717: (167/365) Michael LaFosse’s Le Papillon de Nuit

Le Papillon de Nuit translates, roughly as “The Night Butterfly” – a charming fold with a lovely detailed abdomen:

Unlike the other La Fosse butterflies, this one works and then re-works layers on the wings, making the finished model smaller but unique in shape. Continue reading

716: (166/365) Michael LaFosse’s Mudarri Luna Moth

Catching up, finally, and continuing exploration of the form, this is a luna moth: apparently the main difference between a moth and a butterfly is that moths typically do not have winds that meet above the body – I may have just made that up:

I like the slight “swallowtail” formation here – lots of work pre butterfly formation in getting proportions right makes this seem graceful. Continue reading

715: (165/365) Michael LaFosse’s Butterfly for Russell Cashdollar

Yes, I know, it is a day late, but i have been busy marking, so, yeah:

This is another Michael LaFosse butterfly – more fancy than most with the pleaty zig zags adding decorative touches. Continue reading

714: (164/365) Michael LaFosse’s Butterfly for Tony Cheng

Continuing my exploration of the butterfly form, where better to look than a lovely papillon from Michael LaFosse’s “Butterflies” bible:

This lovely little flapper again uses bicolour paper cleverly, has a nice efficiency of final model size for starting paper size and was fun to fold. Continue reading

713: (163/365) Roman Diaz’s Goat

Scrumbling through my “must fold list” I came across a curious hand-drawn diagram set from Spain and decided to give it a whirl:

After much torturing (I started with a 35cm square) the result is a rather lovely goat. I think this is my favourite farmyard animal so far – lovely proportions, fantastic modelling potential. Continue reading

711: (161/365) Rikki Donachie’s Butterfly

Cruising teh interwebs for today’s fold, a butterfly design was shared on the Sydney Origami Society’s Fakebook feed:

This is Rikki Donachie’s Butterfly, a lovely simple but effective butterfly design. Continue reading

707: (157/365) Tumasek Butterfly

Browsing a BOS convention booklet, I came across a rather nice butterfly designed by Ronald Koh:

This is the Tumasek butterfly, I folded it in duo yellow/green paper making it a little like a cabbage white butterfly. Continue reading

705: (155/365) Jo Nakashima’s Monkey

This adorable cheeky monkey is a masterpiece of design:

Using the back colour of the paper to highlight the face and ears, then working a nice body, lovely long tail and all. Continue reading

700: (150/365) Little Bear

Trolling through the interwebs, as you do, you oft come across things that you save for later:

This “Little Bear” is a simple model (I have little time today) that I had saved for later but do not know who the designer is, sorry. Continue reading

699: (149/365) Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty …

…little ball of fur! Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr:

When I saw this model, I was fascinated by the whiskers, and wondered if I could fold it at the scale I had origami paper for.

After finger-nail breaking manipulations, I managed to form the head complete with colour changed whiskers and was happy with my first fold. Continue reading

698: (148/365) Cicada

I must admit to enjoying the challenge that is inherent in most of Robert Lang’s designs:

When the Tanteidan magazine arrived, I saw there was a new version of his cicada, and I knew I needed to try it.

Starting with a 35cm square of Daiso washi (that turned out to be slightly rhombic problematically), I began the marathon folding sequence. Continue reading

695: (145/365) Knight in Shining Armor

Jono sent me a link to the new trailer for the coming series of Game of Thrones:

Seems like big things are set to happen in the seven kingdoms.

Knights in shining armor in this series are rarely shiny at all, often dirty, lacking honor and glory – such is the reality of war. Continue reading

694: (144/365) Hump Day

So it is Wednesday, ‘Hump Day‘:

Silly season in the assessment calendar, lots happening and a 2do list from hell.

This is Eduardo Clemente’s ‘Camel’ – a dromedary or bactrian (who knows the difference?) Continue reading

693: (143/365) Ladybird Wing Hinge

I was reading a paper on Ladybirds, and it turns out they have remarkable wings. What makes them truly remarkable is they fit beneath tiny cup-shaped hard wing covers. Until recently, scientists had no idea how that mechanism worked:

When ladybirds are about to take off, they lift their wing covers and then inflate complicated pleated wings that flip out from their zig-zag folded position.

When they land, they put their wing covers down first then retract their wings under them. This mechanism is bewildering until you look at an origami maquette which explains the natural zig zag hinge. Continue reading