origami – Page 3 – { feuilleton }

Adonis Blue Butterfly.

Beautiful stamps for the second in a Royal Mail series intended to bring attention to endangered species. These will be issued on Tuesday and are designed by Andrew Ross using photography from the Natural History Museum. The Independent notes the irony of the Royal Mail printing these even as they’re building a new distribution depot at West Thurrock which will destroy natural habitats. Invertebrate Conservation Trust Buglife had tried and failed to prevent the development.

top: Silver-spotted Skipper, Red Barbed Ant, Stag Beetle.
centre: Noble Chafer Beetle, Barberry Carpet Moth, Purbeck Mason Wasp.
bottom: Southern Damselfly, Field Cricket, Hazel Pot Beetle.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Robert Lang’s origami insects
• James Bond postage stamps
• Lalique’s dragonflies
• Lucien Gaillard
• Wesley Fleming’s glass insects
• Please Mr. Postman
• Insect Lab

Black Widow; one uncut square of Origamido paper (2003).

I’ve been doing origami on and off since I was about 11 years old but the real measure of the art is whether you can invent your own folds rather than simply copying other people’s. This is something I’ve never managed since you have to devote yourself consistently to it until you can play with the paper, rather than fighting against it.

Hercules Beetle; one uncut square of Origamido paper (2003).

Robert E Lang is quite remarkable in this regard, with a host of unique folds on his site, the majority of which maintain the tradition of only using a single uncut square of paper. (Some of his more complex folds such as the Black Forest Cuckoo Clock deviate from this.) I love the insect folds but there are many other animals and objects there. You only have to compare the rudimentary classic frog fold (one of the few I can do from memory) with one of his tree frogs to see how far he is beyond the basics.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Lalique’s dragonflies
• Lucien Gaillard
• Wesley Fleming’s glass insects
• Insect Lab
• The Museum of Fantastic Specimens

Tag: origami

Endangered insects postage stamps

Robert Lang’s origami insects