Small is beautiful: Amazing miniature origami sculptures that fit on the tip of your finger

By Mail Foreign Service

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

The Japanese have been making origami sculptures of dragons for thousands of years - but they're never normally this small.

These miniatures are so tiny they can fit on a fingertip and they take days to make using a toothpick and paper no bigger than an inch wide.

Artist Anja Markiewicz spends days working on some of her remarkable sculptures, taking a break every two hours to keep up her concentration levels.

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Artist Anja Markiewicz creates her mini-sculptures, such as this dragon, using a toothpick and inch-wide paper

The 24-year-old has created around 500 of the pieces and sells them for around £10 each on her website.

Anja had the idea five years ago after she made an origami ship with foil from a chocolate wrapper while bored at college.

She said: 'After I finished eating the chocolate, I started to fold the wrapper and ended up with a tiny ship.

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Anja's favourite sculpture is this yellow ball, which takes 10 hours to make

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This snowflake required the most paper to create - a mere 38mm square

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Anja stumbled on her art while playing with a chocolate wrapper while bored at college

'I cut the paper to make it smaller and was still able to fold a ship - my friend gave it a go but couldn't do it.

'On the way home I bought some very thin paper from a craft shop and spent hours making more sculptures.

'It was very pleasing to me. I created more figures, using a toothpick for the really intricate parts.

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A diamond rose and a tiny crane

'My favourite is the origami ball, because that took me the most effort.

'All in all, it was about ten hours, and I had to take breaks because it's tiring.

'I also like the rat, as it's quite a famous design in origami art but I have taken it down to a minuscule level.'

Anja, from Potsdam, near Berlin, Germany, added: 'Some pieces I can do in as little as five minutes and I love selling my work online.

'It gives me great satisfaction to know that people are buying my art and enjoying it.'

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Anja sells sculptures, including this beetle, for £10 a time

The incredible 3D images that pop off the page... created with just a pencil and paper

By Lee Moran
From http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

He's a modern day master making incredible 3D images that pop off the page - armed only with a pencil and a piece of paper.

At just 20-years-old, Chilean artist Fredo is quickly captivating the online art world with his series of graphite sketches.

He is now planning to take his art to the streets in a bid to spread his fanbase from the virtual world to the real one.

Scroll down for video...

How it all began: Fredo's first picture of a butterfly, which led him to develop his technique

Busting through: An elephant seemingly charges its way through the paper

Fredo, whose real name is Wladimir Inostroza, learnt his startling technique purely by accident.

Drawing a butterfly whilst laid out on his bed, he realised the picture had been stretched out across the page.

On closer inspection he saw how the animal appeared to be floating, and that by chance he had used a method similar to one used by English 3D artist Julian Beever.

Scary: Spread across two pages, this series looks like a man is jumping off the paper

Out of the box: This picture looks like a puppet is being pulled out of the box

Down time: This man is waiting with an empty glass of wine

After adding in the shade with a set of charcoals, he took a photograph - and has never looked back.

With
his own blog, thousands of fans on his Facebook page, and countless
pages dedicated to his work, Fredo is now keen to expand on his talents and
take his art to the streets of Santiago and beyond.

Picture frame: The photograph is handing Fredo a pencil in this image

Helping hand: Bionic and human joints combine in this picture

Pathway: This sketch looks like an intricate wood carving

Hard at work: A make believe image of Fredo pondering on his next project

A Paper Crafted Audi & How It Was Made

From: http://www.visualnews.com/

Using only paper as his materials, graphic designer Taras Lesko was recently commissioned by Audi to create a model version of their snappy new A7 automobile. Putting his print, cut and paste skills to work, Lesko came up with a version of the car that looks almost as if it could really drive. Be sure to check out the great ‘making-of’ video below and then head to visualspicer.com for more of this talented designers creations.

