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SevOrigami: Necktie Bookmark

I’m often practicing origami. I really enjoy it, it’s great. It’s been a while that I’m constantly making the wallets, thus, I have loads of scraps of paper. Different sizes and textures in various colors. Sometimes I manage to put together the leftover papers and improvise a notebook or a pad. For a short while, I was curious if I could make rings out of them, which I tested a few examples. Then I remembered that bookmarks could also be a good use for the papers that I was resenting to throw away.

After doing a brief research, I came across a design of a necktie with a pocket on the back top part to ‘mark’ the paper; perfect to sit in the middle of your book.

On SevOrigami, you can have a closer look at different examples, and pick one for yourself if you wish.

SevOrigami: Project Wallet

Origami is such a fascinating form of art; I’ve always been amazed by how you fold the papers, fold and fold, an d then, you make a twist, or something unexpected by opening and refolding the creases, and there you have it: an object! It is either a decorative item such as a figure of an animal, a flower, or even a portrait. Or, the paper becomes a functional item that could be used in everyday life. An envelope, or a box, a hat. Or in my case, a row boat that could be used as an ashtray.

For this reason in particular, the transformed boat, I tired using aluminum foil instead of paper so that the base of the boat would tolerate the the fire of the cigarette when you need to kill it. But, I believe the aluminum lacks some element of elasticity in comparison to paper; the corners broke as I was performing the final and the trickiest fold. Which was fine, only that I had to tape them so the boat wouldn’t lose its structural integrity.

Generally speaking, I am a big fan of functional objects. I stumbled upon paper shopping bags, which provide a large nice piece of paper. This could’ve been taken advantage of by simply making a drawing. Or to play around and practice better origami.

I came up with a couple of ideas. One of the most genius origamis I learned was to make a wallet. And the final product looks even more charming after all the abstract folds, to end up with a completely different design which as well concludes the prints and marks already on the shopping bags. These shopping bags are themselves made of recycled papers, for most of the bags. This makes the origami a repurposed item made out of recycled materials.

At any rate, I look forward to finding the shopping bags in random places. For most of the time, people use them once, and they have to leave them outside because either they already have too many, or they’ve been damaged slightly.

The only thing that I do here is that I collect the clean nice bags, usually with a curious image on top, measure and cut, and fold into neat wallets. I actually quite enjoy it, which makes me curious about origami even more.

On SevOrigami, you can have a look a closer look at the wallets, see more examples, and order one for yourself.

SevOrigami: Jotter

I respect wood. And I highly value paper. It makes me feel uncomfortable when I see a blank piece of paper would go to waste; the object never served its purpose. It’s rather a sensitive topic, the case of paper, I would not like to see it go into the bin in a blank state.

As you might’ve noticed, I am very much drawn to trash. I take advantage of the discarded material, something that doesn’t serve the owner anymore. I look for curious items people leave outside, and I often find materials to play about with. I’ve found inks, different pens, fabric, and lots of paper. Some of these papers are great for making a painting, so I personally make use of them. But sometimes I find large blank spots within a printed paper. All left to do is to cut the usable area, and turn it into a notepad.

Some kind of notebook you could quickly note down an idea, or something that should not be forgotten.

It’s become evident among friends that I support paper all the way, so my friends are kind enough to share their discarded paper with me. The most popular donated paper comes from the packaging of shipped goods ordered online.What I do is that I cut the blank areas on the papers, sew them together in order to achieve a notebook. I often have curious materials to make up some kind of cover or padding, which would make these jotters both functional and good-looking.

More examples can be found on SevOrigami, if you’re interested to have a look.

 

The Very First Draft (Put Me in the River)

Dear friends,

I might’ve mentioned before that I’m currently working on a memoir project: Put Me in the River.

I’m typing up my hand-written draft. It’s a bit of a slow process, but fairly satisfying once I’m done with a chapter. Chapter four is done so far, Platform Number Four. Please feel free to read my very drafty and sketchy notes on it. (My apologies in advance for the typos and many grammar mistakes)

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Crown of the Tree

Organizing workshops is one of my art practices. I set different workshops for different age groups. If they’re older than sixteen, I encourage them to write. I talk about storytelling, creating characters, and I tell them all the benefits of writing letters to friends and family in hopes that they too send away letters. For younger kids, I prefer crafting, mainly for the language barrier. I visit small towns and villages, where finding a common language might be a bit challenging; you don’t really need to speak in any certain language when you work with scissors and glue and paper.

