mammal

522: Happy Australia Day

| wonko

It is Australia Day “down under” on the 26th of January and there are few things more Australian than kangaroos (well, apart from football, meat pies and Holden cars, thongs, budgie smugglers, throwing another prawn on the barbie and getting a day off work):522Kangaroo

I have folded a couple of previous versions of this kangaroo, designed by Gen Hagiwara, but never this version (version 2013 featured in Tanteidan Magazine 147). It is somewhat ironic that the very best Australian Kangaroo designs are from a talented Japanese designer – I wonder if it is because us Aussies take these critters for granted whereas they appear fantastical to people who do not see them often? Continue reading →

498: Koh’s Rabbit

| wonko

Every so often a model emerges that has such a naturalistic form that so perfectly represents the subject. This lovely rabbit, designed by Ronald Koh is one such “must fold” figure:498Kohrabbit

This lovely model is a dense fold (the hind quarters are necessary layer-dense to form the necessary flaps for the head), so thin paper is best – I failed on a 14.5cm square of coarse hand-made paper – it was too thick and my fat clumsy fingers could not tease the details but 20cm+ squares of most papers should be fine. Continue reading →

491: Black Sheep

| wonko

On February 15, Chinese New Year kicks off – 2015 is the year of the Goat, but a sheepie is close, right? I thought I would take a preemptive strike given that I am sure to be really busy at work by then.491BlackSheep

The latest Tanteidan magazine features diagrams for Beth Johnson‘s Sheep – a lovely 2 part model and I was itching to give it a go. Continue reading →

475: Timber Wolf

| wonko

Leafing through “Origami Sequence” by Quentin Trollip, I am struck by the quality and quantity of amazing designs packed into that book, and the range of skills his models brings to the table.

There is this house, at work, that has a Timber Wolf as their house mascot, so I have been on the look out for one to fold (I assumed someone would ask me to have a go, that never really happened, so I did it anyway).

This wolf is clearly howling, there is much movement and drama inherent in the pose, and I placed a “moon” within howling distance in some shots because it seemed to need it. Continue reading →

468: I am Pegasus, My Name Means Horse

| wonko

I am old enough to remember when a folk singer named Ross Ryan released a campy song about flying horses, and given that is an ear-worm of a song and it has just turned “Year of the Horse” for Chinese New Year, I thought it was an omen on what next to fold:

This is “Pegasus” by Dong Viet Thien from my newly arrived VOG2 origami book. A lovely use of a square, with some of the largest wings of this style of model I have seen.

Continue reading →

451: Tarsier

| wonko

I had a small but lovely piece of elephant-dung paper – now this is not as gross as it first sounds, the paper is cleaned fiber retrieved from elephant dung – yeah, ok, it does not sound any less grotty – lovely textured irregular and lumpy paper though it was:

I needed a model, Sebastien Limet’s Tarsier seemed most logical (given I had not folded it before and I thought folding it near life-size might be an interesting challenge).

There is much to love about this model – apart from the delicious expressiveness of the face, delicate grip of its primate hands or the prehensile grip of its tail, this is a real charmer.

I like that the face is implied, but I can see lovely big innocent eyes, sensitive ears and all the hallmarks of a delicate but mischievous “bush baby” which makes these little chaps endangered in the wild because rich folk sentence them to long agonizing deaths as pets outside of their native habitats. Continue reading →

450: Montroll’s Hippopotatomus

| wonko

It is a little recognised fact that the animal that has killed the most people in Africa is in fact the Hippopotamus:

I stumbled across this delightful model while leafing through “African Animals in Origami” – a much worn volume when looking for something to try from my invalid chair.

I had a gold (more correctly bronze) foil square and was wanting to fold something “yoshizawa style” – free form hand-held rather than on table or other flat surface – the challenges with this style are accuracy and precision, the payoffs are often more fluid, softer curves and lively asymmetrical poses.

I like this model, although he reflective paper makes discerning details difficult – she has a wry grin, 2 lovely tusks on her bottom jaw, lovely ears and a fine rump after some 3d modelling.

446: Sunny’s Giraffe

| wonko

Sunny’s birthday is coming up and she loves Giraffes:

In browsing for a suitable model, I discovered a Tanteidan containing a Satoshi Kamiya giraffe that I had not folded, so it seems it was meant to be.

I lke this model a lot – it is full of the essential giraffe features, economically uses the sheet and contains some wonderfully complicated folds. Continue reading →

440: Satoshi Kamiya’s Lion

| wonko

I had one last piece of Nicholas terry’s “Tissue Foil” and a little time on my hands so decided to try and nut out Satoshi’s Lion:

This lovely little model is a right pain to fold – some astonishingly complicated twists and turns that are not really well explained in places – some of the odd sinks and manipulations to encourage the body shape were very challenging to understand.

After nearly completing it, I then decided to repeat the process with a piece of mid-tan Tant (newly purchased and arrived) and that also was a challenge – not because I was now unfamiliar with what needed to be done but rather that the paper was so thick that it became very difficult to complete folds.

