678: (128/365) Paper Ninja

The internet is an amazing thing, no sooner had I folded a model by Oriole Esteve, then he contacted me via Fakebook and offered me diagrams for a bunch of other folds:

This is his Paper Ninja – a cunning little fellow that seems fairly stealthy. Continue reading

677: (127/365) Hung Coung Nguyen’s Butterfly

Continuing my exploration of origami butterfly form, I realised there were a bunch of folds from the book VOG2 that I had not attempted yet:

I tortured a thin bit of hand-made washi for 2 hours, turning it inside out, backwards and every which way but the resultant form is lovely indeed. Continue reading

675: (125/365) Centipede

Gagging for complex folds I thought I would torture a bit of paper with a super complex model from Robert Lang’s “Origami Insects II”:

The paper survived and the resultant creepy crawley is interesting if not perfect.

Missing steps and powering on, only have to backtrack, characterised this mammoth 6 hour fold. Some steps are small but have long term consequences and I was worried that unfolding and refolding would cause the paper to disintegrate, fortunately not. Continue reading

673: (123/365) Longhorn Beetle

Itching to dive into some thing complex (365 challenges are lousy for this, the one fold a day schedule makes longer hauls really difficult), I decided on an insect from Robert Lang that I had not folded before:

Folded nearly life-size, this is a longhorn beetle, a lovely little bug with seemingly ridiculous antennae. Continue reading

672: (122/365) Lang’s Butterfly

Continuing on the theme of butterflies, I could not go past this one, designed by Robert Lang:

Taken from “Origami Insects II”, it is one of a number of creepy crawlys that I have yet to fold from this book. Continue reading

670: (120/365) Dear World Leaders

Dear Donald, Kim, Vladimir and others,

I am writing to your parents regarding the bully tactics and macho posturing you seem to be engaging in while playing in the sandpit. This unacceptable behaviour has to STOP before someone gets hurt.

It seems to me that the sand pit is large enough for you and all the other children, but you seem to want to claim bits of it for yourself. The petty bickering and labelling bits of play equipment “mine” is tiring, but the threats to lob projectiles at each other has wider safety implications I can no longer overlook.

We have tried timeout, handshaking seems not sincere and meetings seem a waste of time as you seen intent on name-calling so, in a last ditch effort, I am appealing to your common sense. Failing that I will roll up a newspaper and give you all a good thwap.

Should the spit hit the fan, and some dumb f*ck lobs the first projectile, I would guess that you will all join in the shit fight. For the couple of minutes you congratulate yourselves on this retaliation (I mean he started it, right?) you will finally have a chance to consider what you have done. You will be making it impossible for anyone to play there again. Ever.

Enough is enough.

Sincerely, PDub

I am avoiding the news at the moment, with world leaders posturing at each other, a bunch of lunatics in charge of launch codes on all sides, it seems to me that we are sliding towards making the world a perfect place for this little guy:

This is Robert Lang’s Cockroach, a faithful paper recreation of my most hated insect. Continue reading

669: (119/365) Lillian’s Butterfly

Dedicated to Lillian Oppenheimer, a luminary in the early ’70s Origami world, this butterfly, designed by Michael LaFosse is pretty neat:

Interestingly, not poles apart in technique from “Alexander’s Swallowtail“, I chose different colours and was careful with the wing formation so it was morphologically distinct. Continue reading

668: (118/365) LaFosse’s Origamido Butterfly

Continuing my exploration of Michael LaFosse’s Butterfly folds, I present the “Origamido” Butterfly:

Named after his signature brand of hand-made paper (of which I have a couple of sheets yet to fold), this little butterfly is lovely – the wings seem delicate and the body seems in proportion and is colour changed. Continue reading

667: (117/365) Alexander’s Swallowtail Butterfly

I must admit to never having folded any of Michael LaFosse’s designs, not sure why:

I found a few designs that I thought I would like to have a go at – all butterflies, and this is one of them. Continue reading

666: (116/365) Parent Teacher Interviews

As a teacher, we periodically get the opportunity to meet with parents of our students. Invariably they are interested in how their sons are going, how they went on the test and what can be done to continue to encourage them to give of their best:

I actually like meeting with parents – they are great allies in the battle to teach kids. Fortunately I teach a fairly interesting subject (IT), but can imagine it is a real battle in subjects the kids HAVE to do, as opposed to wanting to to it. Continue reading

664: (114/365) Compact Cow

 

This is a simple water-bombic critter, from a family of compact animals designed by Perro Cerdito:

I decided to fold the cow, from a collection that contained a dog (thing) and a cat-ish thing. Continue reading

663: (113/365) Lil’ Lion

If you have not seen the movie “Lion” starring Dev Patel, you really should, it is a wild ride, lovely story and contains reference to an Indian name that means “Lion”:

I have been looking for nice lion models and a friend on Fakebook (Oriol Esteve from Spain) graciously shared a recent design. I knew I needed to have a go at it. Continue reading

660: (110/365) Riki Saito’s Alien

It is late, I am tired, the first week back at the start of the term is exhausting but this little alien is looking after me:

Folded from Japanese foil, it compliments yesterdays model. Incidentally today is a few days after the 56th anniversary of humans in space as Yuri Gagarin first left our atmosphere  Continue reading

659: (109/365) I WANT To Believe

Now I am not so conceited as to think that humans are the only intelligent life in the universe, but the more I understand about humans, the more I am convinced that the sure proof there IS intelligent life elsewhere is the fact that they have in no way attempted to contact us. Nothing. Not a peep:

I want to understand what form extra terrestrial life might take, but I am continually confounded by plethora of lifeforms on this planet.

I am sure that ET will not resemble the Sci-Fi little green carbon-based bipedal life we see in popularist imagery. Continue reading

658: (108/365) Yoshizawa’s Goldfish

Few origami masters did more for modern origami than Yoshizawa Sensei:

With delightfully few folds, his models evoke shapes, creatures and personalities. Continue reading