July 2015
Froebel star rating: ***
I zoomed in on this title because it celebrates the work of Friedrich Froebel. Froebel was a 19th century German educationalist and papercraft guru.
He brainstormed the concept of kindergarten. He - wait-for it - re-introduced the craft of origami to Japanese schoolchildren. And his papercraft legacy lives
on in the celestial contribution of his famous 3-D woven stars - a trad Christmas decoration - and in his folded paper shapes. (The big idea is that paper folding
teaches creativity, logical thinking, and improves motor co-ordination.)
Back to the review. This is a reprint of German edition. Armin Taubner is a prolific papercraft author, whose delightful Floragami, I have reviewed on this blog.
The book begins with a collection of folded modular shapes - kind of the origami equivalent of paper snowflakes. Slight permutations, no two alike.
Lots of geek appeal. The moves are indicated with step-by-step folding diagrams + text. A winning idea is to fold the shapes in translucent paper
to make window decorations. After the basic folded shapes are shown, the author moves on to 3-D constructions. This section is not for origami purists because
- shock horror - glue is involved. The resulting spheres are very attractive - and are cheats kusudama. The gluing enables an openwork appearance, which is extremely
appealing.
As you would expect, the Froebel star section kick-starts with detailed, illustrated how-tos on how to weave the eponymous stars out of strips of paper.
The steps are pretty clear - but, if you are like me - you may zone out when things get to about step 28 (and I like learning from books).
My suggestion: check out a You Tube video and use it in conjunction with the book. And always bear in mind that the paper weaving steps are repetitive -
so there are fewer folding operations than the number of steps. Super-symmetry. Everything is done in quad! When you master the star, you will be very proud of yourself,
and you will have added a life-long papercraft skill - and party trick- to your repertoire.
The Froebel star projects are mostly slight permutations - but, hey - you would not be reading this book if you were not a papercraft geek. The comet is a fun idea.
Most of the variations involve trimming the tails in some way, or varying the colours of the paper folding strips. A bit obvious.
So - this title is a pleasant tribute to the papercraft innovations of Friedrich Froebel. It is suitable for entry level to intermediate papercrafters.
* The Papercraft Post Blog *
