bird

218: A Thousand Cranes for Peace

| wonko

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945 and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.

For my birthday this year (June 4), my daughter bought me 1000 sheets of coloured origami paper so that I could attempt to fold 1000 cranes by today, August 6, Hiroshima Day.

The First and Last folds were done here at home – first was a microgami version (folded from a 1cm square) to pay homage to the importance of the individual in the enormous task; the last was a simple white fold, completed in the relative safety and warmth of my lounge room while watching telly last night.

I had many helpers – many hands make light work – thank you to the hundreds of kids and teachers who helped, provided encouragement or simply asked what I was doing and why – I hope it was instructive. I also had a passive collection (I positioned a piggy bank near by for punters to deposit change if they felt so moved) and have a tidy sum to donate to Japan Red Cross.

So what does 1000 cranes look like when amassed?

I will organise to give these away – hopefully students will think about things when/if they take one.

Why?

I must say that when I visited the Hiroshima memorial site in 2003 the place upset me for a bunch or reasons – primary school kids ran and giggled and filled in worksheets, collecting information on casualties, counting demolished buildings on scale models, being photographed beside the scale model of “little boy” the first bomb dropped and coloured in pictures of the shadow left by someone as they vaporised in a doorstep. I know I should have been heartened by the obvious celebration of life and love around me but it made me ashamed to be allied with a group that could do this or even contemplate it.

I realize the tragic significance of the atomic bomb… It is an awful responsibility which has come to us… We thank God that it has come to us, instead of to our enemies; and we pray that He may guide us to use it in His ways and for His purposes.
—President Harry S. Truman, August 9, 1945

210: Hippogriff

| wonko

Being a fan of Harry Potter, I am glad I have finally seen the last part of the saga at the movies.

It is late, I am tired, this is my first fold for a Hippogriff – there is promise and I will try again with thinner paper as I think the model has a good basic shape:

Hectic day, you get that.

205 Satoshi’s Splash!(swan)

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The idea behind this model is fascinating (and a little difficult to explain in a white only fold) – use half a sheet of paper to fold a landing bird and leave the other half unfolded to be the pond it is landing on:

Quite difficult to achieve using copy paper, the finished model if done with 2-colour paper has the water one colour and the bird the other – very neat.

This is the first model I have chosen to fold from the “Selected Works of Satoshi Kamiya” – not the easiest but an interesting one none the less. The thickness of the body made subtle shaping of the bird difficult (without accidentally creasing the pond area) but I am quite satisfied with this as a first fold of this model – I am now eager to get a large format bi-colour page and try it. I could imagine some nice serpentine crimps on the pond surface, or maybe come concentric ones based on where it has landed – there is paper enough to do that and it might look nice.

Surprisingly the page is essentially divided in half horizontally to make the pond/bird – I initially thought it would be easier to diagonally fold it (annoyingly my paper is diagonally creased because that is how I cut a square from copy paper which explains the extra crease on the pond surface) – since when has Satoshi chosen a simpler path tho.

I like the wings and can see much potential in shaping the bird with thinner paper

185: Bald Eagle for July 4th

| wonko

After abandoning a search for a decent “statue of liberty” model, I decided to settle on an American Bald Eagle as a symbol of independence, what the 4th July is celebrated for in the US:

After looking around, I settled on a figurative bald eagle by Robert Lang from “The Complete Book of Origami” and happy with many aspects of this fold.

Difficult to complete with copy paper, the thickness and brittle nature of copy paper means that several steps are likely to distress the paper severely and the body thickness makes shaping late in the fold difficult – quite happy with this as a first fold. I added pleats on teh wings to suggest feathers as I thought the wings needed it, and modded the talons a little to make them less clumsy.

Should I fold this again, I now know what becomes what and so would approach some of the steps a little differently, but living/folding is learning – right?

183: Hummingbird Feeding

| wonko

I have the greatest of respect for Robert Lang, his models are discussed mathematically and with great artistic intent also, and when I saw this hummingbird in “Origami Design Secrets” I knew I had to make it:

Having never actually seen a hummingbird (except on the telly), I am amazed and in awe of their size, industry and life habit. After folding the bird I decided it absolutely needed a flower to feed from, found a simple blossom in Harbin’s “Origami 2” by Toshie Takahama and fixed them together with the wire from a straightened paperclip and a (shhh) little double-sided tape.

Hummingbirds use huge amounts of energy to fly, and so feed voraciously on high-energy foods like nectar, so I can imagine my little bird about to plunge into the nectary of this flower for a much needed energy boost.

Am really pleased with this model – beautiful beak, breast and wings, the tail was a surprise as it came from a tortured sink early on. A masterful design that, from what I can gather, captures the intent of the bird mid flight. this makes it difficult to pose (as it has no legs) and, interestingly, every picture I have seen of this completed model is posed adjacent a bloom (presumably using the same support trick I used.

You may, collectively, go awwwwww now, as that was my reaction when stepping back from the handiwork.