The Beauty of Paper Art

• By Smashing Editorial
• From http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
  

The times when paper was considered to be the primary medium for artistic expression is long gone. Many writers and designers use digital media to improvise and develop their ideas. However, there is something particuliar in this “physical” canvas — something that keeps us getting back to paper when we want to brainstorm ideas in a notebook, doodle around in a sketchbook, collect inspiration in a scrapbook or just draw some sketches for the next project.

In fact, paper is even more powerful than that. It is a very flexible medium. You can use it paper only for giving your ideas and feelings forms, but also as an expressive medium for creative artworks formed out of paper. You can create a sharp-edged paper plane or ship, but also form twisted curves of nature or complicated geometrical shapes. In this weekend’s post we present a showcase of paper art; you wil find many beautiful carved, folded, cut out paper objects and realistic 3D paper sculptures, all using paper, cardboxes or even books as materials. Please make sure to follow the links to explore further works of the artists presented below.

The Beauty of Paper Art

Apples

Buscando a la serpiente

Paper Tunnel by Jen Stark

Flat Globe Cutting Book Series “AKIRA CLUB”

Golden Swan

Paper flowers

Face

Click here for the Entire Gallery: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

11 Extraordinary Origami Artworks

Check out the coolest folded paper projects around

By Brynn Mannino Posted February 02, 2010 from WomansDay.com

 

 

No other art form involves mathematics as intrinsically as origami. Nor is any other community of art quite as dependent on the contributions of its members. Every new folding or design technique brings a slew of possibilities. "The process of designing origami figures is cumulative—one uses new techniques, refines old ideas, and one really can’t say that a particular figure is finished until it’s actually folded," says artist Robert J. Lang. Below, see 11 finished products, all of which represent a beautiful blending of talent, technique and science.

"Cocker"

French artist Eric Joisel designed and folded this dog in 2002 from a rectangular sheet of Canson fine art paper using the "wet-folded" technique invented by Japanese origami master Akira Yoshizawa. Photo courtesy of Eric Joisel.

"Goldfish"

In 2004, Joisel created this burnt-orange goldfish using a square-shaped blend of washi—a type of paper made in Japan from natural tree bark fibers—and sandwich foil. Photo courtesy of Eric Joisel.

"Dwarf N°3"

In 2004, Joisel created this dwarf violinist—demonstrating his fascination with J.R.R. Tolkien's work—from a blend of sandwich paper and foil. Photo courtesy of Eric Joisel.

"Ent"

Joisel recreated this fictional character based on the race of trees with humanlike qualities from The Lord of the Rings in 2004 from a blend of sandwich paper and foil. Photo courtesy of Eric Joisel.

"Stag Beetle BP" (Opus 477)

Known as one of the pioneers of the cross-disciplinary marriage of origami and mathematics, artist Robert J. Lang composed and folded this 5" arthropod using one uncut square of Origamido paper. Photo courtesy of Robert J. Lang.

"Elephant" (Opus 111)

Lang created this sculpture, which is featured in his book The Complete Book of Origami, using one uncut square of kami paper. Photo courtesy of Robert J. Lang.

"Allosaurus Skeleton" (Opus 326)

Lang created this 24" model—which, according to his website, was inspired by the late Issei Yoshino's Tyrannosaurus Rex—using 16 uncut squares of Wyndstone Marble (a.k.a. Elephant Hide) paper. Photo courtesy of Robert J. Lang.

"3D Teapot"

Japanese artist Tomohiro Tachi folded this work, which was featured in the Siggraph 2007 Teapot Exhibit, using one piece of square paper, modeled after the Utah (or Newell) teapot, a mathematical model of an ordinary teapot. Photo courtesy of Tomohiro Tachi.

"Leaf of Kajinoki"

Tachi designed this rendition of a mulberry leaf using Origamizer—a 3D origami design software that generates a crease pattern that folds into a given polyhedron, which Tachi developed himself. Photo courtesy of Tomohiro Tachi.

"Camel"

Origami artist John Montroll—who invented the Dog Base and Insect Base folding techniques—developed this camel design in the 1980s, which was folded by German artist Sebastian Kirsch from a 30 cm square of foil-backed mulberry paper. Photo courtesy of John Montroll.

