With his ambitious nature, our colleague Andrei, developed a unique passion: origami art. Origami was created in Japan and it comprises of the art of folding colored paper shaped as living creatures, lifeless objects or abstract decorative shapes. It all started with a challenge, which he accepted together with a colleague from the University. He wanted to show that patience is his strength and that you can achieve wonderful things if you are persistent.
The first object created by Andrei was a modular star of six parts, which his colleague taught him how to make. ‘I was finally able to grow and I learned to make more and more complicated things, from specialty books and Internet tutorials’, says Andrei. Now, Andrei can be proud of overcoming his mentor, since beautiful designs are made by his hands.
When we asked how this hobby combines with his job at CGS, Andrei told us: ‘It would be nice to combine work with passion, but this would mean that I wouldn’t have time to work. I usually work on designs in my free time, but it seems that this has also become shorter and shorter.’
You are probably curious to find out and see the most original object that Andrei created. He proudly confesses that his designs are special, but also time-consuming. However, only one of them has a significant story: ‘I was extremely proud and satisfied when I managed to finish a dragon made of 1,136 modular pieces. And I say this because it took about two weeks to finish all the pieces, but after a first assembly of almost all the pieces, they were destroyed by my cat, while I was away, in my vacation. Later, I forgave the cat and built the dragon using some glue, as well, to avoid any potential unfortunate situations. The work is currently sitting on my desk, at home, and I don’t think it will ever leave that place, given how much effort it took to finish it.’
Andrei’s collection of works is very diverse and contains different complex models of flowers and animals. These are made of a single sheet of paper and they are very similar to real objects, for instance, a fish with scales. Moreover, many of Andrei’s works are made of modular pieces: ‘some of them can alter their shape, for instance, a cube which can become a rose and, afterward, it can resume its initial cubic shape or maybe even a ‘Slinky’ (toy shaped as a spring) of paper, maybe working even better than the real one.’ Fascinating, isn’t it?
Andrei recommends this form for art to all of us, as long as we are armed with patience and persistence. We wish you good luck in the future and may you be as inspired and patient for the following projects!
