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For my 11th birthday, my
parents gave me a copy of Robert Harbin's
seminal 'Secrets of Origami'. I quickly
became enchanted. Along with reading, origami
became my fallback activity whenever I
was unwell, which was frequently during
my teenage years, but, fortunately, much
less often after that.
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| In 1986, during another long
period of illness, I discovered that I
had the ability to create my own original
designs, particularly using the modular
technique. In 1987, at long last, I
joined the British Origami Society, and,
over the next few years, Wayne Brown,
Paul Jackson, David Brill, Nick Robinson,
David Petty and Joan Homewood, in
particular, encouraged me with advice,
information and appreciation. During this period
I was also introduced to the work of the
American magician and paperfolder Robert
E Neale, who I regard as my origami
Sensei, but am also delighted to have as
a friend. He has been kind enough to say
that we 'share a mind'. We certainly
share a love of simplicity, elegance,
innovation and thinking outside the box.
In 1997 I
approached Gerald Jenkins of Tarquin
about publishing a book of designs for
modular polyhedra. The result was
'Mathematical Origami' which is still in
print and still selling well. Since then
I have spent 10 years working as a
professional origami author, illustrator,
designer and presenter and have been
privileged to have been invited as a
guest teacher to the conventions of the
Centro Diffusione Origami in Florence,
OrigamiUSA in New York, Origami
Deutschland in Dresden and most recently
of the Asociacion Espanola de
Papiroflexia in Valencia.
At present, in 2008, origami
is on the back burner as I pursue yet
another change of career. But I still
fold, and design, whenever I can.
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