Robert Lang, origami master

[Doctor Q]

Robert J. Lang is an origami (Japanese paper folding) genius. His website is full of examples of his work, as well as descriptions of the mathematical techniques he uses to devise his creations. After a career as a physicist and engineer, he became a full-time origami artist and he's one of the top folders in the world.

For example, he made this Tiger Beetle out of a single sheet of folder paper!

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I've always been a fan of Origami (even though I'm not very good at it myself). His work, from tiny bugs to large dinosaurs to a complete orchestra, is amazing to see.

Because he uses Macs, Apple has posted an article about him.

 

[astrostu]

Yeah, I have one of his books. I consider myself reasonably good with origami - I've given a few classes, I've created a few things - but his stuff is REALLY HARD. I've yet to actually successfully make anything in his book. Can't wait to try the Blackforest Cuckoo clock in there, though.

 

[hayduke]

Yeah. That's cool and all, but can that beetle fly? I can make a pretty mean paper airplane and it can *fly*.

 

[Doctor Q]

A friend of mine made me this Yoda:

 

[...]

... satoshi kamiya

...

 

[sushi]

Robert J. Lang is an origami (Japanese paper folding) genius.
<big snip>

Cool.

The Tiger Beetle, among others on his web site that he creates with one piece of paper are pretty fascinating.

There is a custom here, when someone is sick, others may send a 1,000 cranes to help them get better. That is a lot of folding to make one display.

 

[Doctor Q]

There is a custom here, when someone is sick, others may send a 1,000 cranes to help them get better. That is a lot of folding to make one display.

I heard you sneeze just now, so I made you these 10,000 cranes.

(Actually, I photographed this display case in Hiroshima, and it's hard to estimate how many cranes are in there.)

 

[xUKHCx]

Had a look through the website and it is very impressive to say the least. Really quite interesting.

My fingers are too fat to be able to do anything that intricate.

 

[themadchemist]

I'm glad to see a physicist doing something practical for once.

 

[Loge]

His stuff is amazing.

I used to be quite into this as a kid. There was TV show in the UK, where they would take you through one example each week. Unfortunately there was no VCR back then and it was almost impossible to keep up with the guy on the TV, and so I usually ended up with a half-finished mess.