One approach to paper folding starts with a “base” – a form with flaps and general morphology that suits an end goal.

A well-designed base is a thing of beauty, and a flexible tool.

This base, a mutated fish base has really useful properties as demonstrated by these two wildly different folds, both designed by Jose Ma Chaquet from Spain.

In one case, we have a surfer – a quite nicely proportioned person atop a surfboard.

The sense of volume and posability here is neat – must fold this again with foil-backed paper.

Using the same starting point, we arrive at something completely different: an old-school digger.

By manipulating thickness and placement of flaps, we arrive at a seemingly unrelated folds.