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623: (73/365) Burro con Carro

| wonko

Yoshizawa Sensei once said “The Horse and the rider are not one, nor should a model of them be”, or words to that effect and I think this model is an interesting reflection of that sentiment:

This is Eduardo Clemente’s “Burro con Carro” which I think means “Donkey and Cart”. Fashioned from a 3×1 rectangle, the technique involves completely wasting the middle square to provide a join that more or less makes sense between the cart and the tail of the donkey.

The trouble is, the join is so thick that modelling the hindquarters of the donkey is compromised, the cart does not sit quite right and the front of the model is so light that modelling front legs and head/ears is flimsy and a bit of a fail. Continue reading →

610 (60/365) Formula 1 Racer

| wonko

I like a challenge, so started with a huge (60cm) square of spotty bi-colour kraft paper and began the process of folding this model:

Formed, initially from a base that is 4 adjacent bird bases that are then sunk to make 8 long flaps, 4 short ones and a shedload of hidden paper, you then tease the long flaps into position for axles, spoilers, tyres and more. Continue reading →

605: (55/365) Starship

| wonko

Origami, the final frontier. These are the journeys of the paper folder “Wonko”, his ONE YEAR MISSION, to seek out new models and folding techniques, to boldly fold where he has not folded before:

This cutie little Trek-inspired ship was hidden away in a Tanteidan convention book I have and all the annotations are in Japanese so I have no idea who the designer is, sorry. Continue reading →

592: (42/360) Sooo…Mr Whitehouse, Can you Fold a Paper Plane?

| wonko

I have lost count of the times I have been asked this by students, presumably based on the assumption that because I fold paper I must make a mean paper plane:

Truth be told when I make simple paper darts they fly terribly, not sure why. Many of the worlds great origamists started with paper planes – I did not. Continue reading →

571: (21/365) OMG!!!!

| wonko

Needless to say the media is abuzz with reactions to Trump’s inauguration. Let us hope that the he does not become the “Bane” of their existence (even though part of his speech was plagiarised from the Marvel Universes’ fictitious tyrant presidential coup, I am sure this is merely coincidence):

One has to have hope in the power of intellect, value of human dignity, common sense and sane application of spray tanning solutions. Continue reading →

532: A Krafty Little Fokker

| wonko

Manfred von Richthofen, AKA “The Red Baron” flew a TRIPLANE – I know, right! Now a Triplane makes no sense to me, but using it, von Richthofen shot down his last 19 enemy planes, and subsequently crashed himself (you win some, you lose some):532KraftyFokker

I have lost count of the times students have asked if I can fold a paper plane. It turns out I can fold one with quite a level of detail, but not one that flies. Continue reading →

Segway V2

| wonko

I was recently asked how I folded my Segway model because someone wanted one. I was loathed to part with my original and to be honest I had no idea, I just folded it, so decided to revisit the model (which seems unique in the origami community) and see if it can be methodologised:SegwayV2

Originally I folded in 32nds, but decided in re-working the model 24ths work better, and are easy folding once you have thirds. The balance was always consuming enough paper for the body to leave enough for the control stalk which splits at the top. My original cheated because the proportions were off ( so I sneakily cut a strip off to shorten it) but on 24ths, it just works. Continue reading →

515: Viking Longship

| wonko

Ever since first watching the telly series “Vikings” (currently 3 seasons, worth looking for) I was a fan of the gritty realism and glimpse into the lifestyle (albeit cinematicised) of what I imagine was a hard working and noble race:515LongShipViews2

The character “Floki” was an odd inventor genius and ship builder, I think he would have approved of this design – a teensy weensy longboat complete with oars, sail and dragon bow sprit.515LongShip

The design is challenging, for as much as it requires a really odd 10×1 sheet of paper as for the instructions in cryptic Spanish – quite a challenge in themselves as the diagrams were heavily stylised and gave hints as to where to fold rather than solid landmarks. Continue reading →

514: Convertible

| wonko

As a member of Origami USA (OUSA), we get access to some member designs and this one stuck out as something fun to try:514Convertible

Jason Ku’s Convertible uses some standard (and not so standard) box pleating tricks to sculpt a fully formed car from a flat sheet. Continue reading →

504: Coxless Four

| wonko

Rowing is huge at my school – a veritable machine that hundreds of kids get very passionate about, a gear-fest like few others:504CoxlessFour

Seems the purpose of the sport is to put boys in lycra, sitting atop tiny fiberglass shells, armed with a paddle rowing furiously backwards across vast distances of water. The competitive nature sees rowers exerting huge amounts of energy, enthusiasm and biomass in singles, teams of 2,4,and 8 with or without cox against other equally keyed-up teams. Quite a spectacle.504CoxlessFourView

Continue reading →

490: Shake, Rover, Shake

| wonko

I have been a fan of Star Trek since it was possible to be so, love the franchise, movies, series, the lot. I saw a diagram that resulted in an ATAT (All-Terrain Armoured Transport) – one of many fairly silly designs from The Babylon 5 universe, and with some shaming from a friend (thanks Dodes) I decided to give it a whirl.490ATAT

If you were making a vehicle for battle, the last thing on the design bench (apart from a 2 legged chicken-like bipedal mobile gun turret) would be a quadruped.

Any Browncoat worth his part of the ‘verse would be able to ride their Viper Mark II with cables attached, tangle the legs and bring the thing down, like a heavy, falley-downey thing.490ATATScale

Continue reading →

485: Segway

| wonko

…so I am a teacher, and I teach senior students:485SegwayTheChaps

I have, on occasions, joked about how cool it would be to own a Segway – my classes are physically far apart and getting between campuses takes time, hence the idea that a PTD (personal transport device) would be cool. I _never_ in my wildest dreams imagined my students would do anything about this pipe dream – let’s face it, we all say things in jest.485SegwayAmbush

It was an ambush, total surprise – I think I was the only one who knew nothing. It still gives me goosebumps thinking about it. I was teaching my year 11 class when the whole year 12 class arrived headed by Tom on a Segway. They had crowd-funded a second hand one as a end of year gift – wow, just wow!.485Segway

Continue reading →

483: Dollar SLR Camera

| wonko

A work colleague is going on Long Service Leave – lucky bastard!  It appears he had no end of trouble buying a camera for travelling, so I thought I would make him one as an hooroo gift:483DollarCamera

Designed by Won Park, this little SLR Camera is tiny, but has a viewfinder, winder lever, shutter button, pop-up flash and lovely lens all sticking out of a lovely boxy body.483DollarCameraScale

Genius design, if tiny and torturous, I hope he likes it. Continue reading →

480: Dollar Formula 1 Racer

| wonko

On receiving a lovely hard cover copy of “Extreme Origami” by Won Park from Book Depository (wow, how do they offer those prices, delivery times and no postage???) I naturally skipped to the back and looked for the nastiest fold to try:
480DollarFormula1

This model is insane – I chickened out folding it on notes because the pre-creasing into 32nds with my fat clumsy fingers was not possible I thought so I scaled up and used plain paper for my first fold. Continue reading →

452: Smile!

| wonko

In the olden days children, photographs were taken with a specialised piece of equipment, usually by a professional, using FILM:

In those days, you posed the shot, measured light levels, pulled focus and ensured the picture was worth taking before you wasted the plate – photography was expensive and much more of a science (some would also argue much moe of an art).

In the modern idiom, nearly every thing has a squillion megapixel camera, you point, shoot 60 frames, pick the least worst, apply a filter and upload it on Instagram and have your “friends” praise your artistry. Continue reading →