“Handshake”

This work was commissioned by the Aberdeen Asset Management Annual Report, for which artist Nick Robinson composed and folded several designs using newspaper in 2000. Each hand was created using one sheet of paper. Photo courtesy of Nick Robinson.ori

Origami city: model crafted entirely from paper

An origami artist from Japan, Wataru Ito, has spent four years crafting an incredible model city from paper - but now plans to burn it down.

Origami castle on display at the exhibition in Umihotaru, near Tokyo, Japan Photo: SWNS

Mr Ito, 25, started building his 'Castle on the Ocean' when he became bored during his university entrance exams.

Using just a knife and glue, the art student built up an entire cityscape over four years by cutting and folding hundreds of pages of craft paper.

The finished piece is now being displayed for the first time at an exhibition on the artificial island of Umihotaru, near Tokyo.

But incredibly, Wataru, a second year student at Tokyo University of the Arts, plans to set his work on fire when the show is over.

He said: "I'm very happy to display my work at a place where people who don't have an interest in arts can come and see it.

"Looking back now I sometimes ask myself 'did I really manage to create this?'

"I am devoted while I am working on my projects but I quickly lose interest when I complete them.

"When the exhibition is over I will burn the castle. I thought I could see it rising up from the ashes if I took a video and played it backwards."

Wataru, who lives in Tokyo but is originally from Saitama, Japan, started working on the castle while he was studying to become an art student.

After failing a university entrance exam three times he focused on this project, which became so large he had to sleep under a table in his tiny flat.

The city's centrepiece is a castle which is loosely based upon El Temple de la Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona, Spain, .

The central tower is surrounded by a cathedral, school, theme park, factory and airport and comes complete with electrical lights and a moving train.

Incredibly, the entire piece - which measures 2.4m by 1.8m and is 1m high - has been crafted using only paper, which Wataru stuck together using craft glue, an art knife and holepuncher.

Artist creates pictures by folding paper

Artist Simon Schubert has created an extraordinary collection of pictures - made up of hundreds of tiny folds in paper.

Artist Simon Schubert's creations are composed of tiny folds in paper Photo: SOLENT

Paper art: Mr Schubert spent two years perfecting the art of folding paper into his elaborate designs. Photo: SOLENT

At first glance the elaborate pictures, which sell for up to £3,800, seem to have been created with pencil or paint but they are actually composed of tiny folds in the paper.

Mr Schubert spent two years perfecting the art of folding paper into his elaborate designs.

Now the 33-year-old takes up to a week to create each of his unusual pictures.

He said: "The first attempt was not really so successful, took quite a white to get the technique perfect."

Artist Simon Schubert's creations are composed of tiny folds in paper Photo: SOLENT

Paper art: Mr Schubert spent two years perfecting the art of folding paper into his elaborate designs. Photo: SOLENT

Mr Schubert, who lives in Cologne, Germany, with his wife Cosima, 37, and their twin children Lilith and Kilian, two, said he often had to convince people his pictures aren't painted.

He said: "Most of the people who see the work are surprised that the pictures are created by folding paper, they don't believe it when I tell them.

"Many of them think I've used paint or pencil to create the affect of light and shade.

"But when they realise the pictures are actually folded they are quite impressed."

Mr Shubert is currently exhibiting in the Kudlek van der Grinten gallery in Cologne.

He also has a display at the Upstairs gallery in Berlin, where one room has been covered in 150 of Mr Shubert's designs - giving the impression the whole room is folded.

Japanese man sets record for paper plane flight

A Japanese engineer has set the world record for the longest flight for a paper airplane, keeping his design aloft for 27.9 seconds.

By Julian Ryall in Tokyo

Takuo Toda ,head of Japan Origami Airplane Association, folds a space shuttle-shaped paper plane Photo: AP

After his record flight, Takuo Toda said that his achievement was merely the next step in his ambition of launching a paper plane from space.

Mr Toda, who is chairman of the Japan Origami Airplane Association, performed his feat at a competition in Hiroshima Prefecture in April and it has now been confirmed by Guinness World Records as the longest ever flight by a paper plane.

