Scrambling for a model for the day, and finding time to actually fold it, I found a lovely butterfly by Yoshihide Momotani:
This is a Swallowtail, and was designed to be folded in bicolour blue, like this. Continue reading
animal
798: (248/365) The Elephant In The Room
In a fit of elephantine existentialism, one must ask an important question: “What makes a good Origami Elephant?”:
This is Paul Jackson’s “One Fold Elephant” – is it a good elephant and how would we know? What are ESSENTIAL characteristics that a model should have to be considered elephantine? Obvious characteristics of an elephant (well, for anyone who has ever actually seen one) could include discernible TRUNK, big(ish) flappy EARS and a big solid BODY. We could visually recognise an elephant with way less information than that so why do we require mind-popping details implicit in super-complex paper renderings of elephants when something much simpler does the job.
Purists would argue that all origami is, in essence, figurative representations of real objects. Thereby origami models are in effect are so many levels of abstraction from the real thing that there are no valid metrics that apply the the “goodnicity” of the rendering. Continue reading
788: (238/365) Sea Turtle
Exploring Facebook, as one does, a delightful little sea turtle was posted in a group I am a member of by Migue Crm:
A simple 16×16 grid, some lovely waterbomb collapses for shell scales and some lovely flippers make this a fantastic model all round. Continue reading
786: (236/365) Beth Johnson’s Hex Owl
I cannot believe I have not tried this before:
A lovely hexagonal tessellation in one corner of a hexagon becomes the fluffy tummy, collapsing the body makes for lovely eyes and a pair of crenellated wings. Continue reading
784: (234/365) Fold-me Elmo
Flipping through Tanteidan convention books I have I came across a delightful little figure that was screaming to be folded in orange:
This is Riki Saito’s “Mr Puppet Man”, but I reckon he looks a lot like “Elmo” so I am calling it so. (On second thoughts, isn’t Elmo Red? Oh well, never mind) Continue reading
780: (230/365) Bernie Peyton’s Woman In A Burqa
Elected members of the senate have a responsibility to represent their constituents:
When an elected member plans and then executes a stunt designed to trivialise, demonise and poke fun at an Islamic traditional garment some women choose to wear, I find deeply it offensive. Continue reading
779: (229/365) Karma Chameleon
I went looking for something reptilian to fold today (not sure why) and found this little charmer designed by Marc Vigo:
Using a series of rabbit ears on a 2×1 rectangle, you isolate legs, head and tail rather cleverly. Continue reading
776: (226/365) Boney McBoneface – dem bones
The toe bone’s connected to the foot bone,
The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone,
The ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!:
The leg bone’s connected to the knee bone,
The knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone,
The thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones! Continue reading
775 (225/365) Boney McBoneface – New Legs
So today I got up at 3.30am to catch a shuttle bus to the other side of the city at 4.30am so I could register for the charity walk I had agreed to accompany my daughter on:
35kms later, we made it to the finish line and most of my bits currently hate me. I need new legs – sadly Boney M’s legs are a little small but his look a lot more stable than mine are at the moment. Continue reading
774: (224/365) Boney McBoneface – Backbone
So I am stepping up and doing a charity walk tomorrow. 35km for Mitochondrial Disease research. I would like to pretend I am super fit, but in reality I am a walker and am not really sure if I can make it:
I am however willing to give it a go. YOU can support my efforts by adding to the money I have already had pledged here: https://blw-brisbane-2017.everydayhero.com/au/peter-2
This is a section of BoneyM’s spine, a little backbone that bridges the ribcage to the pelvis. Continue reading
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):
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
765: (215/365) I’m the king of the CASTLE …
Continuing the exploration of court pieces, we move on from the Pawn to the Rook or Castle:
I like this series – there is a visual similarity with the bases on all of these pieces and the tops are fairly easy to recognise. this one has a simple geometric turret atop the pillar. Continue reading