Kota Hiratsuka of Origami Mosaics in Japan is creating fascinating designs with creased paper. Less than a year ago he began cutting and folding the beautiful geometrics you see here as a nod to traditional Japanese art.
Not only does Kota design spirals and tessellations, but he is able to create portraits with the 3-D, triangular parts. The dimensionality causes an interesting shaded effect that changes with the light throughout the day.
Kota describes his style as disorderly folded paper. He happened upon the method while unsuccessfully folding a difficult origami design. After unfolding the paper and taking a short break, Kota returned to his desk only to realize that the folded paper had many good lines and a beautiful geometric pattern. He got out a ruler and cutter, and crafted the night away... Origami Mosaics was born.
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| Kota Hiratsuka |
Now in his early 20s, Kota told me he has been doing origami since being introduced to it by his mother when he was six. He admires beautiful mosaics, so it was a natural progression that led him to combine the two arts.
You'll find more images on Kota's Flickrstream and short videos that explain the process.
And how cool is this... you can make mosaic designs too! Gah, that sounds like such an infomercial... I apologize, but in all honesty I was excited to see Kota has posted templates that can be purchased and downloaded. He even offers a money back guarantee.
I haven't had a chance to try the designs myself, but would be very interested to hear how it goes if any of you do.
Origami Mosaics website and Facebook page.