I amazed myself by completing both – fairly happy with them – I learned lots along the way and, should I fold them again (and yes, I am not against the idea)  I think I can do a lot better, now that I know what goes where. Continue reading →

434: Sipho Mabona’s African Elephant

| wonko

When I first saw this model, folded with elegance, playfulness (in outrageous colours) and joy by Sipho Mabona, I wanted to try it myself:

Designed recently and soon I hope to be included in a book so I can purchase the diagrams, I stumbled across a video tutorial and had to have a go. Used as WTF#6, I first folded it in white, then decided to give my newly purchased VOG paper a go.

I had a huge piece of burgundy/purple paper, rough texture on both sides and decided to use it for this model – so glad I did. The texture looks a little like craggy elephant skin, the paper holds it’s form and was a delight to fold.

Continue reading →

432: Giraffe

| wonko

I have been on the lookout for a nice giraffe for a number of reasons, but stumbled across Hideo Komatsu’s in a JOAS Tanteidan:

This was a fun model to fold – it twists and turns and for most of the journey looks NOTHING like a giraffe.

Continue reading →

424: Rudolph the Roosevelt Elk

| wonko

Looking for something festive, inspired by “Robbie the Reindeer” on the telly, I decided to fold this challenging model by Robert Lang:

Masterpiece of design, I had to measure 13 landmarks (by scaling measurements based on 70ths) and then I folded triangles subdividing the surface, using those landmarks as vertices. Then you bisect every angle in each triangle and that gives you the folds for the base.

After a collapse from hell, and some clever manipulation. accordion folds and sinks to raise the points on the antlers, some shaping and a good measure of swearing, you end up with this magnificent beast.

I love Lang models for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is that you can “feel” the mathematics in many of his folds. This one was certainly designed using his computer program “treemaker”, and is embodied proof that with a little care it is possible to imagine and design anything of arbitrary complexity in origami.

A glass headed pin to complete the nose and we have Rudolph, then not so much a reindeer as an elk (apparently they are touchy about this – who knew?)

This beautiful model completed my tree setting, bringing in the festive cheer for the family gathering – I hope it found you with similar good will to all mankind.

423: A Diskworld

| wonko

Sir Terry Pratchett, one of my favourite authors, imagined a world like no other, a “disk” world, held aloft on the back of 4 gigantic elephants, standing on the back of a giant star turtle called “Great A’ Tuin”:

The breadth of imagination, depth of character, intricacy of story arc and obvious love he lavishes on his books are an amazing legacy. Everyone who is a fan starts somewhere – for me, it was the book “Mort” but there are dozens, each clever, funny and beautifully written.

When presented with such a lovely TURTLE it seemed only natural to attepmt to pay homage to a literary favourite of mine, so set about assembling the component bits. It was as if the stars had aligned, having just folded ELEPHANTS I set about making 4 of them, only to realise they were too big and so made 4 smaller ones.

The disk was paper craft – a circle of cardboard, MAP of Diskworld on top, covered with paper, toilet roll holder cut to be support and bracket that elephants could rest on and a balance for the pitched back of the turtle – voila.

I am quite chuffed with the end result – partly because it matches the image I had in my head, partly because it works as a whole, and is able to be dismantled to boggle and the component parts as well.

I posted photos on terry Pratchett’s Facebook page, I hope he sees them – I hope the model brings his even a small amount of the joy his writings have brought me.

421: Asiatic Elephant

| wonko

I have folded a few elephants – most concentrate on the head and ignore the rest of the animal – not so this little beauty:

This model has much solidity about it. It looks like it has bulk yet uses little paper to do this, an interesting haunch locking mechanism and a tight little bottom (ahem).

Taken from Works of Satoshi Kamiya Volume 2, this is the most elephantine figure I have yet folded and uses some lovely techniques to use the paper very efficiently, yet result in a free-standing, locked model.

The hind quarters, particularly, are well formed, with a cutesy tail and toe nails and all – very nice Mr Kamiya.

I think this model would work on a much bigger scale – maybe when a sufficiently large sheet avails itself I might give it a go.

I am enjoying working up to some of the more challenging folds in this book – some are just plain bewildering to me at the moment but that confusion too shall pass eventually I hope.

418: Kamiya’s Golden Retriever

| wonko

As soon as I knew Satoshi was due to release a new book, I knew I had to have it:

This is the first fold of my first model from “The Works of Satoshi Kamiya 2”, and it is quite recognisably a Golden retriever/labrador. 

For anyone who has been blessed with a lab in their life, you realise how wonderfully gentle, soppy, stupid and plain lovely they are.

This model is dedicated to the memory of “Missy” and “Raffy” – two much missed pets (one of my in-laws, the other a mates family pet).

I love how this model is demonstrative of form without necessarily capturing every detail. The fold technique is odd, but interesting and each time I wrangle the head/shoulders, you get a slightly different aspect, expression and posture – lovely use of a sheet.

I used lithography paper for this, but have also folded it with a piece of double-sided kami, with good results.  I think I like the white fold, however sandy/buff would be more demonstrative of the actual dog’s colour.

This is the first, of a series, taken from this wonderful book – some serious challenges ahead – bring it on!