of field . I cut out the trees and raised them so that the flat paper becomes a 3D design. I have used a series of trees to create a repeated pattern and sticking to the brief in-hand. I really like these as the raised cut outs it creates shadows and these fall onto one another, plus the angle I placed the light source is clear as the shadows fall to the left therefore the light was placed on the right hand side. Taking a slight raised angle when shooting really shows that the cut out trees and the flat paper all become one. This gives a real life sense in the design which captures the natural form of growth within trees. 

Primary Research - Natural Forms

Researching into natural forms really gave me inspiration to create sculptures in this way. After the first workshop with Sweeney i went aways with a lot of ideas and methods so by looking at the Earths natural forms I started to create flowing smooth paper sculptures. As task 1 was to create sculptures which were repeated patterns and repartition I looked at patterns which continuously repeat them self in real life.

The sea was the first form I looked at. The curves are beautiful, they fall back on them selves and repeat and repeat as the sea is a constant tide.

Secondary natural form was trees. Especially in winter as the bare branches create very structural shapes and patterns. The winter trees give me an impression of post modernism as its been stripped of it's form and has become functional. Creating my own impression of this will be hard to achieve, as getting the bare cold feeling cant be done by just a few branches on a piece of paper, maybe a series of tree could work in my paper sculpture. 

The ripples in sand is a great example of an natural form which repeats and repatriates. The curving lines one after the other creates a very minimal effect as not much is required for this image to look good because the ripples alone create the image.

Leaves also are a great form. Each leave has a characteristics of it's own but they all follow are certain brief structure. The veins running through each give it is identity to recognise it's a leaf.

Finally I choose to look at mountain formation, this is very important as these formation have been around before any of out times. The peaks give great shapes and could be made from paper rather simply. Each peak is different but just like the leaves they all follow a certain form which is a "peak". 

Richard Sweeney, The brains and methods behind paper sculture.

We were very fortunate to have this talented man work with us and help answer any worrying questions about the first task of this assignment. He worked from different skills and techniques required to make beautiful sculpture like himself.

As you can see below the designs Sweeney's done are truly inspiring. The shapes, curves and repeated patterns all become one and bring the whole design in to Work of Art.

As I stated before you can truly get lost within his designs with all the twist and curves

By cutting into the paper patterns are created and by folding these and bending some really interesting shapes can be found. Just like Sweeney has done.

 It is fascinating how a piece of paper can be manipulated into such a creative sculptured design. Sweeney is difiantly wining me over and inspiring me to create in his style. With the help from him in the workshops i can achive this and i will.

Briefing and Workshop 1

The introduction to this assignment skills workshops. In this project there has been given two task to master and get a body of work together for. Task 1 is structural design my aim was to create paper sculptures which showed repeated patterns and repetition in the design them selfs, by studying various methods of research I could gain better knowledge of how to do this. For our Task 1 we had a very talented/ famous man to help us and guide us into the direction the brief was asking us to go. This man was Richard Sweeney, he is famous for his breath taking paper structures and his create handy work with his hands. 

Workshop 1

The first workshop into this assignment we were shown how just a flat piece of paper could be cut/folded/scored into a 3D structural design. At first I couldn't really get my head around the brief as I thought this is going to be rather simple like folding papaer aeroplanes but the more I looked into the module I found that this type of design is massive and beautiful, if mastered correctly. This is where I though I could never create such designs like these artist i researched. Richard Sweeney talked us through the methods which could be used and eventually I started to grasp the techniques and found a desire to create more and more as it really started to interest me, possibe a hidden talent i never really knew i had. 

First structure I created, obviously it is rough but I though not a bad first a tempt. This method was cutting strips out of the paper and folding them back on themselves and slotting the cut off ends in to little sleeves which I cut so that the shape would hold and stay in the position I wanted. 

This design is the same method just a little more experimental. 

A different method used. Sweeney showed us how to lightly score the paper so it could be manipulated into shapes folds and curves. 

I started to experiment with each design see what outcome i could get. I also started playing with the angles I took the photographs to give a much more bigger depth in the design on a digital format. Like stated before this is the very early stages of the assignment and I'm still getting a hold of the methods so my work further on shall be more expressive and more visually impressive (lets hope)