Origami Bonsai Sculpture

A few weeks ago we posted an article about the sculptural potential of Origami and Kirigami. Today upon browsing through some art prints, we found that among the origami artists of Japan, some consider a few form to be a hybrid between two types of art. Bonsai Origami is a combination of the paperfoldding craft and the tree-shaping craft, both popular art hobbies in Japan. In this hybrid hobby, the technique uses tree branches from actual plants, and combines these elements with paper flowers, leaves and fruits. This interesting artform was actually introduced by a foreigner; John Coleman in 2010.

Coleman wrote a book entitled Origami Bonsai during April of last year. Aside from his initial publication, Coleman still strives to improve the technique further. He developed a technique called Makigami which uses rolled up newspapers in specific contours to substitute the real tree branches. Coleman's organic passion for origami has taken the practice to a different level of orientation. He has adapted his own style into an age-old art form and has gained a number of followers at the same time.

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Kirigami, Sekkei and Comlex Origami Sculpture

Robert Lang, Meguro Toshiyuki and a few others developed a methodological system of origami paper folding called Technical Origami or Origami Sekkei. Unlike normal day-to-day origami folding, Sekkei Origami is more likened to an artform, specifically the artform of three dimensional sculpture. The creative output of Sekkei Origami can be characterized by complicated figures composed of well-formed details. Examples could include multi-jointed subjects with complex extremities such as toes, legs, tails and wings. Most of the usual patterns involved with this type of origami sculpting begins with something called the crease pattern, which is basically the overall layout of the creases needed to form the final model. Many origami sculptors develop their own compositions and designs by structural trial and error.

Surprisingly enough there are also computer programs that people use to aid them with structuring the comples diagrams of these origami types. Such include Doodle- which is used to create a photoshop file that has all the steps and figures needed to create a figure, and Treemaker- a program used to design a pattern of the final model.

Origami Sculpture (Hercules Beetle) by Robert Lang

Another alternate version of origami sculpture is Kirigami, where people make use of slices and cuts on the paper to form even more complicated joint systems and details. Because Kirigami includes the ability to cut creases, it gives a bit more flexibility to the artist, but makes each work more complicated for other people to replicate.

Origami may not be considered as fine or museum-type sculpture as a whole genre, but there are several artists out there who have mastered the art of folding, stacking and manipulating paper to the extent that galleries and shows have commissioned them to be a part of their collections. Origami has reached new heights in the world of sculpture, transcending price, time and even digital media. 

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