365-2017

676: (126/365) Stellated Octahedron

| wonko

I am always on the lookout for a striking modular to fold when I am idle at work. This beauty – two tetrahedrons mating, was an obvious choice:

I have folded much more complicated versions of things like this – made with lots of little pieces each having different angle connectors. Ilan Garibi appropriates Francis Ow’s 60 degree unit and adds 2 different connector slots mid way along each long unit – a bottom edge slit and a top edge slit. These then mate seamlessly making it look like a pair of struts are in fact 4 bits of paper when they are not. The intersection of the 2 mating tetrahedrons is an octahedron; points rise from the octahedron faces making it stellated – genius. Continue reading →

675: (125/365) Centipede

| wonko

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 →

674: (124/365) Red Leader Standing By

| wonko

May The Fourth be with you.

Now I must admit to being one of the original Star Wars nerds, seeing the films when first aired a number of times – they heralded a new style of Sci-Fi, a place where space was common place, space ships were clean and villains announced their evil plans with enough time to allow the rebel alliance to thwart them:

The spacecraft in the Star Wars universe were unique and wildly illogical. I can remember seeing Tie Fighters and thinking wtf? Continue reading →

673: (123/365) Longhorn Beetle

| wonko

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

| wonko

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 →

671: (121/365) Winter is Coming

| wonko

I want to pretend that we have a discernible Autumn in Brisbane, indeed there is a moderation of temperatures, but we lack the temperature drops and seasonal flora to clearly mark the change of season:

Having been places that have deciduous trees, and seen the glorious colour changes in leaves from yellow to red and all colours in between I appreciate the milder climate but miss the beauty. Continue reading →

670: (120/365) Dear World Leaders

| wonko

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

| wonko

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

| wonko

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

| wonko

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

| wonko

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 →

665: (115/365) The Last Post

| wonko

I am not sure what it is about the music, but “The Last Post” always gets to me:

After visiting Gallipoli 2 years ago (nearly to the day), and the Canberra war memorial last year, this is never more true. The tune is haunting, desperately sad and intimately bound up with a remembrance of Australian and New Zealand troops (originally) but more recently with all armed force personnel from all wars, police actions and conflicts.

I am always, oddly, extraordinarily anxious when it is played live. I feel for the trumpeter as the tune has no where to go – when the note is wrong it is so terribly uncomfortable. I am particularly in awe of the students that play it in front of the whole school. James did it proud yesterday at a school assembly. I get goosebumps thinking about it, but I always have. Continue reading →

664: (114/365) Compact Cow

| wonko

 

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

| wonko

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 →

662: (112/365) Spiral Corrugation

| wonko

Origami seems to be the new Materials Engineering black, being considered a contemporary alternative approach to fabrication and structure:

I was reading an article on deploying large solar arrays in space. This problem is not unique – everything taken into space must be small at launch so it can fit in a rocket. Continue reading →