I first folded these little critters, designed by Robert J Lang, using a square cut from an A3 printer paper sheet back in 2011 as part of my original 365 project:
Remarkably, even with that terrible paper, all the features of the critter were present however not very refined.
Australians call these “Slaters”, but they also go under the name “wood lice” because these little isopods are found in decaying vegetation – which is why I decided they should be folded from Mango Leaf paper. It makes this fold a bit “meta” in that the critter is folded from mulberry paper that contains leaf litter.
The fold sequence is exacting, forming trapezoidal molecules for each of the 14 legs, along with antennae and a rather beautiful segmented shell. This model appears in a few of Robert’s books, I folded this one from “Origami Insects 2” – a rather splendid volume from Origami House in Japan. bought from Origami-shop (even though, strictly speaking, it is not an INSECT….).
I decided to fold two so we could see one open and one curling up into a little armoured ball – they do this when in danger.
Our current car is old, but a lovely tiny Mitsubishi Colt (that looks a LOT like this model), and … eventually … we will need to replace it but, annoyingly Mitsubishi only make HUGE battleships now – not everyone wants a battleship!!!
The life of a male praying mantis is not all beer and skittles – inattentive and less nimble males often become a post coital snack for their partners in a brutal twist on “the circle of life”:
This is a pair of Satoshi Kamiya’s Praying Mantis, and this may well be my longest fold (in total elapsed time) to date. Two and a half years ago (the year before I had retired), I sat down with a crispy 55cm square of Kraft paper and began folding the maquette for this model (the brown one). I was stressed, it ate up an afternoon and calmed my racing brain but I got tired, lost my place and then mental fog set in and I could not for the life of me work out how to do the next step (making the little barbs on the inside of the front legs).
Determined to return to it the next day, I tucked the model into the open book I had in my book stand, put it away and … ignored it for 2.5 years. I am not sure my book “Works of Satoshi Kamiya 3” appreciated being splayed open for all that time and is now, finally, resting closed with the rest of my Origami library.
I finally had the “perfect” mantis paper – pre-coated green Unryushi tissue from Kami paper store, purchased a month or so ago when we were in Melbourne. I cut a perfect 50cm square from this deliciously thin and crisp paper and began folding. I was fired up to return to the partially finished but stalled fold and give it another go – how hard could that be?
I folded the green up to where I had stopped with the brown, then realised the next step was actually pretty simple (just not clearly diagrammed – representing such complex 3d manipulation in a series of line drawings is really hard, I know), so was able to take both the maquette and green production fold all the way to the end of an astonishing 271 step sequence.
The design is genius, and relatively efficient – interestingly there are triangle sections of paper folded away into the middle legs that is the only “waste”. Via a torturous process of isolating, crenellating and thinning the entire morphology of a lethal stick insect emerges from the tangle.
As an apex predator, the praying mantis is the perfect killing machine. Large swiveling eyes, sensitive antennae on a fully articulated head, complete with chomping mouth parts. Perfectly proportioned and armored thorax sporting 2 sets of thin legs and a pair of lethal clamp-like razor fists. Wings and a lovely plump pleated abdomen finish the features of this astonishingly complete insect – all from an UNCUT square of paper – just wow.
I am often given 6″ origami paper by well-intentioned friends who know I do origami and assume 6″ paper is useful to me. I have lots of it – and I mostly use it to fold kusudama:
I had a pile of duo Tuttle watermelon/lime duo paper, so resolved to treat it to make it more interesting. I bought some acrylic inks a while back, and a mouth airbrush, so decided to tone the pages while learning how the airbrush works – a fun experiment.
I chose to spatter the watermelon side with white ink, and the lime side got yellow and black spatters. The effect is quite lovely and delicate – it compliments the geometry of the model really well.
I had seen a youtube tutorial of Kovács Vincéné’s “Nova” kusudama, and I thought the geometry really interesting. Like many spikey balls, 30 units in 5/3 clusters makes a nice little structure.
One of many goals, long term, is for me to make and fold my own paper. By “make paper” I mean collect, process and form sheets from pulp. I clarify because one school of thought around “making paper” is laminating or treating existing sheets – I do that also, but yeah, there is a distinction.
