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Claire Van Vliet

It's been awhile since I posted but life has been busy, with work, kids getting older, more sports playing, challenging homework, and all that good stuff.  Home sick today from work so I figured I would update this blog since it's been collecting dust.  I'm wondering now if I should end this blog and just post pictures on flickr but we'll see. Instagram is the quicker social media for postings, but blogs just share a little more detail.

Anyway, last year I took a class at the San Francisco Center for the Book and took a class with Claire Van Vliet. It was a larger class than usual than when I take classes there.  It was a weekend class and it was so much fun.  We learned 6 books, all 6 inches in size and an origami slipcase to hold them in.  The good thing about this class was that all the materials were pre-cut and the only thing we had to do was make our slit/slots for the interweaving structures. Pictures below:

 

creativebug - third project

I made my third project from Creativebug, a coptic binding journal.  You should try it, it's fun!  I made one with plain bookboard and one wrapped with wrapping paper. I also made covers for future book projects.  

What will you make today?

origata...

I've had an interest in Origata lately...maybe because I love the art of folding and the unique method of wrapping gifts.  You can read a little about it here.  I got my hands on a few books on Origata and am amazed on how some of the folds fit perfectly together when you fold them.  There is some exact measuring in some of the folds like this one where I used vellum to put stamps in:

That compass looking thing is my dividers tool.  It's a tool I use for bookbinding to measure equal distances.  I'll post on how I use it in another entry.  It's a great tool for origami too if you need to divide something in odd numbers. 

Here are more hexogonal houses/boxes I made.  This is not my design, it's a design from the Origata Design Institue.  I just figured how to fold it with different sizes based on the original model.  I used different colored card stock and used mizuhiki cords and some ribbon from Angela Liguori.  The bows/knots are ones that were in the origata books.

Here are a couple of boxes secured with washi tape:

You can view images and a couple of how-to's in this video on origata.

I have purchased a few things from Upon a Fold that they had from the Origata Design Institue.  They have lovely things in the shop from around the world and the customer service is great.

 

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crossed structure binding

I took a class earlier this month at the San Francisco Center for the Book with two of my cousins.  I actually signed up for this class in November of last year. The class only took 8 students and depending on the class, they could fill up pretty fast.

I've been wanting to learn the crossed structure binding for awhile.  You can read more about this binding here.

This is the book I made in class.

These are samples that the teacher made and brought to class to show the different variations you can do with this type of binding:

I'm hoping to experiment when I have the time to try these variations. 

creativebug - second project

I'm home sick today - or at least recovering from some bad allergies yesterday.  There are times when I'm not sure if it's a cold or allergies but I took the day off to rest.  Since the kids are at school I took a little time to take another workshop at Creativebug.  I made a couple of iris fold cards. It's a pretty quick project once you prepare your materials and lay them all out.  I used a family photo taken a few years ago and one of Jason when he was 1 year old. I enlarged the oval template just slightly to fit the photo.

It's a fun project.  You should try it!

lollipop covers for valentine's day

So today at work we had a little crafting session going on in the early afternoon.  Here are my pictures taken from my phone:

This was a nice break from work.

I think we will make these for Ava's class on Valentine's Day.  Go here for the how-to and here to pre-order your book now.

Enjoy!  Have a great weekend...

origami for gift giving

I can't believe how fast the holidays came and went.  Even though the holidays are over, I wanted to share a couple ways that I gave cash as a gift - wrapped up in origami envelopes and box types.

I learned these envelopes from a video.  There are called Sy Chen's red envelope.  You can custom the size just by adjusting your folds.

You can also dress up your evelopes like this:

I used origami scraps and mizuhiki cord here.  For the holidays, I used Xmas wrap as a band.

I'm sure you can cutomize the size for gift cards as well.  It's an interesting fold.

The next one is a fold using an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper.  I forgot which book I got it from but the model was laying around and I just unfolded to see where the creases fell.  It's pretty easy once you score the folds.

If you're interested in learning this fold, I can do a step-by-step picture diagram post.  Just leave a comment and I'll be glad to show you....or  I can try to find out which of my books I got the model from.

This next model is from Origata.com.  I love this model - it folds perfectly.  This is an A4 sheet.  I bought this from a Japanese site awhile ago. Here is the link.  It included 6 sheets with the scores on them.  It's a card stock paper.  You can easily fold just by copying the scores from the template. I've been trying to figure out if it's possible to do with an 8 1/2 by 11.  You can use this for cash and maybe little candy treats, or maybe a couple of truffles.

 

happy holidays!

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