"I had thought that the world record was impossible to break, but the key to breaking the record is how high you fly it," Mr Toda told The Daily Telegraph.

Made of a single sheet of folded paper with no cuts, his design measured 10 cm from tip to tail. He plans to use the same shape to try to break his own record at another event for paper plane enthusiasts in September.

His ultimate aim, however, remains having one of his aircraft launched from the space shuttle.

"Thirty years ago, I saw a space shuttle - with a similar shape to a paper airplane - returning to Earth," said Mr Toda, who traces his hobby back to the two years he spent convalescing after a climbing accident while at university. He claims to have had made a paper plane with an almost identical triangular configuration three or four years before NASA unveiled its shuttle.

"I thought it would be possible for a paper aircraft to do the same thing, but back then no-one would listen seriously to my ideas," he said.

Founder of the association in 1980, he has lobbied scientists and professors to take his proposal seriously and was finally rewarded last year when the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced that it would fund a three-year, 90 million yen (£617,000) study into the feasibility of launching paper darts from the International Space Station and, hopefully, recovering them when they return to Earth about a week later.

"If it is proven that a paper plane can re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and glide back down safely then the scientific community could gain very valuable data about aerodynamics," said Mr Toda says. "That knowledge could even lead to improvements in the design of spacecraft in the future as it would prove that even ultra-light materials are able to withstand the demands of the upper atmosphere."

16 Awesome Star Wars Papercraft Models

Some time ago I gathered a list of 100 Exceptional Free Paper Models and Toys that was quite well received by the readers of this blog. The amount and quality of paper craft models available for download is amazing. Chances are that anything that’s popular and geeky, has already been converted into a paper craft model.

Since Star Wars is both extremely popular and absolutely geeky, then it is not a surprise that loads of paper craft models are available on the web. Just follow the links and download the models. Beware, some these models are somewhat difficult to build. If you are novice, take a look at this article that will teach you how to make your own paper craft models along with some basic construction tips.

R2 Astromech Droid Series

From Wookieepedia: The R2-series astromech droid was a model of astromech droid produced by Industrial Automaton, and its success was never equaled in Industrial Automaton’s long history. A combination of excellent design, high-quality marketing, and good timing made this astromech droid one of the most sought after droids in history, and one of the few vintage astromech series still in active production decades after it was first designed. The prototype for the series was R2-0. Read full description | Download the paper models

YT-1300 Light Freighter

From Wookieepedia: Conceived by a panel of CEC shipbuilding experts, the YT series went on to become one of the most popular space transport hulls ever produced, revolutionizing the interstellar shipping industry with its unparalleled application of modular design. Whole sections could be mass-produced and arranged into new configurations as needed without extensive retooling. This saved CEC enormous amounts of credits by allowing the starships to be brought to market at extremely competitive prices. Read full description | Download the paper model

Sand Crawler

From Wookieepedia: Sandcrawlers were large, slow, treaded vehicles, used as self propelled bases for mining squads. Most notable example of usage of these vessels, later adapted by Jawas for their mobile homes, was on Tatooine, where bulky sandcrawlers climbing the dunes were a common sight. Read full description | Download the paper model

Tyridium Shuttle

From Wookieepedia: The Tydirium was a Sienar Fleet Systems Imperial Lambda-class shuttle, occasionally used as a personal shuttle by Darth Vader. It was later captured by Wedge Antilles and Ace Azzameen, and used by the Rebel Alliance in their plan for the Battle of Endor. After that, it was used as a strike shuttle. Read full description | Download the paper model

X-wing Starfighter

From Wookieepedia: The Incom T-65 X-wing starfighter was the main all-purpose starfighter of the Rebel Alliance and its successor governments. Known for its versatility and good combat performance, it was a favorite with Rebel and New Republic pilots. Possessing deflector shields, a hyperdrive, an R2 astromech for repairs and navigation, and a complement of proton torpedoes, the X-wing allowed the Rebellion to launch raids in Imperial space with improved odds of a successful mission. Read full description | Download the paper model