I attended a workshop out back of Gympie with Dion Chandler, using my newly acquired mold and deckle, and pulled (get the lingo 😛 ) A3 sheets – by the end I got pretty consistent at it but need more practice.
I ended up making A3, A4 and a smaller “letter” size”, love the deckle edges and the structure of the sheets. I have also Methyl Cellulosed some and, so long as I apply the MC to the paper (and not the glass I am sticking it to) then the sheets come away crisp and sturdily hold folds crisply as well.
That workshop we were pulling from a vat that started mostly with cotton pulp, and gradually had recycled kozo (mulberry) to it – quite a resilient mix. the resultant sheets are precious and wonderful.
It is a well known fact that Australians MADE up the illogical collection of animal parts we then called a Platypus:
Ducks bill, fur, poisonous spines, webbed feet, lays eggs, feeds young milk, lives under water … LOL … then only people silly enough to believe this are tourists, right?
One of many benefits of networking at an origami conference is that you get to mix in the real world with talented designers – if you are lucky they share their designs with you.
One of the many advantages of being on the editing team for an origami book is that you get to see models before they make it into the wild. This Toucan, designed by Jiahui Li (Syn) appeared in the book “Comic Origami 2 – Feathered Friends” among a plethora of other fun folds:
I had a much used 40cm square of Origami-Shop Shadow Thai paper that I used and re-used (after ironing flat) to do test folds. I quartered it to make 4 20cm squares and set about finding folds for it.
In-between 8OSME and Folding Australia conferences, there was a free-day. Jo and I decided to explore some of the suburban street art, go to Lume patisserie and “accidentally” visit a couple of paper shops.
Kami paper in Melbourne is like nothing I have ever seen – such a variety of papers in the one place, prices pretty reasonable and HUGE sheets (when I buy paper from local Brisbane places like Oxylades, it seems they are selling half-sheets for the same price).
Around the walls were drawers, you are encouraged to open the drawers and feel the paper – it is overwhelming for a paper nerd. I took my time, explored the vast range of different types, origins, fibres and inclusions.
Selecting a range of colours, thicknesses and textures, the shop assistant then pulled the sheets, packed them into a travel-safe post tube that fit in our suitcase – happy days
I ended up with 10 new sheets, all of which I want to fold right now… mostly mulberry, but their range of Lokta, Chiyogami and other luscious papers are sooo tempting. I could spend a LOT in this shop.
Interestingly, they also sell pre-coated Unryushi (it is already crisped up with MC), so very beautiful – I will finally re-attempt Kamiya’s Mantis with a crisp lovely sheet of greey pre-coated Unryu … so excited.
Paper nerds, you must make a pilgrimage here. Alternatively it seems like their shipping is pretty reasonable on large orders, and you can request they ROLL rather than fold prior to shipping – getting un-folded sheets in the post is a rare privilege.
An unmissable opportunity presented itself where both OSME and Folding Australia conferences were to be hosted in Melbourne, Australia, one following the other. Having never attended an Origami conference (of any flavour) before, I jumped at the chance, but had little idea, really, what was ahead.
Diverse plenary lectures to start the days off
My wife and I got an Air BnB on Collins street for the week. Using the PT> train network, I travelled to and from Swinburne Uni for the international gatherings each day while Jo explored Melbourne Galleries and cafes.
I believed OSME stood for Origami, Science, Mathematics and Engineering – turns out the “E” was for Education, even though in this conference there were 2 Engineering strands … so, ok then. It seems the 8th iteration of this conference reflects origami/folding now so popular as an engineering concept.
Browsing through the latest JOAS Tanteidan Magazine, as one does, I came across a seemingly simple but delicious little pentagon box in the shape of an acorn designed by Tomoya Kariya:
Exploring the sequence, I figured I could shepherd some of my hand-made paper through it, and reasoned that banana paper would make a beautiful cap, lemongrass and cotton paper would contrast nicely for the kernel.
I turned to my stash and discovered I had some smaller offcuts, so set about making matching 6″ squares of the rough but beautiful paper.
Folding hand-made botanical fiber paper is really hard on the finger tips – the lemongrass paper is actively spikey, but, being strategic and deliberate when manipulating tough fibers that lay on creases, I was able to coax the paper to take shape.
