455: The White Keep

In days of old, when people of a township were threatened they retreated (as their last best hope) into the Keep – a heavily fortified “core” of the castle that was designed to withstand the most vigorous of attacks

So I had this odd but interesting idea that it should, given the right size of paper, be possible to fold an entire castle from it. After being inspired by Gachepaper and his exploration of Lotka I decided to give it a whirl

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449: Chaka Ryu

I stumbled across low res hand-drawn diagrams of a Ryu (Chinese dragon) and with a cursory glance said “why not give that a go”:

Two weeks later and a whole bunch of improvising helped me realise that may not have been a wise choice but I have something that is at least based on Hoang Trung Thanh’s model but not faithful to it.

On folding the range of pleats I added a ziggy zaggy spine, decided on 3 rows of scales and invented a method of locking the leg units (each leg is a separate sheet of paper) into the body pleats. I also stuffed the body (with neutral facial tissues) for a little shape and added a nice row of belly scales which I think make it look pretty nice.

The head instructions were un-followable (to me at least) so I sort of wrangled a new head with some lovely horns and a nice open mouth. Continue reading

446: Sunny’s Giraffe

Sunny’s birthday is coming up and she loves Giraffes:

In browsing for a suitable model, I discovered a Tanteidan containing a Satoshi Kamiya giraffe that I had not folded, so it seems it was meant to be.

I lke this model a lot – it is full of the essential giraffe features, economically uses the sheet and contains some wonderfully complicated folds. Continue reading

WTF (What’s That Fold?) # 12

I have a stack of Lotka that is just waiting to be folded into beautiful things, so I looked for something that would be suitable as a WTF (because it has been a while and my procrastinator is running on full right now):

Taking the largest square I could from a barely rectangular sheet, I pre-creased then began collapsing

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443: Gettin’ Crabby

As a member of JOAS (Japanese Origami Society) a present arrives in the mail every now and then – the Tanteidan magazine. Although it is written in Japanese (and I can not read Japanese) there are lots of fun things to try, occasionally amazing models to try:

Now I know I should be marking, but I have all this amazing paper and when presented with a folding challenge I get a little OCD about it.

This lovely crab, designed by Jason Ku, is a mathematical masterpiece – teasing the legs and claws from edges of the paper, shaping the carapace and the final, tidying does not just happen by chance. Continue reading

437: Perambulator

When I first saw photos of this model, I could not believe it was folded from a single sheet, without cuts, folds only:

In case you were wondering, this was WTF (What’s That Fold?) # 8. I was determined to give it a go. Noticing it was made from hundreds of pleats, and given the crease pattern folded down to 64ths in places, I upscaled the suggested paper size (to a 70cm square of 80GSM brown Kraft) to allow for my fat, clumsy fingers to make the creases.

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WTF (What’s That Fold?) # 8

I saw this AMAZING design, and figured it could not possibly be made out of ONE SQUARE without cuts, or glue and became determined to try and make it for myself:
I found a crease pattern but little else to go by, so sort of wrestled the initial creases into place as best I could. Continue reading

436: Sydney Opera House

Anyone who knows me understands my fascination with the Sydney Opera House, as a kid I saw the sails of it being built:

Set magnificently on Bennelong Point right in the heart of the harbour, it together with the Sydney Harbour Bridge (no, do not panic, I am not making that) are quintessential Australian icons.

Googling one day I stumbled across a design idea from Gerwin Sturm (2007) for a box pleated version of my fav building on earth, and some vague explanations of how it “should be possible to collapse and shape based on a 32×32 grid”. Continue reading

WTF (What’s That Fold?) #7

…so it has been a while I know, and it is raining, and I am too lethargic to do much more than bend paper so I thought it a good plan to do another WTF competition.

This fold is experimental in that I only have a kinda-sorta vague idea how to do it, but will bend it like … well … me I guess

After taking a 70cm square (yes, it is HUGE) and dividing it up into 32nds horizontally and vertically, I lay in some odd diagonal zig zags (you can make them out if you squint one eye, close the other, raise your left leg and hop on the spot), you get to this (the stage before the first round of collapses:

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WTF (What’s That Fold?) #6

Ok boys, girls and small green aliens from alpha centauri, I present to you clues for this week’s WTF (What’s That Fold?) also model #434

I start with an enormous square (using a square cut from an a1 ish sheet of litho, no idea if it should be nice side up or down so I just guessed. Using the ourPAD as the repository of instructions and not yet known if I will need anything from my origami toolbox:

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WTF (What’s That Fold?) #5

For this week’s WTF (What’s That Fold?) #5 we go to a Japanese Designer.

I thought I should try something easier to guess (but harder to fold). This model is complicated (has over 100 steps) but the end result is really obvious

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430: Lang’s Spider Conch

Those of you who were guessers for the WTF (What’s That Fold?) #4 will be interested to know that this model was actually a Spider Conch designed by Robert Lang:

I once taught on Palm Island – which is seaward from Townsville, North Queensland. Whilst there I loved to snorkel the reef nearby. Whilst doing so, I managed to find a pair of “spider shells” that I still have today.

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WTF (What’s That Fold?) #4

Ok kids, this week’s WTF (What’s That Fold?) #4 is a doozie, it is from a fairly old publication and is NOT land-based (that is what is called a hint people).

Step 1 (the fish/camel base) looks like this:

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428: Hibiscus Flower

My wife and I spent some time in a rainforest cabin – whilst there I folded this week’s WTF#3:

On a tropical theme, I left the model for the cabin owner as a thank you for a lovely time away.

A simple, slightly asymmetric fold that teases an odd number of petals, stamen and stem, cleverly managing the layers so the flower face and stamen would be one colour, stem another if I used duo paper.

I was looking for a simple fold and amongst my Tanteidan magazines I spied this figure, designed by Yamaguchi Makoto – must try it with colourful paper.

No one was able to discern it was even a flower – very disappointing people!

WTF (What’s That Fold) #3

So I hope you are getting the hang of this, follows is this week’s WTF (what’s that fold):

the successful guesser can have the model if they assist me with the postage (if necessary), so put your best thinking caps on and begin guessing.

After some clever asymmetric bending, you get this at step 9:

After some inside reverse folds and assorted bending, you get this:

With a few swivels and a bit more bending, you get this:

…this is your LAST CLUE – any closer to guessing?

Give up? CHECK OUT THE ANSWER – no guesser this week – get your act together people!