humanoid

341: Jolly Roger

| wonko

Now I do not know much about pirates, nor why a skeletal chap called Roger should be jolly, but there you go:

When I first saw Hojyo Takashi’s 3d looking skull I knew I had to try it. A torturous box pleat in 12ths, the collapse to get the face right was nearly as complicated as the pre-creasing.

Saying that, the resultant model was screaming out for a set of cross-bones, so I sort of improvised them from a second sheet of A3 split lengthwise.

I think this turned out splendidly – amazing given the copy paper was disintegrating in my hands due to the high humidity (it is miserable, cold and grey outside – odd for summer, but there you go) as the paper is hygroscopic and kept going limp. I was sure it was going to split at the bottom of the eye sockets where the most difficult pleating takes place, but no.

The beautifully proportioned skull is 3d up to a point – it is backless, but none the less lovely – I love the eye sockets and nose hole, the teeth are also nice (but if I had folded it bigger scale I reckon I could have crimped some gums and gaps between them also.

Why a “Jolly Roger” I hear you ask – WHY NOT says I.

340: Thorin Oakenstaff

| wonko

May I most humbly introduce to you, Thorin Oakenstaff Esq, Dwarf, gentleman, most of the time:

I am so pleased this worked, even better than I had imagined. I found a hand-drawn crease pattern by the late, great Eric Joisel – I had been hankering after his dwarves you see and wondered how the heck you could fold something like that.

Well, the crease pattern sort of made sense, and I did a rough test fold on an A4 square only to realise it was waaaay too small to model and copy paper was way too brittle, so thought I would upscale it on brown paper. I cut a 56cm square from plain brown paper and began.

After an hour of pre-creasing, and a collapse from hell, you get a base that has enough bits to model into a human like critter with a tall hat – gnome, dwarf, call him what you like there is no escaping the fact that this is bloody amazing.

I started shaking with excitement about an hour before finishing, realising it was in fact going to work after all (after walking away from the collapse twice) and must say he is lovely – there is character in his face, poise in his posture and a spring in his step.

I feel honoured to have folded something inspired by a drawing done by Joisel – I would argue the worlds greatest character folder – I can see me trying this one again, now I know what goes where – each time you fold it there would be sufficient variables to ensure you never duplicate the little guy – so neat.

As an after thought I decided he needed a walking stick, and then decided he also needed a name – “Thorin” from a LOTR dwarf and “Oakenstaff” because that is what I tried to make him as a walking stick. I hope you like him (anyone actually reading that is) – I think he is amazing.

334: The DEVIL is in the DETAIL

| wonko

I have grown to respect a number of designers of all nationalities and Fernando Gilgado from Spain is one who is guaranteed to produce a challenging model:

This is the Demon, and the devil in the details, trust me – his head alone is frightening – 2 sets of horns, beard, snarly mouth, eyes etc. His body is very dense, arms and legs 20+ layers of paper but that bunching results in the most splendid wings and a pointy demonic tail.

This instruction set was a real challenge – apart from folding it during school time (in between end of year report checking and tidying up), the instructions were in Spanish, and some aspects of it were very fiddly indeed. Even at 54cm x 54 cm, the head and facial features were too small to fold tidily, still, as a first fold I am very pleased with this. It is a monster, wing span of nearly 30cm and he looks very menacing – in a cutey sort of way.

I thought the “angels” of yesterday needed some “demons” today to bring some sort of balance to the paper cosmos. A suitable end of my second last month of this challenge.

333: Nativity

| wonko

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed …

This is Ligia Montoya’s set of models collectively known as “The Creche”. Folded today for possible inclusion in the end of year massy thing for staff this Friday.

This amazing collection of models, all designed around the same figurative human base is to scale, uncluttered and has a lovely feel to it. Continue reading →

328: Superdude

| wonko

Now I tried something, for the first time ever. I planned a NEW model, then folded it in prototype, then adjusted the proportions and now there is a NEW ORIGAMI FIGURE in the world – cool hey:

I must admit to giggling when it just sort of … worked. I then got the class (who had finished and had their papers collected) involved – “look up there in the sky, is it a bird, a plane? No, it’s Superdude“.

I had a clear idea in my mind, rare that it coalesces so perfectly.

This is “Superdude” – like Superman but not yet franchised. He is inspired by “Girl in a dress” by Stephen Weiss and the box pleating work of Neal Elias, but I can find nothing quite like him anywhere but at my place, right here, right now so I will claim copyright.

I was messing around with proportions of an A4 sheet – not having any scissors (I was in an exam supervision and someone carelessly left an un-written on sheet lying around) with out cutting. The basic “S” bend, when combined with a 1/16th pleat provides the frame for this model.

You then tease out the “cape”, splay each ripple a little, box pleat some arms and a head one end, legs the other and you have the base.

