887: (337/365) Tree Topper

Always looking for a nice Xmas tree topper, this little angel is designed by Leonardo Pulido Martinez and was presented in one of my BOS journals:

Had accuracy (and my Spanish) been better, I would also have hands (fingers) on this little model but I started with an almost square and crease drift occurred towards the end. Continue reading

884: (334/365) Pegasus

In my list of “models to try someday” was this model designed by Takashi Hojyo:

A complex management of points, this lovely rendition of a Pegasus has much to love. The wings, legs and general morphology are very pleasing to the eye but not easy to achieve as a fold. Continue reading

882: (332/365) Brian Chan’s Fiddler Crab

…yes, I know I am behind, but I have been busy and my brain is fairly broken. As part of the cleanse I took a 35cm sheet of washi and decided to try Brian Chan’s Super-complex “Fiddler Crab” model, never entertaining the notion that I would achieve the model, but rather just to fold for the love of it:

My fold-philosophy on this gig was to faithfully (well, as faithfully as I could) follow the hideously complex fold sequence and sort of just stop when I could go no further. Step 53 alone took me over an hour and a half to achieve – I just could not get my head around what was happening in the sparsely diagrammed model. Continue reading

881: (331/365) Nativity Scene

People I work with know my OCD tendencies. When it was casually suggested that I might consider folding a Nativity scene for the end of year celebrations, it was a forgone conclusion that I would:

The assembled figures (each nearly 30cm tall) form quite a striking display – hopefully one that works for the display space – we shall see. Clearly Christmas is just around the corner, with this scene, it is beginning to look a lot like … well … christmas.

We have on the left, 3 kings, bringing gifts (bronze waterbombs are quite the thing this year). Centre there is an angel, looking over a mother, father and child. Bringing up the rear is a random shepherd … because … the scene needed balance.

880: (330/365) Seated Mother

So the challenge to render a more feminine figure, seated, as if tending something was on:

Using a variation of the generic judaian I managed to change the head, add knees and change the posture so sitting is suggested. Continue reading

878: (328/365) Holy Infant

So the next challenge was to render a babe, in swaddling clothes:

Using principles garnered from an adult fold, I sort of MacGuivered a larger-proportion head, wrapped the body and presto. Continue reading

877: (327/365) Generic Judaian

…now when you want to fold someone from ancient Jerusalem, the options are few and far between. I stumbled across a design, again by Max Hulme, that will, with modification, do nicely:

My generic Judaian is wrangled from a 50cm square of thick Kraft paper, and ends up being about 25cm tall all up. Continue reading

876: (326/365) Angel

Cruising around the internet, as one does, I stumbled across a thumbnail graphic of a diagram that appears somewhere else and sort of just worked it out:

This is loosely based on an angel design by Max Hulme. Continue reading

875: (325/365) Cat in Box

It is a well known fact, in households that own a cat, that when there is a box, your cat will, at some time, be in that box:

It has taken me a while to get around to perfecting this fold – it is designed for a larger sheet but I managed to achieve it on a 17.5cm square. Continue reading

874: (324/365) Fifteen Degree Cat

There are many strategies when designing an origami figure – many of them originate in a number of degrees as the main division:

This cat is based on angles of mainly 15 degrees, different to 22.5 degrees that is usual from bisecting right angles twice. Continue reading

873: (323/365) Elephant Trophies

When an orange clown decides that rich stupid people should be allowed to hunt wild animals for fun, hack bits of them off and use them as trophies it makes me cross:

When that same “ass hat” orange clown then tweets that he might change an existing law to allow this banned activity to happen again (presumably so his stupid rich family can go shoot things again) it SHOULD make the world furious. When will ENOUGH BE ENOUGH? Continue reading

872: (322/365) MATRICULATE!

I have this image in my head – last day of Dalek highschool, a bunch of Daleks more and more excitedly rattling off “Matriculate! Matriculate!”:

Yesterday another cohort of seniors left school to join the journey to the next phase of their life. I am blessed to have taught some of them. For a teacher there is no greater gift than an enquiring mind that wants to learn. Continue reading

871: (321/365) Little Pig

Always on the lookout for a cute model, I saw this design shared freely on Fakebook by it’s creator:

This is “Little Pig” by Hung Cuong Nguyen, a lovely rich and complex model that seems to eat paper like … well, like a pig. Lovely round body, beautiful ears and a tail I decided needed to be curly. Continue reading

867: (317/365) Not Drowning, Waving?

This time of year is horrible. The plain truth of it is that, for a teacher, we have more marking than a reasonable person can do, and deadlines that seem impenetrable:

I guess it is why teachers in Australia are payed the big bucks, right? Continue reading