The Vault of Mystery @ Ravensblight

Here's a bit o' fun for your next Halloween party from our friends at Ravensblight.

It's the Vault of Mystery, a dice rolling "spirit communication tool" cheaper and less creepy than a Ouija board. You can get all the files and instructions you need here.

Only twenty days left cats and kittens. Get your goth together and have a wonderful Halloween.

Things that make you go "Arrr!"

Yo ho ho. My friends and I have become addicted to a trading card game. Now before you picture a bunch of grown men throwing around Pokemon cards, or worse yet, sitting in mom's basement playing Magic the Gathering. We found the game Pirates.

The trading cards are like credit cards that have been laser cut. You punch pieces out of the cards and use the pieces to build boats. Those are your playing pieces. Now with your freshly constructed armada, you attempt to either decimate your opponent, or get all the gold.

This game is from the brilliant mind of James Ernest of Cheap Ass Games. On the top of my list of talented game designers. If you still haven't looked at his site, you should.

This thing appeals to the paper model maker in me. But it also appeals to the game guy in me because each card pack has everything that you need to play the game. So in theory you could just buy one $4 pack and if you don't like the game, never play it again. Or just leave it at the one pack and play it over and over. Oooor you could be like me and my friends and seek out every pack that the company has ever made. Sorry, is my geek showing?

If you would like to know more, check out the Wizkids Pirates! site.

Cool 4 Cats

There's a new kid in town. Cool 4 Cats has a fistful of cool paper automata that you can make yourself. I especially like the Kong model. I just don't think I have the room to keep it safe. If you get the chance to put one together, let me know how it turns out.

Paper Models From Shin Tanaka

Urban cool meets geeky paper craft. Thank you Shin Tanaka! Give one of his "Spiky Babies" "Hoodies" or "Wall Man" models a try. Have fun, fold paper, send pictures.

Paper Dice Tower

I found a great little paper project from the folks at Paper Make iT. A dice tower. For those of you that didn't grow up a Dungeons and Dragons geek like I did, a dice tower is a device that lets you roll multiple dice without having to chase them all over the table and floor. Sure you could use a dice cup and a box lid, but where is the artistry in that? The only thing that isn't mentioned in this project, is that you will need to have overhead transparency sheets to make the "windows" so you can watch the dice roll down. Without the transparencies, the dice will fly all over the place which is not why you built this thing in the first place. So give it a shot and tell me what you think.

Attention all pirate and Anime fans....The Going Merry

I found a site called Ninjatoes' Papercraft that has many paper models available. But this, in my opinion, is the top of the heap. A model of The Going Merry, from the odd pirate anime One Piece. A very cool model with what looks like a very straightforward build. Check it out. Have fun. Send a picture.

New from Yamaha...yes, that Yamaha

Yamaha's papercraft site, has a new model of a Hyacinth Macaw for you to build. I have too much on my plate right now so if anyone puts one together I would love to see a picture and hear how well it went together.

NASA paper models

NASA has paper models! You can build your own space armada. They conveniently label the difficulty of the models so you can know what you are getting into. Definitely worth a look.

More paper dustcatchers!!!

For another paper modeling fix, try Homespun Magixx. This fella has a mess of fun stuff that he has created. Some from TV and cinema. Some from his own head. If you're not up to putting anything together, just stop by for a look to appreciate the craftsmanship.

New Models From Canon Papercraft

New models on the Canon site.

Make a dinosaur. Make a pet dog. Make a town with a railroad. Make a giant dinosaur and gargantuan dog destroy a peaceful town with a railroad. The possibilities are endless.

Thank heaven for little boxes.

Heaven help me but I love making containers out of paper. Boxes, bowls, envelopes, I love them all. In an effort to look like I have been doing something progressive on this site, (Other than shamelessly plug my friends.) I made these six from patterns I had lying around.

-The top three are pretty standard, a little takeout box, a pillow box, and a truffle box. The first two i got from Mirkwood Designs, and the third from Flying Pig.

-Of the other three, I have no idea where I got the pattern for the first (if anyone has a clue, let me know). The second Star Box came from Sanwa Supply. And the third, with the nifty little closure, I got from Stampington.com

The talented Paper Pino

For those of you unfamilliar with his work, Check out Pino's site. He is a truly talented paper artist. His automata are wonderful. Talent like this should be encouraged.

Family Crest Kirigami

Here is a pop-up card I did a while back. Directly inspired by the work of Marivi. If you haven't seen her origami achitecture site, it's worth a look. She is a truly talented paper artist. She is also kind enough to share some of her designs with the world. Her daughter Vanessa also has a site that you should check out.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Well the Christmas Cards are finally finished. I only have a shot of the interior. The exterior photos didn't turn out the way I'd hoped. Just a greeting printed on vellum attached to the outside anyway.

Thanks to Evermore Designs for the pattern. Probably the hardest part of the whole thing was getting the gold leaf in place and burnished. I am proud of them though. Now it's time to make the envelopes and hope that these babies survive the trip.

What else with paper??...Card Modeling

I just thought I would post this topic since I find it to be interesting. Where have all the cardstock models gone? For years miniature models were made of wood and paper. In the 1940's when materials were scarce during WWII, in the U.S. and throughout the world, hobbyists and children everywhere were making realistic models from cardstock and white glue. After the war, the United States began churning out metal and plastic models for the general public, thanks to a booming economy and the almighty retail engine of the U.S. nuclear age. The rest of the world however, continued to produce excellent cardstock models for the hobbyist. Thanks to the power of the internet, we can find these models more easily, and many are as attractive as a plastic or wood model. But the best would be the "oh my god, you made that out of paper?" factor. The more realistic paper models are infinitely harder to construct than a plastic counterpart. When you consider that you are taking a two dimensional image and warping it into a three dimensional image.
The included picture is included to answer two questions. The first answer is yes, I have tried to make some of these and have come up lacking. As the picture of the MIG-19 can attest. It was a fun way to spend a Saturday though. I even made the stand myself. I'm sure with practice, I will get better over time. The second answer is, when I finish a model, origami, card, or other paper dust catcher, I display it for a while then I give it to my three year old and we play with it. Again with the MIG-19, shortly after this picture was taken, we took it over to my friend Joseph's house and flew it 'til it broke. A fun way to spend a Saturday.
To find cardstock models, there are many resources on the net. Fiddler's Green has many that are nice and reasonably priced. Scale Models International, and cardmodels.com can be good places to start as well. But if ships, cars, and planes aren't your thing, then check out my favorite site Flying Pig. Rob Ives is a genius, and a wonderful guy for sharing his talent with the world.

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.

On a lighter note

So, in an effort to be arty this year, I have embarked on a Christmas card making project. I will be chucking out about 15 handmade holiday greetings this year, and the rest will be sent from my stockpile of “vintage” cards. My vintage cards are boxes of cards that I have bought with the intention of sending over the years. Let me apologize ahead of time to those of you who get a store bought card. But I have already developed a callous from the xacto knife and I am only halfway through the cutting. If I make it to fifteen it will be a miracle.
I am using two designs that I have gleaned off the web; two wonderful reindeer designs, one from Evermore Designs, and one by Robert Sabuda. If I have time I will be trying a couple of secular designs from my book White Christmas by Masahiro Chatani and Keiko Nakazawa.

I have also been working out a Power Point presentation for this origami class that I one day hope to teach; if only to have a reason to order more specialty paper. While we’re in fantasyland, to have my own specialty paper and paper-craft store would be terrific. But to be realistic, I would have to find a place that was big enough to support my little store without Michael’s and Jo Ann’s putting me under. Sigh.