The Conundrum Completed

This past week I finished the layout of The Conundrum of the Workshops, and then strung it all together. Here’s a slightly distorted aerial view of it on my worktable.

David helped me proofread the code and I made three corrections. Fingers crossed that it is, in fact, readable when one cracks the code!

After receiving advice from the Book_Arts-L Listserve, I titled, initialed, and dated it on the back of the bottom left menko with a Pigma Micron permanent marker.

The piece is now folded and stored in my map case. (It will take some fiddling before being hung, as the menko slid a bit during the folding process, but it is worth the bother later for the convenience of storage now.)

I began work on a second menko wall piece. This one is titled The Girl in the Golden Atom.

I have finished the rough layout and still need to insert the ‘code’. The method of encryption will be the same as in The Conundrum of the Workshops.

The code will require 62 identical menko, and I don’t have enough of any single colour combination, so I will be cutting paper this afternoon and folding menko for a couple of evenings before I can finish the layout.

There are still quite a few menko left, so I may be able to make a third wall piece.

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When I was writing about the Zhen Xian Bao/Chinese Thread Book, I posted a link to a downloadable copy of Maying Soong’s book —The Art of CHINESE PAPER FOLDING. Two days ago I received a plaintive request for help from a reader who has been trying to work her way through the book.

She became stuck on Bird Flies Off Your Hand, which is not really surprising since Figure 26 and its accompanying instructions are missing. If you are having the same problem, I think I have worked out what you need to do for that step.

Fold along the dashed lines, bringing the bottom corners up to the middle.

If you are having a similar problem with one of the folds from the book, I would like to know. (I feel a sense of obligation, since I did include it in a post.)

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In other book arts news:

If you are interested in calligraphy, you might want to check out the work of Susan Gaylord. She posts lovely seasonally-appropriate calligraphy works like the one below, as well as longer philosophical writings about the creative life.

You might also be interested in purchasing a copy of her recently-released book.

You can find it on Amazon here along with some of her previous publications.