2xsquare

596: (46/360) Keigo Matsuda’s “Peter Rabbit”

| wonko

Now it seems Beatrix Potter has gone out of favour in the age of political correctness, but there is no denying the charm of her stable of animal characters as they anthropomorphise through their day:

This is “Peter Rabbit” – well, more correctly it is supposed to be the rabbit from “Through the Looking Glass” but the colouring I used is more Peter that White Rabbit in my opinion. I have never really understood the Victorian tradition of partially clothed animals (he is wearing no pants, right?) but that is carried over to cartoon characters also which is a little odd. Continue reading →

581: (31/365) Brian

| wonko

“He’s not a messiah, he is just a very naughty boy”. “Crucifixion? Good. Line on the left, one cross each”:

In my opinion, “Life of Brian” by the Monty Python team is close to perfect, such a beautiful play in an otherwise familiar ancient world, full to the brim with some of their cleverest work. If you take nothing else from that move, “always look on the bright side of life”. Continue reading →

563: (13/365) Jacky Chan’s Little Chinese Mammon

| wonko

Paper dolls are big in Chinese and Japanese culture, this little charmer is a two-piece model from Jacky Chan:

Head and body are folded separately from the same size bits of paper and then the head neatly slots into the shoulders of the body.

When folding this I started with the head and was convinced that the body square would never be big enough to make something that worked with the head but it worked out fine.

Lovely traditional headdress, robes, proportions and self-standing. Happy with this first fold, I can see how you would pose this little guy in other positions, bling it up with fans and walking stick etc.

544: ‘Ball

| wonko

Now apparently, when faces with a wee beastie, you throw a pokeball at it and that, somehow, traps the beastie …inside.. the ball for safe keeping – truly, I cannot make this shit up:544poke

This is Jeremy Shafer’s Pokeball – a genius modular fold using 2 bits of paper that interlock at the hinge, forming a rather lovely clasp at the front. Continue reading →

Double Dragon – Paper Wedding Anniversary

| wonko

When asked by a friend of my son’s if were possible to fold something to celebrate their fist wedding anniversary, which coincidentally is the “Paper” anniversary, I thought why not:DoubleDragon

The couple are dragon fans, so it seemed obvious to include something from that world. I looked around for something that would present in a shadow box, and dismissing immediately the suggestion that “a ryujun would be nice”, I settled on a pair of Darkness Dragon IIs, designed by Tadashi Mori. Continue reading →

381: Rodin’s Reader

| wonko

It is little known (partially because it is blatantly not true) that Rodin, prior to sculpting his masterpiece “The Thinker” had an altogether different idea:

Our school library is celebrating the National Year of reading by exploring a different theme each month – March is “think” so I put 2 and 2 together and got 17.3.

Based on Neal Elias’s box pleat, this little model is cute with a Brill “Spelling Book” on his lap.

Will not be around for the next couple of themes so this will have to do for a little while

363: Tree of Wisdom

| wonko

You know that feeling when you plan (and see quite clearly in your head) something and then it turns out exactly like you envisaged it? This is one of those moments:

I had a model fail on a large sheet of lithography paper and considered binning the resultant crumpled mess, but remembered an origami technique pioneered by Paul Jackson in 1972 called “crumpling”. You take a piece of paper (I carefully unfolded the model fail) and systematically crumple it, unfold it, re-crumple in a different place and direction, unfold and repeat. The result is a deliciously textured and malleable sheet that can then be formed, when dampened slightly, into lovely organic shapes.

I had this idea of a gnarled tree (modelled on a bonsai I have had since before my 23yo son was born) and so set about fashioning one, twisted and poorly pruned though it is. I then wet it, and bound it with a little twine while it dried.

Atop this lovely tree is the most lovely owl by Hideo Komatsu – I have held off folding this because he is designed to be perched (as in he does not stand on flat surface but rather sits astride some horizontal thing.  1+1=a million. I love this, it is still making me smile and I know the perfect thing for him – sorry, NO auction for this one.

It is so rare that an idea so perfectly matches the expression of that idea but this is one such occasion. I have learnt so much about myself and paper over the course of this year that this model seems fitting as the project winds up.

354: Should have bought a Squirrel

| wonko

One of my wife’s favourite movies is a comedy called “Rat Race”, the title of today’s model is one of the “morals” of that cautionary tale:

Akira Yoshizawa is credited as being the father of artistic origami – he also invented the diagramming language we all follow now.