I LOVE the result – the handmade paper is PERFECT for this fold, it enhances the organic shape and makes it feel like a precious relic.
Cruising the channels on Origami Dan, I found a CP for a fold challenge I had missed, but decided to give it a whirl anyways:
Designed by Scott Okamura, this seemingly impossible fold featured a traditional Tsuru (crane) folded in the middle of a large page of duo paper – the surrounding paper is then formed into a box.
Colour-change models are astonishing to me, designing models that use colour change are something special:
I have folded a number of different models like this, nothing quite like it however – what sets this model apart form any other is that each “tile” on the board is a seamless square.
Folding this from a SINGLE UNCUT square ends up being a bit of a brain-fuck. The paper was blue one side, white the other (actually cheap and nasty 70cm wrapping paper from my local dollar store). Distributing the “colour” is achieved, mostly, by bringing the sheet edges up through pleat bundles using a variety of techniques.
You can see the final location of the 4 corners of the original sheet in this development photo:
Planning/designing of a model like this is beyond me – pre-preparing the colour changes means that every bit of the paper has a job – either visible “tile”, spacer, flipper, mover etc to get the bits of colour to get where they need to go. Fold accuracy is the make or break of such designs – novices who use a “near enough is good enough” approach will not succeed here.
I was asked to test fold this, by Steven Casey, prior to publication. The diagrammed sequence is intense, starting with a 40×40 grid. Most of the folding is working on the wrong side, creating interacting pleat stacks that sit flat but that strategically manipulation pleat order. The run towards the “checkerboard” effect happens around the edges first, they they are migrated further towards the centre (although really only in a 4-unit strip around the periphery.
Good paper is such a blessing. I took a long-stored square of olive Vietnamese Dó paper and attempted to fold a “Temple Dragon” – got most of the way through and realised the paper was too small/thick to complete it. Rather than bin the model, I carefully unfolded it, ironed it flat and … the paper had a new life:
Folding paper can damage it – wood-fibre-based paper takes damage (I call it paper fatigue) because the folding process can break the fibres along the crease. SOME paper has strong, flexible fibres that bend but mostly do not break, and Dó paper (made from bark of the Rhamnoneuron balansae tree) is astonishingly resilient.
The colour reminded me of something, as a kid, I used to see all the time – green tree frogs. Naturally I returned to Robert Lang’s “Origami Design Secrets” and re-folded his Green Tree Frog – I no longer had in my stored folds a copy of this lovely model so figured it was time.
A long while ago, a new artist on the scene, Fynn Jackson, started releasing astonishing mask crease patterns on social media.
He later commercially released his designs and I purchased his crease pattern packs for masks 1-35, along with the more recently released noses 1-9.
I love Fynn’s work, and eventually will develop my own CPs of faces. There is so much expression in the score and fold bundle, so decided to expand my collection and try out a bundle of manilla card in the process. I contacted @Jacksonorigami and asked him about selling finished masks – he (to my surprise and delight) freely encourages folders to monetise their rendering of his designs, so long as we do not share the purchased CPs (so please DO NOT ASK) …. so I got to thinking about an upcoming Gallery shoppe associated with my papermaker friends PAQ – put 1 and 1 together and arrived at 6.
I set about folding 6 faces I had not tried before from Fynn’s rich collection of characters, each using different aspect ratios, techniques and all quite wonderful. I was encouraged (by some of the wonderful ladies in PAQ – I am looking at you Ann and Wendy!) to consider selling, and began thinking about displays that would make them work as purchaseables.
On Sunday during the weekend the PAQ “All Stitched Up” exhibition opened in Gympie Regional Gallery a fortunate group of paper makers were able to spend the day at Dion Channer’s paper mill. Michelle, Vanessa, Wendy, Sue, Heather, Ann, Joolie, Marjorie and me, Peter were in for a treat with Dion and his partner Sue Purnell. Surrounded by the bush, among music rooms and yurts, pavilions and lakes, Dion’s mill was a large shed with a bespoke collection of gear and infused with the passion of a master papermaker.
Over a morning cup of tea, PAQ members talked with Dion about individual goals and hopes for process assistance, we learned about the available fibres and equipment we would learn to use during the day. Following a tour of his eclectic property, we retired to the mill and began with an orientation.