177: Hedwig

| wonko

Now I am the first to admit I am an out and proud Harry Potter fan. I have consumed all the content JK Rowling has produced on the world of magical and muggle, and particularly like the use of Owl Post:

Looming is the release of Deathly Hollows part 2 and more recently mention of “Pottermore” which I hoped would be an MMO or immersive world because I thought it would be cool to play a character in that realm. sadly Pottermore will not be anywhere near as cool, but maybe more potterverse, but will watch with eager anticipation.

I found the Spanish origami Society’s magazine archive “Esquinas” – in it was this rather splendid owl. the instructions take a lot for granted, annotations in Spanish do not really help but I muggled through.

There is much to love about this model – it stands by itself, rather cheekily and I can imagine it perched on a branch or taking pride of place in an owlery, it has a lovely round tummy, some fascinating eyes (the next time I fold this, now I know what goes where I am sure I could fashion pupils etc) and the overall proportions are neat. this is a clever design because everything tucks inside and there were only a couple of errors in the diagrams that were easy to fix visually.

160: Joisel’s Penguin

| wonko

For those people not in Brisbane, it is unseasonally cold today so I thought that it might be appropriate to try a Joisel model:

This delightful model has very few folds, yet emerges with a fairly normal posture, plump belly, lovely fins and figurative feet.

Joisel is a master, each fold well thought out and I always enjoy folding his models – this model is a nightmare in thirds – most divisions are thus, and really difficult to get right.

On a day like today, this little penguin would be well at home.

123: Sparrow

| wonko

Looking for an easy model, busy evening – this model has 20 steps, each simple – the result, delightful:

I like this model a lot – I can see plenty of modelling potential – the wings, it’s beak, lovely plump body, under-developed feet – neat and a really different approach to constructing a bird – many steps done by judgement (rather than landmarks) so lots of potential for character – mine looks like a soon-to-fledge youngster.

114: Hatching Chick

| wonko

This model is cute – designed by Peter Engel, it is an egg with a chick inside, and is an action model (in that it moves):

The chick’s head peers out of the cracked egg, beak ready to cheep:

This is an easter-inspired fold that is not too difficult – would work well in 2 colour paper as the chick and the egg end up being different colours if folded correctly.

You can try this for yourself – a video of the fold, apparently authorised by the designer is available here.

On a related note, I am finding it really difficult to decide if resources I find on the net are authorised, or pirate copies of copyrighted works that appear in pay-for publications. I am TRYING to do the right thing here but the interweb is not helping as so many legit resources turn out to be copyright theft. Indeed, I am beginning to wonder if publishing my “development” shots might also be breaching copyright laws – I will seek advice from the British Origami Society on this one I think.

96: An Eagle

| wonko

Now I have learned something from folding this model – I do not understand a world of Polish:

All the instructions were in that dialect, and the diagrams were baffling, so I did my best.

I rather like the feet, the wings and head/beak are nicely shaped also but I could not fathom what to do with the tail so … improvised.

81: Pelican

| wonko

What a wonderful bird is a Pelican, whose beak can hold more than it’s belly can:

This elegant model by Ligia Montoya comes from “Secrets of Origami” by Robert Harbin. Relatively few folds, indicitave of form, nice and simple.

77: Robin

| wonko

Robins and Wrens are lovely little birds, stickey-uppey tail, tiny and delicate:

Quite happy with this model, taken from “More Origami” by Robert Harbin, a book I bought years ago.

This is a fairly manageable manipulation of the bird base but the legs are so tortuously thin that I had to help it stand up with a couple of blutac blobs under the feet, soz.

56: Wise Owl

| wonko

I like this fold, the eyes, winds, body shape all work, not bad for a first fold:

Why an Owl? Well, being surrounded by so many wonderful (and wise) QSITE members past, present and future reminded me of the wisdom we all rely on – to me, wisdom is an owl (tissue thin justification I know but there you go). Also, against all wisdom, QSITE have me on their board again, editor of their Journal – silly fools, surely they have learned better by now?

53: A Duck

| wonko

I have lots of designs for birds, but up until now not one that I was happy enough to call a duck – this one is lovely:

It has a nice plump (roastable) body, cute tail, nicely mallard-y head and bill.

You can try it too: duck

37: A Kiwi

| wonko

New Zealand has a national day celebrated variously but often on the 6th February called “Waitangi Day”. One of the species endemic to that place is a small, nocturnal and alltogether odd flightless bird called a Kiwi:

A very difficult model on a bunch of levels, designed by Roman Diaz. The feet were fascinating, and made from straight edges crumped into 3 toes each (curiously a Kiwi has 3 toes/claws on each foot it uses for digging with). Amazed with this first time fold as I was convinced it was going pear-shaped at a number of junctures.

I had to cheat with a couple of blobs of blutac under the feet to get it to stay upright for the photo, the balance is a bit out of whack. I would prefer the models to be free-standing but you get that sometimes; very happy with the body shape (morphology) however, clever.

You can have a go yourself (good luck understanding the person doing the tut, swarthy Latino accent and directions are unclear) kiwi