This is his squirrel – a lovely 2-part model that uses relatively few folds to reveal the squirrel-nicity of paper beautifully.

There is much to like about this model – lovely face and ears, nice posture and a bushy tail. I also like that most of the folds used judgement rather than landmarks – that way a little of the character of the folder is intrinsically captured in the model making no 2 folds identical.

An ingenious system of locking the 2 parts together is employed – the rear half has pokey-outey parts that are re-folded into the shoulder folds of the front half – nice work Yoshizawa Sensei.

331: Happy Hogswatch!

| wonko

I have been a fan of Terry Pratchett’s writing for as long as it was possible – his amagination and ability to tell engaging stories is breathtaking:

I thought it apt to celebrate “Hogswatch” – a Discworld event (and the name of one of the dozens of novels set in this amazing imaginary world). I am constantly amazed and amused with the stable of characters, situations and his turn of phrase – if you have never read a Discworld novel then you must, you really must.

This delightful model is my favourite pig so far. designed by Adolfo Cerceda, folded from “Secrets of origami” by Robert Harbin, my oldest (and a bit fall-aparty) hard-cover book.

Complete with a lovely fat face, saggy jowls, nice ears, trotters and a curly tail, this compound model (uses 2 bird bases) is fantastic – very happy with it – he makes me hungry for bacon – is that wrong?

We shall soon be considering Ham, turkey and all the trimmings, with the festive season fast approaching, hope your Hogswatch is a good one.

55: Green Tree Frog

| wonko

Now I like frogs, could not eat a whole one, but they are gentle animals – this model reminds me so much of those lovely soft green ones that we used to get back when the weather worked – you know, they lived under your toilet rim and emerged blinking into the light to feast on moths that fluttered around the flouro tube in the laundry:

I misjudged the scale a bit, sorry – it uses a 2×1 rectangle and initial glimpses at the method seemed to suggest way more crimping than actually was required – he ended up fairly life-size. I like the eyes, and the vestiges of padded feet – must find a more realistic one for my next frog – toes on all 4 feet are not that hard, surely (hahahahaha).

Why a frog? Well, my pastoral care group today (thanks to some superb golf-putting by Josh) won a golf tournament thingy and were presented with a HUGE bag of red frogs – I wisely took them and strategically decided to distribute them evenly AFTER classes finished, else my munchkins would have been bouncing off the walls I reckon with all that sugar and artificially deliciousness.

44: Dippy Dog

| wonko

In my day, on the back window mat of your V8 Kingswood, you had a nodding dog, to complement the fake leopard-skin velour seat covers, the troll hanging from the rear vision mirror and the 8-ball you custom-drilled from a stolen pool table ball on the stick-shift. That was cool, it signalled you were with-it and happening:
I first saw the “dippy dog”, designed by John Smith, in the book “More Origami – the Art of Paper Folding No. 2” by Robert Harbin – a much used, yellow and now crumbling volume. I used to have volume 1 also, but I cannot remember who I loaned it to, but it is gone from my library now (and most likely out of print – good starter books however for a paper ninja in training).

nodding action (povo anim view)

It is a 2 part model, head balances nicely on the fulcrum of the body and nods with gentle breeze – quite cute really. the dog is a little “beagle” like I guess. A simple but effective model that uses thirds and quarters (for the legion of maths teachers trying to keep up).

I could not find an online diagram for this model, but something similar can be found here: http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-dog.html (a simple but fun dog for Mrs M’s 2M “Gems”)

29: Horse

| wonko

There are many horse models, some extraordinarily complicated – this is a simple one and I will work towards the more difficult ones. Made with 2 squares (both cut from the same A4 sheet), you fold the front and back then join them: Do not panic, I do have ONE sheet complete horses, I have allowed myself ONE COMPOUND model a month also – this is it for January.

The front and back sort of lock together by twisting the body bit into a pocket under the front legs (or a cheat staple concealed under the flaps of the front legs) – neat I think and fairly horsey. I realised I could have gotten 2 ears (with some reverse creasing in retrospect as there is plenty of paper there to do it, or more naughtily with a cut) but decided to leave it simple this fold.

This model was taken from a much loved Japanese Origami book I have owned since I was 13 called “Origami” by Toyoaki Kawai.