365-2017

586: (36/360) Gaikotsu Figure

| wonko

Now I am not really one for card-based rpg/gattle games – Pokemon, Yugioh, Magic the gathering, but I know they have a huge and passionate fan-base. Trolling through a Tanteidan I found a curious little skeletal character and decided to fold it:

A modular, in 3 bits (head, shoulders, knees+toes … everybody sing..), it struck me as a cutie little skeleton.

I then went on the interwebs only to discover this character is part of a vast universe collection of macabre boney critters that battle each other, almost certainly have anime series dedicated to them and a number of animated series in Japan. Continue reading →

585: (35/365) Many Hands Make Light Work

| wonko

As a teacher and pastoral care “tutor”, I am always looking for ways to get kids working together. At the beginning of the year the tutor group room is a mixed-year level (6-12) mixture of strangers and established friends so “GTK” exercises (Getting To Know you) are great icebreakers if you can get them actually talking and working together:

A few years back I struck on an idea to get kids collaboratively folding an origami mega-structure. The model is fairly simple – I taught the newbies (in this case the year 6 and 7 students) a simple modular unit. They then had to go teach another kid in the group, who in turn taught another. The central metaphor is “the WHOLE is greater than the sum of the parts”, “many hands make light work”, “we are as strong as the weakest link” … and so on.

Continue reading →

584: (34/365) Tadashi Mori’s Facebook “Like”

| wonko

Social media, gift that it is, has fundamentally broken two concepts I think. The “friend” and the “like” now no longer mean what they used to, and culturally I am not sure we are not really ready for that change:

The “friend” has come to mean some random that stalks you, watching what you do. Continue reading →

583: (33/365) Hearty Cube

| wonko

This delightful 6-part modular cube is designed by Meenakshi Mukerji:

The modules cleverly isolate a colour-changed heart at the centre of a “U” shaped module that forms one side of the cube. Continue reading →

582: (32/365) Flapping Bird wearing a Tsuru Costume

| wonko

Those of you familiar with a traditional crane (Tsuru) will notice this one is a little odd – that is because it is folded on top of/inside a flapping bird:

This is an ingenious and complicated fold, for bi-colour paper that cleverly interweaves one model in the other. In the 3D photo below you can see the flapping action more completely – this model moves!


I realised I had never folded a traditional flapping bird, so this was a bit of a revelation – such a simple action model indeed. Continue reading →

581: (31/365) Brian

| wonko

“He’s not a messiah, he is just a very naughty boy”. “Crucifixion? Good. Line on the left, one cross each”:

In my opinion, “Life of Brian” by the Monty Python team is close to perfect, such a beautiful play in an otherwise familiar ancient world, full to the brim with some of their cleverest work. If you take nothing else from that move, “always look on the bright side of life”. Continue reading →

580: (30/365) Jun Maekawa’s Six-Roofed Regular Dodecahedron

| wonko

Trolling around in my collection of Tanteidan magazines, as one does, I came across a little 6-piece modular designed by Jun Maekawa:

Oddly named until you notice that each of the modules is a little “house” shape, complete with pitched roof.  Continue reading →

579: (29/365) Half and Three Quarter Cube

| wonko

Leafing through “Folding Australia” I came across an odd modular that results in half and three quarters of a cube:

Simple folding, deft locking mechanism and a little geometric brain bending. Continue reading →

578: (28/365) Happy Chinese Lunar New Year!

| wonko

The Chinese Zodiac is rich with myth and legend, most cultures are full to the brim with such fancy. Chinese New year is based around the Lunar cycles, as such seem oddly placed to us westerners:

Moon cakes, yum cha, char sui hanging in a chinese butcher’s window, the red of firecrackers, the noise and smoke of a dragon dance – all wonderful to be part of. Most cities have a “China town”, in Brisbane it is a section of Fortitude Valley – these areas come alive at this time of year … mmmm, need some dim sum and a nice pot of jasmine tea. Continue reading →

577: (27/365) Chinese Lunar New Years Eve

| wonko

Chinese New Year seems more complicated then celebrating the end of a calendar year, my research suggests that today is Chinese New Years Eve:

This year the symbol is a Rooster, well more correctly a fire rooster, and this is the first in a series of folds designed by Mi Wu that perfectly capture the mood of a proud cock. Continue reading →

576: (26/365) Ornithorhynchus

| wonko

It is a little known fact that people will believe just about anything. Tell them that a furry, egg laying, duck-billed, webbed footed, egg laying, pouch carrying mammal that lives in burrows underwater and protects itself with poisonous spines … and they believe it:

There are few things more distinctly Australian then the Ornithorhynchus (colloquially called a “Platypus”) and it seems in the origami world there are nearly none of them.

Stupid me, I did a poll on Fakebook about what I should fold to commemorate (or mourn, depending on your perspective) Australia day – today’s national holiday. Annoyingly the Platypus won hands down. Continue reading →

575: (25/365) A Cautionary Tale (Part 3)

| wonko

Look away, look away … we are going to need a bigger boat:

Interestingly, people’s opinions of sharks in Australia, particularly by those who do not live here, varies from reality markedly. One would believe, if one believed what you see in the media, that sharks are a problem, everyone gets attacked – this is far from the truth.

Although this is a stereotypical tale of woe, I was interested in the folding sequence as each of the tree parts use different bases, wildly different techniques initially and yet there is consistency when you get to the final shaping. Continue reading →

574: (24/365) A Cautionary Tale (Part 2)

| wonko

…you went in, the water was fine. You notice a nice fishy, it seems to want to be friends:

This is part 2 of a series by Fernando Gilgado, again, like part 1 it uses bicolour paper and clever colour changes to highlight details. Continue reading →

573: (23/365) A Cautionary Tale (Part 1)

| wonko

It is a beautiful day, waters clear, the water beckons, it would be wrong not to go for a swim. You put your toe in, the water is lovely, swimming gives you a new found freedom:

This is part 1 of a 3 part story – what could possibly go wrong- we rarely see the danger, far off in the distance, and why would we consider it, we are ok, nothing could go wrong. Continue reading →

572: (22/365) Origami On The Brain

| wonko

Those who know me realise I am a little obsessed with paper folding, some would say to excess. The truth of the matter is I am constantly amazed what you can coax a flat sheet to do. I think I missed my calling as a materials engineer:

I like models that I can visualise, as I am folding. Equally, I am fascinating when there is a tangle and then, out of the mess, something wonderful emerges. Continue reading →