Bringing Origami to IIMA

Classrooms of IIMA saw an unusual amount of buzzing and hullaballoo on 19th of September – with coloured paper strewn all around while a group of students, professors and other members of the IIMA community sat silent, concentrating on delicate folds that lay before them. This was the Origami workshop organised by Finesse, the Fine Arts Club of IIMA. It was a hands-on workshop where participants themselves practiced Origami with the Finesse team led by Aravind Maddireddy.

Origami (derived from the Japanese words ‘ori’ meaning folding, and ‘kami’ meaning paper) is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, which was started in Japan in the 17th century. Since then, it has rapidly evolved into a very popular and dynamic modern art form. Broadly, Origami is the art of transforming a flat sheet of paper into a finished 3 dimensional sculpture by employing only folding techniques. Paper cutting and gluing techniques are typically considered to be outside the domain of Origami – they constitute what is called ‘Kirigami’, another Japanese paper-art form.

The objective of the event was to not only introduce the participants on how to make beautiful Origami designs but even answer the Why. The event began with Robert Lang’s Ted video of ‘The Math and Magic of Origami’ where he explains the progress made by Origami over the years and its folding concepts now being successfully applied even in satellite design. Aravind then explained the geometrical basis of the Origami design he was teaching the participants. The design chosen was a heart shaped jewel box and involved some intricate geometry and quite a few difficult folds. In the beginning, everyone present found it to be rather difficult; but as the Finesse team guided them through the process, they began to pick it up and even started enjoying themselves. One could visibly see the initial frowns on people’s faces slowly turn into excited smiles during the course of the workshop.

For the kids visiting the workshop a separate section was setup to teach them a few simpler designs that they could easily follow. The kids were taught a number of intermediate level Origami designs such as a box, a crane and a dinosaur. It was a fun day for them as they sat through the full two hours of the workshop folding paper and even demanding that they be taught something more challenging!
For the two hours nearly all participants were lost in the magic of Origami. Needless to say, the event was a huge success, and even elicited very appreciative feedback by the participants, after the session.

Aravind is currently writing a series of tutorials on Origami on the Finesse website. Please visit the Finesse events page for more photos of the event and details of upcoming events by Finesse.

Finesse quills away to glory!

Finesse, the Fine Arts Club of IIMA conducted a Quilling Workshop on 21^st July – its first workshop for the current academic session. The event witnessed an enthusiastic participation from the IIMA community including participation from PGP, FPM, PGPX students, professors and their family members as well. It was a hands-on workshop with participants working on their own to “quill” their own creations.

Quilling is the art of using delicate paper strips to create intricate designs. The paper strips are rolled in various shapes with the help of a quilling needle which are then glued together to make decorative designs like flowers, greeting cards, animals and other shapes. The beauty of quilling is in its simplicity. There are an almost infinite number of shapes that you can roll the paper into to create some of the intricate designs. The quilling process begins with planning your design and then deciding on the shapes. With the help of the quilling needle you can then roll the paper strips and then shape them with your fingers, a quilling board or even a comb! Finally, the shapes are arranged and glued to form the design.

Finesse team members Atul, Kanika and Divya introduced the participants to the basics of quilling. The instructions were hardly over, before all the participants got fully immersed in creating their own art works. The emphasis in these art sessions is not so much on creating exquisite works of art but on the expression of one’s inner self – the world of ideas, feelings and thoughts. The bonus is the art work, which one gets to finally hang on one’s wall.

For more details about Finesse and the work they do, you can visit their Facebook page here.