World origami day Artist Trading Cards

Event: Origami Heaven, Stony Brook, Long Island

"Official" Theme: ATC CTA (card trading anarchy)

Title: Celebrate World Origami Day "Back to basics"

When Talo relaxed the rules / guidance substantially for Origami Heaven this year, I decided to try something different. 

Origami model selection:

Instead of focusing on a theme or a super complicated origami model, I decided to pay tribute to 'the basics', i.e. Origami bases! I first tried to line up a few preliminary bases but eventually decided to use windmill base and kite base for my final card. 

Paper selection:

When I was showing my prototype to friends, Wes suggested that I use some translucent paper to show off the layers. I have to thank her for providing a stash of such paper. Some people thought they were vellum and some thought glassine. Not sure which one (paper experts feel free to comment). They came in a variety of colors and leave very permanent white crease lines. I would not recommend them for super complex  models with many reversing folds and/or sinks. Crease pattern is the way to go. In fact, to avoid extra crease lines, I figured out how to fold the crease pattern for windmill. 

Color selection:

Things look good in threes so I just mixed and matched card back, windmill, and kite bases in different colors. 

Labels:

Front is written with crayons. Pens don't work on the textured paper very well.  Back label is done by hand with pencil / mechanical pencil. I didn't want to do extensive labels because I wanted the card to be clean and not clutter with stickers. 

Appearance/assembly:

Card is see-through if held up to light. As windmill and kite are both wind/aerodynamic, I left them unattached in sleeve so they can moved about. (I like to be poetic even if others may accuse of me of being lazy here)

Gallery:

You can see more drafts of cards in gallery below. In order to just capture the spirit and not bore you with all the drafts, I did a bit of selection of all the photos. If you really want to see more, let me know. I also attached cards I got back from the trade, including an ATQ (artist trading quilt by Judy!)

Links to my other ATCs: http://azuleteats.blogspot.com/search/label/ATC

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Permalink to Gallery (if below link doesn't work): http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CYsmLRw1bMWeS

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Origami USA Artist Trading Cards 2014

Liner notes for origami convention artist trading cards swap

I fell in love with this sunflower model at a weekly origami meeting. In subsequent meetings, I kept folding them with different types of paper. The possibilities were endless. The colorful index cards were left over from studying for an exam. The background piece of paper is a random shape cut from a square or hexagon. The card can also be used as a mini-note book, mini-guest book, or a simple display stand! Fill it with a witty quote or a favorite convention memory! 

The model

Kazuo Kobayashi sunflower from Origami Flowers. Or read my friend Linda's book review on OUSA)

Brainstorming 

Some of the features below show up in my "draft notes and pics" but are not actually used.

• Funky color combo (used)
• Spirograph as background (not used)
• Magazine centers (some used)
• Poems/quotes inside card (not used)
• Potential pop up card (not used)
• Maps as backgrounds (not used, pictured below)

The prototype 

White part is cut from hexagon memo paper. 

The paper

Memo cube, duo foil, single side and duo sided patterned kami, magazine pattern cutout, etc

The card

Colored index card folded in half. Can be used to take notes and also used as a stand. 

These are a few of my favorite cards

(Picked and photographed the night after finishing cards)

(Picked and photographed the night after finishing labels) strangely enough I had only two repeats: the orange/red foil and the cheetah print with arc.

Fun facts

• Patterns include strawberry and cheetah print!
• Not all sunflowers had center piece (duo foil looked better without). This model is a two piece model. 
• White cut out pieces were unplanned. Random cut and shape and twists. All cutting, gluing, and positioning on cards were done in one night. 

Links to shuttlefly gallery: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CYsmLRw1bMWca

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Links to other ATCs: http://azuleteats.blogspot.com/search/label/ATC

Link to countdown pics (or separate blog) - placeholder

ATC things that fly

My friend VA is an avid artist trading card (ATC) designer/creator and had participated in various ATC trades. As a result, she has an impressive collection of cards and several extras from sets for trading. I liked this card below themed "things that fly". In return, I needed to make one that fit the same theme.

I came up with my card idea below while I was browsing my origami books for the convention countdown. It fits the flying theme and is also seasonal. The hummingbird is created by Robert Neale and folded from harmony paper. The color change hydrangea (creator Fujimoto?) is folded from small rose patterned paper.

more process descriptions after the jump...

Origami Meetup Group Artist Trading Card 2013

My friend Linda loves artist trading cards (ATCs) and organized a card swap for the origami meetup group with the theme “Red, Orange, and Brown”. As always, I started brainstorming and planning my concept as soon as the trade was announced. This is a bit of a break from my previously heavily geometric/hydrangea-ish cards. Although the process can be viewed as a geometric mathematical problem to make 6-inch squares into ATC sized cards.

Design inspiration

My friend Nate specializes in making ATCs out of origami paper. I liked this concept from his Origami Heaven ATC trade and wanted to try it out myself.  

While playing with paper to figure out the crease pattern, I managed to find a way to weave a basket which I used as a card/basket.

Materials

The Card/basket is made from 6inch patterned kami. Apple and carrot are each made from half of a 3inch kami. So they’re both made from rectangles.

Revisions

Unlike my very first ATC which had a “secret theme”, I did share my process/prototypes for the OMG trade with friends. I’d like to thank Linda for her paper donation. My original prototype was a very boring plain brown. Unfortunately she didn’t have enough paper for all 9 cards in the set. Luckily Doug had received a batch of pattern paper from Linda so he had donated some as well. I don’t think people will mind that their baskets are slightly different. Jason liked the basket and suggested that I add some ridges/grooves on the carrot to make it more realistic.

Final 9 cards in the set

“Harvest” (OMG ATC Trade 2013)
Red, orange, and brown are autumn harvest colors in this ATC set. The basket is made from one sheet of paper and doubles as the ATC card.   

To read more, take a look at the next page.

2013 June OUSA Artist Trading Cards

As part of the 2013 June Origami USA Origami convention, my friend Talo organized the Artist Trading Cards event, which involves 27 cards in the official set and 27 participants. 

In a nutshell, everyone has to create at least 27 cards with origami in them (no theme for this trade) and then everyone takes home an entire set. We also met up and I got a chance to see other people's bonus cards from previous years. Mini-art gallery in the making!

 

Liner notes for my ATC (also presented at the ATC exhibition):

“Perfect blue in 3”: A top secret project. Naturally, all my OMG friends were quite curious about the theme of my first ATC for my first origami convention. Most guessed hydrangea which isn’t too far off. I went through several drafts and revisions and really enjoyed every part of the design/production process. 3 materials (memo cube, regular computer paper, and cardstock) and 3 patterns were used in the final set while maintaining a monochromatic look. As for the labels, I wanted an opportunity to use the cat manga stencil I bought at a comics event.


Planning and inspiration photos below. I had originally wanted to write a dev blog post (similar to video game makers) but decided to at least post the pics here (and hopefully fill in the details in the future). I tried various drafts and color combos and ended up deciding on three variations. Hope you enjoyed my first ATC and look forward to future trades!

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