The online Origami community is rich and supportive. Last night Kade Chan shared his publicly diagrammed “Iris Butterfly” diagrams via Fakebook and knew I had to try it:
I used a fake US dollar bill, but it is actually designed for a Hong Kong dollar (which I think is a little less long and a little wider) – the proportions of the note would change the wing shape subtly. Continue reading
Now I am as much a fan of Game of Thrones as the next person, but I do like a good ice zombie as a baddie:
This is Nick Robinson’s “Hairy Man”, but I think it is much more demonstrative of an icy undead monster. Continue reading
The traditional world of Origami has many classic folds, it is constantly amazing to me how few of them I have actually folded:
This is a traditional jumping from – well, at least one version of it. The mechanism is simple and relies on paper thickness to provide a spring on the back legs. You gently press between the back legs and as the paper flips out from under your finger, the frog hops – ingenious. Continue reading
Sometime a simple model has a charm of its own:
This tadpole is a relatively simple exercise in box pleating to isolate tail and back legs but the shaping is lovely. Continue reading
As is customary on the first day of a new month, we say “white rabbits!”:
This is an old design, and I am not sure i have the shaping quite right yet. Akira Yoshizawa is credited as founding modern Origami and this is one of his designs. Continue reading
…so if you found a magic lamp, rubbed it and a Genie appeared, granting you 3 wishes, what would you wish for?:
It is an interesting, vaguely existential question that is remarkably difficult to answer with any certainty. Continue reading
Go on, admit it. Ever since you saw the “Aladdin” movie you have secretly thought how cool it would be to ride on a magic carpet:
This clever model, inexpertly folded, is an exercise in colour management- had I used bi-colour paper, the rider and carpet would be different colours – pretty neat. Continue reading
…how’d he know that then?
Being a fan of Monty Python, I find quotes emerge everywhere. What better to celebrate 300 models than a lovely little penguin:
Designed by Jun Maekawa, I am amazed I have never folded this little cutie before, such a nice shape and, with presentation paper it would be a great display piece. Continue reading
It is well known that dogs and middle school – squirrel! – children are easily distracted – Squirrel!:
I am reminded of Doug the dog from the movie “UP” every time I see my students trying to focus but being unable to notice everything else around them but what they are asked to notice. Continue reading
Perusing my copy of Drawing Origami – Tome 2, I noticed a lovely little tiger designed by Oriol Esteve:
This teensy weensy tiger is very cute, has resplendent stripes and terrific proportions from paws to tail. Continue reading
I gotta learn to be more careful, the previous post (which I removed the number from) turned out to be a refold from my first 365 (years ago) that I had forgotten about (I got the fold sequence from somewhere else and did not twig to the duplication … so sue me 😛 ) Fortunately a follower pointed this out:
This is Jun Maewawa’s “Peacock 1” – a lovely exercise in Miura Ori corrugation folding for the tail and some interesting layer management to form legs and head among it. Continue reading
EDIT: as a kind reader pointed out, I have already folded this model, so it cannot count as one of the current 365. It is a relief on 2 fronts (1) Someone is reading and (2) This fold of this model is vastly superior to the original
Some call me a dinosaur, they may be justified but if I am even half as cool as this Triceratops, then it is all good:
Designed by Jun Maekawa, this delightful little dinosaur is one of my +favs so far in that it has all the triceratopsy features (3 horns, flat plate head, stocky body, lovely proportions) and still remains simple enough to achieve easily with a 40cm square (prolly smaller with more nimble fingers)
Continue reading
Insects seem to be a fascination among origami designers – at the height of “bug wars” when designers were competing for the most intricate designs that were complex, had lots of legs, were thin and realistic renderings and really pushed the boundaries of existing techniques:
This astonishing model starts as a frog base. Through a torturous set of point isolation and narrowing, we get the impossibly thin legs and a lovely set of antennae. Halve this, now fold that in half, then do a double rabbit ear, now halve that … thank goodness for thiiiiin paper and accurate folding. Continue reading
Origami has featured in cinema in many ways. The Blade Runner franchise uses origami figures to accentuate certain story points and the most recent movie features an elderly “Gaff”, in a retirement home, folding a sheep:
After some research it seems the model was a tweaked Jun Maekawa model. tweaked because the original has curled horns that would make a quick-shot less clear on screen. Continue reading
I am always on the look out for well designed Kangaroos:
Interestingly, the best ones are often designed by people who do not have them around. This delightful 2-part model is designed by Kunihiko Kasahara, from the book “Origami Made Easy”. Continue reading
