Time is scarce but this was folded while kids were doing a really hard test, figured I should try something hard also:
This is a level 6 fractal fold of the previously folded Shuzo Fujimoto Hydrangea, and a beauty to behold. Continue reading
804: (254/365) Daniela Caboni’s Yin and Yang
The principle of Yin and Yang is a fundamental concept in Chinese philosophy and culture in general dating from the third century BCE or even earlier. This principle is that all things exist as inseparable and contradictory opposites, for example female-male, dark-light and old-young:
Right now I am trying to balance rest with exhaustion due to a punishing marking schedule. The Yang is winning over the Yin at the moment. Continue reading
803: (253/365) Roman Diaz’s Owl
There are many approaches to folding owls, all concentrate on the eyes and head structure:
This fold takes you on quite a ride. Diagrams taken from “Drawing Origami Tome 1”, the folding sequence is clear and rich, but I am sure my next fold of this model will be better as I now know what becomes what. Continue reading
802: (252/365) Swallowtail
Scrambling for a model for the day, and finding time to actually fold it, I found a lovely butterfly by Yoshihide Momotani:
This is a Swallowtail, and was designed to be folded in bicolour blue, like this. Continue reading
801: (251/365) Oxi Moron
So when invigilating, you cannot mark or do anything that productively uses the time, so sometimes I choose a simple but repetitive fold that I can do without looking anywhere but in the direction of students being examined:
This is Michal Kosmulski’s “Oxi” module – an interesting variation of Tom Hull’s “Phiz” unit. Continue reading
800: (250/365) Yara Yagi’s “Menaca”
800 new models … let that sink in … 800 things I had not folded before – wow, just wow:
I was looking around, as I do, for a model to fold today, I noticed on Fakebook that Winnie Leung from The Sydney Origami Group shared this photo-diagrammed model. Continue reading
799: (249/365) Turning over a New Leaf
…shows you the underside of that leaf, really:
This is Naomiki Sato’s “leaf”, a lovely green thing that is destined to be attached to stems holding up flowers. Continue reading
798: (248/365) The Elephant In The Room
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
797: (247/365) Brill’s Triangle Box
Time is short, this fold is cute:
A rather lovely triangle box designed for David Brill’s wedge flexicube. Continue reading
796: (246/365) Japanese Andon Lamp
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
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
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
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
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
Folding Lightbox
I have long struggled to take photos of my origami – lighting and composing do not come easily to me. Some of my best pictures are happy coincidences of good lighting, good camera position and a lot of luck:
I have been on the look out for a way to construct a Light Box – something that diffuses light (to remove deep shadows) and provide me with a consistent background (you have probably noticed most of my folds are on dark timber because … well … that is my work surface.
I saw on Fakebook an advert for a folding lightbox with built-in LEDs, the price seemed reasonable, so I ordered one. 5 weeks later (after despair and 2 increasingly beligerent emails to the company) it arrived and I am chuffed with it.
It comes with a USB cable, 2 backgrounds (white or black) and joy of joys it’s own carry bag that it folds up neatly into. Cool. Experiments ahead 🙂