Shaping the arms, neck, head and legs gives you a nicely proportioned super being in mid-flight (although someone should tell him that capes are so 90’s – no one wears capes these days)

324: Gandalf theWhite

| wonko

“You Shall NOT Pass!!!!” Now if you are a Lord of the Rings fan, you will recognise the significance of that, if not you will cynically decide that is my comment on the coming exam season (no, students, I do not mean it that way – relax):

This lovely White Wizard is designed by Victoria and Vladimir Serov, and was first made by me MONTHS ago and packaged up and sent to York in the UK to a friend as part of a Christmas hamper.

He has been travelling for months and arrived yesterday (our time), Today (their time) so I can finally post it as part of this blog.

I have actually folded this 3 times – let me explain: the instructions are in Russian (no, I do not speak Russian either) and even with the best translation engines available I could not for the life of me work out which way was up. With my tissue foil there is a good side and a back side and first time I folded it I realised near the end that the paper was the wrong way round. So I folded a second one (knowing I wanted to keep one and send the other) and ended up making exactly the same mistake again (stupid me), so UNFOLDED IT, reversed all the creases and re-folded it the right way around. thank goodness for good paper.

The resultant lovely grasps (with fantastic little hands) a gnarled wooden staff, has a fantastically detailed face – frown, curled moustache, beard, and a lovely robe, topped off with a pointy wizard hat.

Extraordinarily fiddly, at times I had to walk away, calm down before returning to it – 2mm pleats are not fun with fat, clumsy fingers.

After months in a box, travelling via seamail, the White Wizard arrives safely in York and now takes pride of place. Very happy with this model, so much character and a suitable “Happy Christmas” inclusion for Mike and Colette.

321: Zombeh!!!

| wonko

I love it how you can have a serious and in-depth discussion with students about Zombies:

They are experts – both the “undead” and “infection” zombies could, like, totally happen – yeah, and it is well understood how to dispatch them.

Having not long finished an adaptation of Jane Austin’s classic tale “Pride and Prejudice (and Zombies)” I am in touch with my undead self.

Well, in truth, I am a little undead zombie myself – marking does that to my brain, with perilously close deadlines and waaaaay too much to actually do before it, I neeeeeed braaaaaaiiinnnsss!!!

This is Jun Maekawa’s Zombie – well, I assume that is what it is as the book I got it out of is entirely in Japanese and I cannot read it, so, yeah. I love this posture of this model, the hands reach out sinisterly and there is just enough of a facial expression to know he is gunning for your fresh brain.

Glad I used a scrap of lithography paper for this model – copy paper would not have let me puff out and flatten the face before disintegrating.

310: Tutankhamum

| wonko

On the 4th of November 1922, almost by accident, a water carrier for Howard Carter stumbled across what looked like a step. They had all but given up hope of finding the legendary tomb of Tutankhamun but, on digging they discovered another, and another. By the 6th of November they had uncovered a sealed entrance to a tomb that bore the elusive cartouche of the boy king and so began one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of our time.

I admire an explorer that showed such great restraint – rather than rush is, as he was being urged to do, he covered up the entrance and went away, re-mounted an exploration mission 26 days later to actually open the tomb and painstakingly uncover and catalogue in-situ such wonderful things that belie imagination.

Having made a mask yesterday, I thought I would try another, and what better than a figurative representation of that famed gold and precious stone-inlayed death mask for the boy-king. I have seen this mask when it toured our city museum – it is breathtaking.

Scale was an issue here – it could have been made from an A4-cut square, but I could not tell how much was tucked away so made it from A3. I like that it hints at a snake in the headdress, the beard and overall proportions are nice. With time and a little patience I dare say you could fashion facial features – there is certainly enough paper there to do so.

Happy with this as a first fold – I could do a month of masks, there are lots of designs and a plethora of approaches to origami mask making – maybe that is for another day.

304: Wicked Witch of the West

| wonko

Apparently some cultures celebrate halloween, although it is not really an Australian tradition (despite the efforts of the shops) I thought I would get in on the act myself:

This has taken an age – I want to pretend that this is my first fold but in truth this if my 5th, the FIRST to be successful however. Three times I got to step 85 and could not work out what to do before the paper disintegrated – grrrr.

This is, as you can see, quite a detailed model – crooked nose, crooked hat, plaits flying in the breeze, one hand gripping the broom another waving it’s fingers, lovely flowing robes, knobbly knees, shoes, the works.

A very dense model, the body has nearly 30 layers. This was the one I had planned before the radio station asked me to fold something on air – lol – not quite sure what I could have achieved in the 10 minutes elapsed in the interview but you get that.

303: Llopio’s Moment of Truth

| wonko

The croud erupts spontaneously with “Olé!” as Llopio narrowly dodges the bull calf’s first charge. His grandfather’s matador cap, too loose for him, slips and obscures his vision, there is an amateur swish of a cape as the bull’s developing horns pass too close for comfort, quick step out of the way and Llopio is finally a bullfighter.

