365-2017

798: (248/365) The Elephant In The Room

| wonko

In a fit of elephantine existentialism, one must ask an important question: “What makes a good Origami Elephant?”:

This is Paul Jackson’s “One Fold Elephant” – is it a good elephant and how would we know? What are ESSENTIAL characteristics that a model should have to be considered elephantine? Obvious characteristics of an elephant (well, for anyone who has ever actually seen one) could include discernible TRUNK, big(ish) flappy EARS and a big solid BODY. We could visually recognise an elephant with way less information than that so why do we require mind-popping details implicit in super-complex paper renderings of elephants when something much simpler does the job.

Purists would argue that all origami is, in essence, figurative representations of real objects. Thereby origami models are in effect are so many levels of abstraction from the real thing that there are no valid metrics that apply the the “goodnicity” of the rendering. Continue reading →

796: (246/365) Japanese Andon Lamp

| wonko

Paper is an amazing thing. In Japanese culture, for centuries, walls and furnishings were made from timber and Washi (hand-made Kozo fibre paper). Candle-driven laps made of paper (counter-intuitively) are still common, this is an Andon Lamp:

There are 2 versions of this – one that uses 4 squares (this one) and another minor variation makes the frame with 4 bits of paper and then you put in other paper inserts into frames formed on each side of a contrasting colour/texture. Continue reading →

795: (245/365) Tessellated Fractal

| wonko

Further exploring Shuzo Fujimoto’s “Hydrangea” fractal, it seems they can also be tessellated:

This is a 4x fold, but I have seen many many more, closer together also, interweaving and other mind-boggling combinations.

This fold has taken an age – started 4 days ago, finished yesterday (I had already decided on the spring shoot for yesterday’s fold) it is a lovely frame. Continue reading →

794: (244/365) From little things, big things grow

| wonko

September 1 is often trotted out as the first day of Spring in the Southern Hemisphere:

Purists will argue that the spring equinox is not until the 21st of September, but with the climate as it is, it has felt like spring for weeks now in Brisbane. Continue reading →

793: (243/365) Jun Maekawa’s Tetra tetra

| wonko

Looking for today’s fold, I returned to a collection of bookmarked models from my growing collection of Tanteidan magazines:

Made of 4 tetrahedral modules, each with deep tabs along a pair of adjacent sides, you then fold a pair of interlocking preliminary bases as the core. Continue reading →

792: (242/365) Fractal Folding

| wonko

Speaking of fractals, as I was (well, kinda sorta) I realised I had never tried the Fujimoto Hydrangea fold before:

This is an interesting thing, with each iteration folded inside the previous – in theory you can keep folding this infinitely. In reality the tryanny of paper thickness and fat clumsy fingers stops you. Continue reading →

791: (241/365) Flower Tessellation

| wonko

Browsing a MiniNeo eZine that I follow, I noticed a rather interesting looking hexagonal flower and thought it worth a try:

You triangle grid a hexagon into 16ths, then put a hex twist in the middle, then add the swing-back on petals and tidy up the tessellation to make a swirl. Continue reading →

790: (240/365) Monica’s Bunch

| wonko

Asked by a colleague whether I still do rose folding commissions, I lied and said “sure”, realising this was the opportunity to learn something new:

Working my way through Naomiki Sato’s book “Rose”, I had never tried his “Simple Rose” until this point. Continue reading →

789: (239/365) Trojan Helmet

| wonko

While scanning Deviantart for an entirely different reason (replying to comments on some of my works there) it’s algorithm decided I needed to see some of Cahoona’s folds and this delightful helmet was among them:

Although it does not appear that way, this CP is deceptively simple.

An offset waterbomb base and a colour change for the plume and you are nearly there. Continue reading →

788: (238/365) Sea Turtle

| wonko

Exploring Facebook, as one does, a delightful little sea turtle was posted in a group I am a member of by Migue Crm:

A simple 16×16 grid, some lovely waterbomb collapses for shell scales and some lovely flippers make this a fantastic model all round. Continue reading →

787: (237/365) Daffy Down Dilly

| wonko

Today (August 25) is Daffodil Day, daffodils being the icon associated with cancer awareness and fundraising for an eventual cure. You can get involved, donate or buy badges and sponsored bunches of flowers to show your support:

This seems to be a traditional model (sorry, I have yet to identify the designer) but is related to folds I have been exploring for a week or so based on non-squares. Continue reading →

786: (236/365) Beth Johnson’s Hex Owl

| wonko

I cannot believe I have not tried this before:

A lovely hexagonal tessellation in one corner of a hexagon becomes the fluffy tummy, collapsing the body makes for lovely eyes and a pair of crenellated wings. Continue reading →

785: (235/365) Pentagonal Masu

| wonko

A Masu (or box) was traditionally square and used to measure rice in Japanese kitchens. These days, masu are typically used to sip Sake out of:

Having mastered David Brill’s Square Masu, I thought it time to try the pentagonal one. Apparently the pentagonal masu exists only in Origami circles – this makes sense as the woodworking skill necessary to make this in timber breaks my brain.

Page division into 6ths (to allow overlap/join) then gentle faceting and a magic corner hinge joint results in a lovely 3d shape that feels like it has volume.

I used thickish paper and found some of the internal collapses tough work to make them behave and sit tidily but overall it is a fin fold because you really have to think through how it works before trying the collapse.

784: (234/365) Fold-me Elmo

| wonko

Flipping through Tanteidan convention books I have I came across a delightful little figure that was screaming to be folded in orange:

This is Riki Saito’s “Mr Puppet Man”, but I reckon he looks a lot like “Elmo” so I am calling it so. (On second thoughts, isn’t Elmo Red? Oh well, never mind) Continue reading →