Halloween approaches

Ahh the smell of cheap plastic holiday novelties. And the scent given off by black and orange plastic make my heart begin to sing. Rivaled only by Christmas, Halloween is my second favorite Christian adopted pagan holiday. I think my daughter and I will be making sugar skulls and an ofrenda this year as well as doing the Anglo-saxon beggars night thing.
There is only one source for molds for sugar skulls that I can find online. My daughter and I went to the library last year so she could learn about Dia de los Muertos. The lady who gave the talk was wonderful. She had loaded a box full of sugar skulls and frosting and brought them in for the children to decorate. The library system in Las Vegas is the only good thing that is offered to the citizens of this town. No museums, two acres of a sorry little zoo, one overcrowded city park, theatre in this town is a joke. If it doesn't start with Cirque you might as well forget it.
Ok, enough ranting. Halloween is coming, get your sh!t together, and have a ball!

Hard at work or hardly working?

Here is a picture of a recent piece I did based on the work of Marivi. Her pop-up and origami achitecture work, like Robert Sabuda's, will even have cyinics agreeing that this truly is a beautiful artform.

All wrapped up with no place to go.

I have been looking into the art of zutsumi. The japanese art of wrapping a gift. However, there are very few books on the subject, and just as few web resources. It fascinates me when a craft or custom that has been done for hundreds of years has no written record. "Grandma did it this way, and she showed me when I was your age, so now I'm showing you." and so it goes generation after generation.

Take the Chinese tradition of folding joss paper on the New Year. For hundreds of years they have been doing this, and I have found two examples in print, and I am still searching for something online. The Same with the Japanese tradition of folding Noshi. There is only one English language book on the topic, and only a few text refrences in origami books.

If you have information on any of these topics, please contact me, I would love to hear about them.

The origami works of Eric Joisel

Artistry and beauty from a single sheet of paper.Creating as he folds. Origami as sculpture.


A true artist.
And lastly, the pangolin.