830: (280/365) Crab

Exploring Drawing Origami Tome 2, I found this lovely little crab:

Designed by Fernando Castellano, it cleverly divides up a waterbomb base into legs and nippers, isolating them from the body. Continue reading

827: (277/365) Metamorphosis

Few things can compare to the biological miracle that allows a caterpillar to become a chrysalis, inside of which it’s body chemistry and morphology transitions from grub to soup to butterfly:

Few models try to capture the whole journey. This set, designed by Fernando Gilgado  is an exception. Continue reading

825: (275/365) Happy Irrelevant Monarch’s Birthday

For some reason the republic of Australia still has ties to a monarchy that is completely irrelevant to us but somehow, ultimately, still controls aspects of our government:

I decided to celebrate the public holiday (yay, I accept the holiday, just reject the reason) by folding a crown. Continue reading

824: (274/365) White Rabbits

First day of the new month, one superstition seems to be to say “White Rabbits” as the first thing you say that day – not sure why:

This is Fernando Castellanos’ rabbit, taken from DOT2, and it seems, designed to be folded on a MUCH larger sheet of paper than this. Continue reading

808: (258/365) Gettin’ Crabby

Now I know I am a few posts behind my fold a day schedule, and will eventually catch up, but thought I would start with this fold:

Designed by Phạm Hoàng Tuấn, this charming little crab was presented on my Fakebook feed as a photodiagram sequence. 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

790: (240/365) Monica’s Bunch

Asked by a colleague whether I still do rose folding commissions, I lied and said “sure”, realising this was the opportunity to learn something new:

Working my way through Naomiki Sato’s book “Rose”, I had never tried his “Simple Rose” until this point. Continue reading

788: (238/365) Sea Turtle

Exploring Facebook, as one does, a delightful little sea turtle was posted in a group I am a member of by Migue Crm:

A simple 16×16 grid, some lovely waterbomb collapses for shell scales and some lovely flippers make this a fantastic model all round. Continue reading

759: (209/365) Takashi Hojyo’s Dragon

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

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

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

742: (192/365) Chicken or the Egg

The age old questions, “what came first, the chicken or the egg” can be best answered with available fossil records as Dinosaurs came first:

Waterproof eggs, such a step forward, liberating egg laying critters from having to deposit precious and defenceless young in pools, streams or wet places and allowed full colonisation of the land. Continue reading

719: (169/365) Jason Ku’s Duck

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it probably is a duck:

This is an intense little model that eats paper like few others. The body is heavy and shaping I found difficult because of the many layers. 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