All Terrain Scout Transport

From Wookieepedia: The All Terrain Scout Transport (AT-ST) was a bipedal walker used in rudimentary form by the Galactic Republic during the late Clone Wars and, later and more extensively, the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War. Read full description | Download the paper model

Millennium Falcon

From Wookieepedia: The Millennium Falcon was the famous personal smuggling starship of Han Solo and Chewbacca. The Falcon began life as a standard Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-1300 stock light freighter. Solo won it from Lando Calrissian in the Cloud City Sabacc Tournament. Under both Calrissian and Solo, the ship endured many adventures and upgrades which led to its dilapidated exterior appearance, and played a vital role in the Galactic Civil War. Read full description | Download the paper model

AT-AT All Terrain Armored Transport

From Wookieepedia: The All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT) walker was a major part of the Galactic Empire’s army. It was one of the most heavily armored land vehicles in the Imperial Army, but was also known for its relatively slow speed. Read full description | Download the paper model

R2-D2

From Wookieepedia: R2-D2, phonetically spelled Artoo-Detoo or Artoo, was an astromech droid and undoubtedly the most famous unit of the R2 series. A longtime friend and counterpart of the protocol droid C-3PO, he served the Skywalker family faithfully for many years. Along with his resourcefulness, R2-D2 was equipped by his original owners, the Royal House of Naboo and the Royal Naboo Starfighter Corps, with many tool-tipped appendages that allowed him to serve as a superior starship mechanic and computer interface specialist. Read full description | Download the paper model

TIE Fighter

From Wookieepedia: The TIE/ln starfighter, simply known as the TIE Fighter, was the standard Imperial starfighter seen in massive numbers throughout most of the Galactic Civil War and afterwards. The TIE/ln, a descendant of the T.I.E. starfighter and the V-wing starfighter, both developed for the Galactic Republic, was manufactured by Sienar Fleet Systems. In addition to the T.I.E. and V-wing, it was also descended from the TIE starfighter, the first TIE model developed for the Galactic Empire. Read full description | Download the paper model

TIE Interceptor

From Wookieepedia: The TIE/In starfighter, or TIE Interceptor , was a TIE series starfighter used by the Galactic Empire. The TIE Interceptor was identifiable by its arrow-shaped solar collection panels, a distinct difference from the hexagonal solar arrays of its predecessor, the TIE Fighter. The Interceptor was one of the fastest starfighters in the galaxy at its prime, nearly rivaling the Alliance’s RZ-1 A-wing interceptor. Read full description | Download the paper model

Star Destroyer

From Wookieepedia: Star Destroyer was a term used to describe both a certain type of medium-sized capital ship used by the Galactic Republic, the Galactic Empire, the New Republic, the Imperial Remnant, the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, the Alliance-in-exile, the Fel Empire and Darth Krayt’s Sith Empire, as well as heavily armed warships in general. Read full description | Download the paper model

C-3PO

From Wookieepedia: C-3PO, also spelled See-Threepio, also called Threepio for short, was a protocol droid—a droid specifically designed to interact with organics. C-3PO’s TranLang III Communicator module combined with his AA-1 VerboBrain allowed him to be fluent in over six million forms of communication. He was also equipped with over thirty secondary functions. Read full description | Download paper models

Stormtrooper Helmets

From Wookieepedia: Stormtroopers were the elite shock troopers of the Galactic Empire. Like Imperial-class Star Destroyers and TIE Fighters, stormtroopers served as reminders of the Emperor’s power, extensions of his will, and a method of keeping the Empire’s thousands of star systems in line through fear. Read full description | Download paper models

The Clone Wars Paper Model Making Kit

Read more about this book…

17 Star Wars Characters Masks

From StarWars.com: Need a costume for Halloween but you’re just not sure which Star Wars character you’d like to be? Download and print these Revenge of the Sith masks created especially for starwars.com by Star Wars illustrators and artists. Read more and download these masks.