761: (211/365) Spirit House

| wonko

When I went to Japan in the early Noughties, I loved so much of the culture I encountered in the everyday. On my return I decided our house deserved a “Spirit House”. The principle is simple, it guards our front door, traps the bad spirits from entering and amplifies the good:

Since it’s install, it has worked a charm and today I brought it into this century by adding a solar-charged light inside the stone lantern section, that glows softly at night. To commemorate the renovation I was looking for a fold of a spirit house and happened across one designed by Ichiro Kinoshita. Continue reading →

760: (210/365) Akiko Yamanashi’s Scallop Box

| wonko

To celebrate the 201st fold in this challenge, I was looking for a shellfish-based fold – not sure why but there you go:

Leafing through a Tanteidan Convention book, I came across a “Scallop Box” design designed by Akiko Yamanashi. Continue reading →

759: (209/365) Takashi Hojyo’s Dragon

| wonko

Leafing through the Tanteidan Convention book #5, I came across an early Dragon design by Takashi Hojyo:

This model is a modular – 3 parts (head/tail, body/legs and lovely wings) made from the same sized square, it needs glue (shhhh, I used a couple of nubs of double-sided tape) to keep it together but has a comic-like charm. Continue reading →

756 757 & 758: (206..8/365) Cat, Mouse, Cheese

| wonko

So I have been really busy, with meetings and … stuff, so I fell a little behind. Looking to catch up, I noticed a lovely group of folds designed by David Brill:

This is Cat, Mouse, Cheese – a naturalistic composition with a pair of lovely fold-related critters and a lovely wedge of cheese. Continue reading →

755: (205/365) Gaff’s Blade Runner Unicorn

| wonko

Returning to Blade Runner, there has historically been much discussion about the humanity of the central protagonist, Deckard:Ridley Scott has recently confirmed that Deckard is a Replicant, a point visually reinforced by his recurring dream of “Unicorns” (unreal beasts).

Near the end of the movie, an origami Unicorn is left at the door of his abandoned apartment, presumably by Gaff (although Edward J Olmos says he was not the folder, Scott clearly liked the idea of the echo of an idea). Continue reading →

754: (204/365) Gaff’s Blade Runner Chicken

| wonko

My top 5 movies of all time includes the Sci-Fi classic “Blade Runner”. A couple of times during the movie, to confirm a character’s opinion of Deckard’s actions, his sidekick “Gaf” left an origami figure:

One was actually folded by the actor (Edward James Olmos) – a gum wrapper was fashioned into a Chicken. He said he did this as a way of staying in the scene without pulling focus, apparently the Director, Ridley Scott, noticed it and included it in the scene to counterpoint the main characters reluctance to get himself into danger, which later he does anyway. Continue reading →

753: (203/365) Origami Lampshade

| wonko

I am clearly in the wrong business, if making money is the aim. Being slightly (well, I think it is healthy) obsessed with paper, when a new dealer arrives on the scene I take notice. A colleague asked if I knew of “The Paper Empire” – a new QLD outlet in Newfarm:

I had not heard about them, but visited and found some papers of interest. They are the second outlet in a franchise that has been in Melbourne for a while, and their online shop has some interesting paper products imported from Norway. Continue reading →

752: (202/365) Riccardo Foschi’s Koi

| wonko

It was late, I was tired and I must admit to going to bed before folding yesterday. Full week, new levels of fatigue:

I found these diagrams on Pinterest – seems they are test diagrams (oops, sorry) but I love the shape and model structure. Continue reading →

751: (201/365) Pushing Shiz Uphill

| wonko

Sometimes work can be busy. When spares are sparse, classes all doing new/complex things and physical exertion hit their peak, sometimes you can feel like you are pushing shiz up hill:

This is a lovely little dung beetle, coveting it’s little ball of dung. It is a charming fold that I was unsure if I could complete with the size paper I started with.

Designed by Shinji Sasade, appearing in a Tanteidan I was leafing through, described entirely in Japanese so I hope I have fold it correctly. The dung-ball is a waterbomb, but the beetle actually locks into it – very cool. Continue reading →

750: (200/365) Triple Tsuru

| wonko

Continuing the exploration of Hiden Senbazuru Orikata, this is the “triple tsusu”:

Folded from a partly separated 2×2 grid of squares, with one set of adjacent sheets living inside each other to make an interconnected chain of 3 Tsuru. Continue reading →

749: (199/365) Oyster Box

| wonko

David Mitchell is a legendary origami designer, responsible for countless geometric wrangles:

This is an “Oyster Box” – a box that resembles a bivalve, that locks together rather satisfyingly and opens to reveal a spacious interior. Continue reading →

748: (198/365) Brill’s Square Silver Star

| wonko

Busy times indeed – perfect for folding a 12 piece modular:

Fairly simple modules that sit over one, inside another adjacent module, locking fairly positively into swirls of 4 “petals”, you get a shape that describes a cube when you look just at the points. Continue reading →

747: (197/365) Root Veg

| wonko

Winter is for hearty food, stews and seasonal root veg:

With such open food importing and trade however we see every vegetable and fruit available all year round. Peru grows my Asparagus, Venezuela exports my Fennel and China supplies my Carrots at the moment. Continue reading →

746: (196/365) Fairly Bloody Long Walk

| wonko

My lovely daughter walked for charity last year and I was so proud of her (secretly regretting not doing it with her). This year, the same walk is on offer at, thankfully, at a much cooler time of year so we are both walking “The Bloody Long Walk” in early August:

Today, as part of our prep we did a fairly bloody long walk, from Brighton to Redcliffe and back again to see how far it is (apparently about 26km according to Google).

I returned to an Origami master – Akira Yoshizawa – his little person, made from the frog base is genius – spirit of the subject, glorious simplicity and I managed to fold it in my state after today’s test walk. Continue reading →