This is “Llopio’s Moment of truth” – the reason I bought the British Origami Society’s compendium of Neal Elias figures. There is much to like in this complex box pleat. from one piece of paper emerges a Matador, Bull and the Cape that separates them.

I like how there is movement, you can sense the drama, a fitting end to my exploration of Neal Elias’ work. This fold is challenging, so much of the design is “mystery meat” where you just have to sort of “improvise” – you would not want to fold it much smaller, the manipulation of layers in the bodies is intense and fiddly and it is not immediately obvious what is going to be what until near the end.

Interestingly, only the matador is box pleated – unusually you torture 2 water bomb bases to get the bull and cape so this is a nice fusion between pure box pleating and free-form sculpture. Happy I have folded this, apparently if you fold it with duo paper the cape ends up being the alternate colour – wow.

302: Pereira’s Jack In The Box

| wonko

If you were ever after proof that “magic happens”, here’s your proof:

This masterpiece of design by Hugo Pereira is a Jack-in-a-box, complete. those who have been keeping up with this blog will remember a previous Jack in the Box by Max Hulme and I must admit I like this one better.

The design engineering alone in this model is breathtaking, from the box to the spring and then to the jack, the details here are lovely and structurally amazing.

So many technical elements here, from intense closed-sinks, folds that cause automatic puckers in the spring and just when you think you are near the end a tight pair of accordion folds to make the arms in almost Elias style.

I am so stoked with this, as a first fold. After an hour of pre-folding, the actual collapse took relatively little time considering the complexity of the model. I had relegated this model the “yeah, prolly not” pile because it just looked too hard – indeed, some of the manoeuvres only make sense if you look before, after and what that part will eventually be used for.

Sense of achievement – tick 🙂

298: Violinist

| wonko

When I saw this design I knew I had to try it:

Made, oddly, from a “T”-shaped box pleat, designed by Neal Elias in 1971 to celebrate the then popular violinist Yehudi Menuhin, this is a masterpiece of miniature modelling.

We have a violin perched on a shoulder, being held by that hand, a bow hand complete with bow, a serious head tilt, trousers, coat and even shoes! He also free-stands, which is all the more remarkable.

Seriously happy with this fold, I was convinced it was going to hell in a hand basket at 3 junctures when the instructions did not patch what the model had (flaps and creases in different orientations), but in the end it just sort of worked.

Interestingly, it was not all that hard, well, it seemed that way to me – given I had never attempted box pleating before the 365 challenge, I guess my skills have improved, which is a good thing.

297: Taxi!

| wonko

In old Chinatown, when someone wanted to travel in style, they hailed a “coolie” pulling a rickshaw:

This picture was common in days gone by, these days the hustle and bustle of bicycles, motorbikes and tuk-tuks has replaced the hard work.

This is Neal Elias’ “Coolie and Rickshaw”, designed in1967. An ingenious box pleat using a square and tidily fashioning a running man and a 2 wheeled buggy behind, replete with lovely conical hat, wheels and canopy.

I have been wanting to try this for a while, just because really. Taken from “Selected works 1964-1973” by British Origami Society. I am happy with this as a first fold. I modified the body and legs a little to add a sense of movement, and re-worked the wheels so they were round (the original design had them nearly square).

296: Pas de Deux

| wonko

In ballet, a pas de deux (French, steps of two) is a duet in which ballet dancers perform the dance together. It usually consists of an entrée, adagio, two variations (one for each dancer), and a coda:

In origami, few designers have mastered multiple figure folding like Neal Elias – this is his “Nureyev and Fonteyn” model designed in 1973 as a tribute to the then “toast of the town” couple as they became an on-stage sensation.

This is a relatively simple box-pleat with some elias stretches to form arms. I found the flrming of her legs the most challenging, tucking it tidily into his trousers so the join between them is less obvious. At this scale, shaping is a challenge, hence her “thunder thighs” and their angular faces. I am happy however with this figurative fold, taken from my copy of the British Origami Society’s publication of Elias’ selected works.

Folded from a 3×1 rectangle (scrap litho paper from yesterday’s squaring), the only pity is that it is not free-standing (but boy would lit look pretty on a card) so I cheated and blu-tacked a paper clip on the back for display purposes.

I was looking for an easier model (because yesterday took so long) -this one fitted the bill admirably.

294: Montroll’s Centaur

| wonko

Ever since my first disastrous encounter with a centaur, I have been looking for a worthy replacement:

This model comes close, the proportions work a little better (although, truth be told it looks more like a man standing with a donkey wedged up his bottom, but you get that).

A mch easier fold with plenty of modelling potential, I think the quadrupedal hindquarters are a little out of scale. I did fold it to the directions, but might, next time I fold this re-position some of the features a little. I like the arms and the upper body, although figurative, are well proportioned.

Happy with this as a first fold. taken from “Mythological Creatures and Chinese Zodiac”, worth exploring further.