Folded Existence

by Joel Cooper

Recently during my wanderings on the internet, I became aware of one of the website My Modern Net's newest spotlighted articles titled Elaborate Geometric Masks Made from a Single Sheet of Paper which was posted by Noel Kat. The article features the beautiful origami works of Joel Cooper, Ms. Kat pointing out that no two masks that the artist creates is the same and tend to convey various emotions. Struck by the memorizing complexity of these paper creations, it brought to mind several pieces I've seen done by a couple of artists on deviantART.

Trilobite by Origami-Artist-Galen

origami-artist-galen.deviantart.com (United States)

A young artist from the mid western section of the United States, Shuki Kato does various types of origami but his main focus is intricately folded insects ranging from beetles to praying mantises. Perhaps one of his most interesting creations is that of a trilobite which, according to his description, used a single 21 inch square sheet of tracing paper and took him between 10 to 15 hours to complete.

Flickr: Shuki.Kato

Winged Koi by yuumei

yuumei.deviantart.com (United States)

Perhaps better known for her online comic series Knite and Fisheye Placebo along with some of her illustrations, digital artist Wenqing Yan does have some lovely origami winged koi in her gallery. In Origami Winged Koi Process, she shows step-by-step on a large scale how she creates her unique winged koi.

Facebook: YuumeiArt

Tumblr: maid-en-china.tumblr.com

Manilafolder.deviantart.com (United States) 

American paper artist, James Lucas, has a plethora of various forms in his gallery, from geometric shapes to insects and animals. In his bio, he explains that he has been doing origami for over 10 years. One of his most impressive pieces a King Cobra. In the description of the piece, he states:

King Cobra by Manilafolder

The model is 8 feet long, folded from a rectangle 8.5 inches wide by 22 feet long. It has 5500 scales (folded the tedious, time-consuming way) and thus took four months to fold. The model is free-standing, with no structural supports of any kind. Completed November 4, 2009, 12:40AM. (I don't ever want to fold it again).

Flickr: sin cynic 

Etsy: ManilaFolderOrigami

Coffee Review: Peet's Coffee – Garuda Blend

Even though the last month or so have been hectic and hair-pulling worthy of insane, it has provided me with so many stories and events to share with you all. So what is one of the things that has happened? Several generous friends donating coffee for me to check out with each specifically saying 'For your review', to which I thank them whole heartily. As you may know that normally I attempt to avoid doing main stream coffee products, mostly to give a spotlight to the lesser known brands and varieties, but I honestly have never had any of the Pete's Coffee brand items other then their tea.

 

As I opened the 16oz (454g) bag of Garuda Blend that was given to me, I took in the dark and perhaps slightly nutty aroma. I Though the bag said 'ground coffee', the ground reminded me of a fine instead of medium grind. My curiosity sparked, I wondered if it would be anything like the Tchibo GoldSelection Ground Coffee or Krönung. Or would it be more like Johnsons Irel? I just had to find out how it would taste. Once brewed, I noticed that it had many of the characteristics of a dark brew – rich dark amber color, robust fragrance.. I was however pleasantly surprised that unlike most dark brew coffees that this did not have a bitter flavor or aftertaste. Instead, the flavor was towards a medium roast, having a slight hint of fruit notes to it. It also had only a mild aftertaste but was not bitter..

For those who aren't familiar with Pete's Coffee & Tea, the first shop was opened in Berkeley, California back in 1966. Mostly a west coast coffee house chain, they do now offer their brand of ground coffee for purchase in their shops, grocery stores and from their website. So if you're looking for something different, perhaps this might be something you would be interested in checking out if you haven't already.