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WiFi is out

It was the second month of winter. Cold, very snowy, rather dark, and pretty much blue. I’d been living in my art-residency for over a month by that point, and I was already used to my new surroundings, new home, and new routines. Every thing was new, every idea or experience was happening for the first time. Unlike my other experiences, I was absolutely clueless about where I was going, or what this trip was going to be like, which I believe only added up to the excitement of the journey. The first few days were taken up by my investigation, discovering my new location, the house, and the town, or I’d better say the village. Not much was going on. There was a captivating Gothic church in the center of the town, and a supermarket next to it. I found a cafe in front of the post office, but realized that the cafe was open only during the lunch hours, which was a bit disappointing. No bars, or someplace where I could go, take a break, or meet new people. I accepted the fact, and went home.

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One More Glass of Water

It was a year ago that I finally decided to try a water-fast for myself, and experiment the practice of not eating anything for a few days. I was curious to see how it was to be empty on the inside. The plan was to keep my fast for three days, and if I felt good about myself, I’d go for as long as I could. At that point, I’d already been familiar with the concept of fasting. I’m from a Muslim country, so dry-fasting happens once every year throughout the month of Ramadan. I’d even fasted for a couple times when I was very young, eight or nine years old. My dry-fast, back then, was not motivated by any religious causes, none at all. I was only eight years old, what could I possibly know about religion anyhow?! I fasted because our school would organize an Iftar ceremony every year, which is the evening meal to end the fast at sunset, and all the students would be invited. Most of my other classmates were fasting, and I felt I needed to fast as well in order to earn the pleasure of that meal. From what I remember, it was hard not to eat, especially in the afternoon once I was back home from school. I was hungry, but mostly thirsty. The severe thirst wouldn’t allow me to concentrate on my homework; I believe I napped until the sunset. I only fasted like that for a couple years, though. I guess I grew up, and found those traditions to be irrelevant to my personal culture.

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Lazy Letter: Sunset from the Terrace

I saw you in my dream last night. You were standing far away from me in the middle of a blizzard. You were surrounded by other people that I knew in the dream, but in reality, those people don’t even exist; they were supposedly our friends. You were wearing your everyday clothes. Were you not cold?! You must’ve been. But, it was only a dream. I’ve probably missed you a lot, really wanted to see you even if it was from a great distance, so that’s how you showed up in my dream. You started to turn into someone else as I walked closer to you. In the end, you were completely transformed into another person, somebody I knew in the dream, but nonexistent in any realit. However, something got me quite confused. At some point, I was speaking to someone about twins and triplets, small children, about young grownups taking care of new babies. I just don’t know if I had this conversation in reality, or was I repeating myself in my dream.

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Lazy Letter: Church Bells

We entered the church before midnight. The ceremony had already started when we got there, and we were the last ones. We certainly were an odd combination, and most definitely not fitting in: two non-believers, and a half-believer. The priest was giving his speech, of course, in a language that none of us could understood. I looked around the room curiously. I had always passed by the church, and wondered what it looked like on the inside. So there I was, sitting inside the church with other residents of the town.

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Lazy Letter: Laughter and Joy

The mission was to explore downtown in only a few hours, it was a day trip after all. Hiten and I walked along the alleys, saw something in a corner or by the end of the path, so we’d switch directions. A satisfying lunch was on the list too, a trip would be incomplete without a good lunch. We visited churches, passed by ancient walls, visited more churches; these towns are all about churches. One thing that I hadn’t estimated about this short trip was how much I was going to laugh and enjoy myself. I’ve probably told you about it already that Hiten is one of the most humorous people I’ve ever met. She’s so hilarious that she almost makes me pee my pants, almost! We walked around, and laughed out loud at her comments, and things she talked about. My voice echoed all over the place. After a certain point, whatever she said sounded funny to me, I couldn’t stop laughing. How lucky of me to have a wonderful friend like her!

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