Armin TAubner lives with his family in the Swabian Alps in Germany and has contributed to craft books for more than 25 years. He is primarily a teacher of English, biology, and visual arts. Almost every medium sparks Armin TAubnera (TM)s imagination; however, his favorite material will always be paper.
July 2015 Fröbel star rating: *** I zoomed in
on this title because it celebrates the work of Friedrich Fröbel.
Fröbel 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 Täubner 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 Fröbel 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 Fröbel 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 Fröbel. It is suitable for
entry level to intermediate papercrafters.
*The Papercraft Post Blog*
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