773: (223/365) Boney McBoneface – Ticker

Every body needs a good engine house, a solid “ticker” and this rib cage assembly is a masterpiece in modular origami:

Vertebrae lock with rib bones, these link into a sternum (breast bone) and provides linkages to neck, shoulders and lower back – genius.

Made from 13 squares, 4 bird-base inspired vertebrae, tubular ribs and lovely pleated breastbone, this is my favourite part of BoneyM so far. Continue reading

772: (222/365) Boney McBoneface – Mostly Armless

It is wonderful when your hobby cheers you up, but there was an unexpected giggle when the first of these lovely arms came together:

For the anatomists amongst us, you will notice a full set of phalanges, a nice wrist assembly, radius AND ulna, lovely boney elbow and a fabulous humerus. Continue reading

771: (221/365) Boney McBoneface – Broad Shoulders

When one looks at the symphony of bones and tendons that constitute human shoulders, one can only wonder why we then put it through contact sports like Rugby which so effortlessly re-arrange and break this complex calcium tangle:

This is Boney McBoneface’s shoulder assembly, an amazing mix of a vertebrae, lovely pair of integrated shoulder blades and a nicely perched collarbone.

It has fixing points for arms, integrates with the neck component, will provide a fixing point for the sternum (breast bone) and provides the starting point for the remainder of the spine. Continue reading

770: (220/365) Boney McBoneface – Skull

…so I am embarking on a mega-structure fold, the aim is to complete a humanoid skeleton. After crowd-sourcing ideas, I went with the name “Boney McBoneface” (or Boney M for short):

Alas poor Boney McBoneface – I folded him well

We start with the head, noggin, pate, gourd, dome, brainbox, melon, block, nut (feel free to insert other colloquialisms). As this megastructure involves a total of 49 sheets, and is logically grouped into joints (as a butcher would call the bits they render a carcass) and I decided to work from top to bottom. I felt there was too much folding of wildly different sorts for this structure to count as ONE fold … so sue me. Continue reading

746: (196/365) Fairly Bloody Long Walk

My lovely daughter walked for charity last year and I was so proud of her (secretly regretting not doing it with her). This year, the same walk is on offer at, thankfully, at a much cooler time of year so we are both walking “The Bloody Long Walk” in early August:

Today, as part of our prep we did a fairly bloody long walk, from Brighton to Redcliffe and back again to see how far it is (apparently about 26km according to Google).

I returned to an Origami master – Akira Yoshizawa – his little person, made from the frog base is genius – spirit of the subject, glorious simplicity and I managed to fold it in my state after today’s test walk. Continue reading

736: (186/365) Stoopid Monkey!

Australian politicians are a weird lot. Not “American” (shoot first then barbeque something) weird, just an odd lurch from crisis to crisis and stab your mate in the back for a shot at leadership kind of weird:

A recently deposed Prime Minister (Mr Tony Abott) is being a bit of an arse clown in the media, white-anting his own party and providing gifts for our hapless opposition in terms of instability and leaks. Continue reading

724: (174/365) School Holidays!

After a brutally busy term, it is time to recharge, dance a little, be thankful for the good things that surround you:

This is Jeremy Shafer’s “The Dancers” – a charming little pleating exercise that takes a square (in this case a 15cm Japanese foil square) and, via a clever set of collapses, isolates 2 people, joined at the hand. Continue reading

695: (145/365) Knight in Shining Armor

Jono sent me a link to the new trailer for the coming series of Game of Thrones:

Seems like big things are set to happen in the seven kingdoms.

Knights in shining armor in this series are rarely shiny at all, often dirty, lacking honor and glory – such is the reality of war. Continue reading

691: (141/365) Max Hulme’s Chess King

Head of the house, monarch to be protected, fragile and nearly the least mobile, such is a Chess King:

I like this model, the crown is cute, as is his beard and robes – hiding the round figure of a largely sedentary piece.  Continue reading

690: (140/365) Max Hulme’s Chess Queen

Behind every good man there is often an even better woman:

The Queen in chess is a valuable piece, being the master of all skills, often the most deadly of opponents. Continue reading

689: (139/365) Max Hulme’s Chess Knight

…so, in a conventional chess set, the knight is a horsey, but in this chess set the Knight is the rider:

Not sure I am really happy with this, difficult to tell with this thick paper, but the head shaping is clumsy because of the layers. Continue reading

688: (138/365) Max Hulme’s Chess Bishop

Integral to the war effort, the church remains a dangerous player on the board:

This is Max Hulme’s “Bishop” – a lovely little Pontif-ish chap that is missing his golden hook and holy relic. Continue reading

686: (136/365) Max Hulme’s Chess Pawn

The next few posts will follow a theme, playing with the idea of a classic game, this is the infantry – the cannon fodder, there are lots of these to throw at the enemy:

Max Hulme has designed all of the pieces for a paper chess game, seems wrong to split them up. Folded from a 12×3 proportioned rectangle, a little grimacing face under  helmet emerges, then arms, finally the body. Continue reading

682: (132/365) Sy Chen’s Hangman

Struggling to make it through Friday, I stumbled across Sy Chen’s Hangman:

This paper puzzle allows you to gradually reveal parts of a hangman, suitable for a table top game. Continue reading

681: (131/365) Tim Rickman’s Xenomorph

I am so excited that there is a new Alien Movie out today – Alien Covenant. Although I would dearly love to see it right now, I will have to wait until I am less busy and tired:

Having already folded both Kade Chan‘s Xenomorph, Fernando Gilgado‘s Alien and Face-Hugger I was struggling to find something Geiger-related.

I was browsing google imaged and came across Tim Rickman’s “comic” alien and knew I needed to try it. Continue reading