Looking for something to fold that was vaguely “insecty”, I stumbled across a lovely box-pleated fly mangled from a 2×1 rectangle:
Based on a 16×32 grid, we isolate head, legs, lovely plump abdomen and leave the back flap for a lovely set of wings. Continue reading
Anyone who knows me realises I am a HUGE Alien fan (well, except for Alien 4 – The Apology) so I find it irresistible when I find an Alien-related fold:
This is Makoto Anzai’s “Face Hugger”, a snarly hand-inspired ovipositor that is the precursor to a chestburster. Similar to Fernando Gilgado’s model, this one has a different fold morphology. Continue reading
To celebrate the 201st fold in this challenge, I was looking for a shellfish-based fold – not sure why but there you go:
Leafing through a Tanteidan Convention book, I came across a “Scallop Box” design designed by Akiko Yamanashi. Continue reading
Leafing through the Tanteidan Convention book #5, I came across an early Dragon design by Takashi Hojyo:
This model is a modular – 3 parts (head/tail, body/legs and lovely wings) made from the same sized square, it needs glue (shhhh, I used a couple of nubs of double-sided tape) to keep it together but has a comic-like charm. Continue reading
So I have been really busy, with meetings and … stuff, so I fell a little behind. Looking to catch up, I noticed a lovely group of folds designed by David Brill:
This is Cat, Mouse, Cheese – a naturalistic composition with a pair of lovely fold-related critters and a lovely wedge of cheese. Continue reading
Returning to Blade Runner, there has historically been much discussion about the humanity of the central protagonist, Deckard:
Ridley Scott has recently confirmed that Deckard is a Replicant, a point visually reinforced by his recurring dream of “Unicorns” (unreal beasts).
Near the end of the movie, an origami Unicorn is left at the door of his abandoned apartment, presumably by Gaff (although Edward J Olmos says he was not the folder, Scott clearly liked the idea of the echo of an idea). Continue reading
My top 5 movies of all time includes the Sci-Fi classic “Blade Runner”. A couple of times during the movie, to confirm a character’s opinion of Deckard’s actions, his sidekick “Gaf” left an origami figure:
One was actually folded by the actor (Edward James Olmos) – a gum wrapper was fashioned into a Chicken. He said he did this as a way of staying in the scene without pulling focus, apparently the Director, Ridley Scott, noticed it and included it in the scene to counterpoint the main characters reluctance to get himself into danger, which later he does anyway. Continue reading
It was late, I was tired and I must admit to going to bed before folding yesterday. Full week, new levels of fatigue:
I found these diagrams on Pinterest – seems they are test diagrams (oops, sorry) but I love the shape and model structure. Continue reading
Sometimes work can be busy. When spares are sparse, classes all doing new/complex things and physical exertion hit their peak, sometimes you can feel like you are pushing shiz up hill:
This is a lovely little dung beetle, coveting it’s little ball of dung. It is a charming fold that I was unsure if I could complete with the size paper I started with.
Designed by Shinji Sasade, appearing in a Tanteidan I was leafing through, described entirely in Japanese so I hope I have fold it correctly. The dung-ball is a waterbomb, but the beetle actually locks into it – very cool. Continue reading
David Mitchell is a legendary origami designer, responsible for countless geometric wrangles:
This is an “Oyster Box” – a box that resembles a bivalve, that locks together rather satisfyingly and opens to reveal a spacious interior. Continue reading
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
Origami cats are hard – their soft elastic ways are difficult to depict artistically with a medium as stiff and uniform as paper:
This is Christophe Boudias’ “Sleepy Cat”, a lovely model that I think manages to capture the posture of a cat that is cuddling up ready to sleep, tucking it’s little pawsies under its chin. Continue reading
The age old questions, “what came first, the chicken or the egg” can be best answered with available fossil records as Dinosaurs came first:
Waterproof eggs, such a step forward, liberating egg laying critters from having to deposit precious and defenceless young in pools, streams or wet places and allowed full colonisation of the land. Continue reading
Not sure if Australia has any native species of Hummingbird:
Some “sunbirds” look similar but are not closely related species. Continue reading
Cautionary advice indeed for anyone who has seen the movie comedy “Rat Race”:
We saw our first live squirrels when we first travelled to the UK, in a lovely park in Holland Park (interestingly the same suburb name we live in now here in Australia).
Lovely little grey filly, impossibly fluffy tail, cutely flitting around in the underbrush. Continue reading
