D Brill

360: Masu

| wonko

It is Boxing Day, and I thought it appropriate to try a box I have had in my “must try” pile – David Brill’s Masu:

A Masu is a traditional Japanese timber box that used to be used to measure rice or beans, these days it is used for sipping sake out of.

This ingenious construction is fully 3d – outer and inner edges kept apart via a nifty corner trick (must remember that sort of pleat) and the bases are sprung using a brilliant twist.

An exercise in fifths, the pre-creasing makes all the points necessary for a wonderful collapse – this is a keeper, as it’s proportions and technique have other applications – particularly like the corner collapse that I thought was initially impossible.

Folded from an A3 rectangle, I then tried an A4 (just to prove to myself it was not just a fluke) and it is even cuter – nice.

359: Santa Claus is Coming to Town

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You better watch out. You better not cry
Better not pout, I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town.
He’s making a list. And checking it twice;
Gonna find out Who’s naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town

This is a David Brill tableau, scaled down to teeny weeny because … well, because … because I could? I have a packet of shiny small origami paper so used that for the micro-reindeer – they sort of determined the scale for the remainder of the figures.

There is much to like about this festive scene – The sleigh is full of water bombs (the perfect summer gift), Santa sits, the reindeer seem animated and Rudolph has a lovely red nose, courtesy of a suggestion from “she who must be obeyed” to use a glass headed pin – good call.

I hope this post finds you enjoying family, fun and festive cheer. Our Christmas Origami display is as you see it here – most of these models are available for you in the auction house for a limited time only.

345: Blank Expression

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Complicated folds are one thing, simple folds that have precise proportions are another:

This is a face modelled after an idea by David Brill – 7 folds total, all gentle, with great restraint and the most curious thing happens, the paper begins to look back at you with the most curious eyes.

With subtle folds, light finger pressure only, variations of dent, bulge and shifting crease line all manner of facial expressions are possible – this is my fav so far, but will fold this again.

Had intended something waaaay more complicated for today, but it is not yet done so it will wait for another day.

This is folded from an A4-cut square, a lifesize face would be achieved with an A3 – cut square, nice one to add to my “by heart” collection.

342: Elephantine

| wonko

Knowing elephants are my daughter’s favourite animal, I thought I would try David Brill’s model:

As you can see, it is only vaguely elephantine – not because the model is flawed, just my execution, first fold, is.

This is a difficult model as there are few folding landmarks – you use your eye to place most of the body/head folds – errors compound and before you know it the model only vaguely resembles the desired shape.

I will fold this again – it was late, I was tired (and a little pickled after an evening out), you get that. They cannot all be gems.

305: Melbourne Cup

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I have had the privilege to fold many beautifully designed models over the course of this project – David Brill’s “Horse” is right up there with the best:

Wonderful proportions, amazing use of material, lovely face and ears, fantastic body, legs and tail – everything that is needed to look horsey infact.

Today apparently a horse race stops a nation – not sure why. I guess the nation is used to being stopped given the recent airline strike but no one celebrated that so -go figure.

Unusually, this model starts with an equilateral triangle – yeah, weird, right? Somehow from that shaped paper the designer manages to tease the right number of stickey outy bits and I, frankly, feel honoured to fold this one. I cut the largest equilateral triangle I could our of an A2 sheet, but bigger would have been better.

There are lots of places where variations in pose are possible, had I the time (and a HUGE selection of paper) I think a group of these would look beautiful. So glad, as a first fold, this model turned out so nice, given the heavy head cold I am currently drowning in.

285: National Ride To Work Day

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I heard on teh radio this morning that it was National “Ride to Work” Day and narrowly avoided running over a flock of cyclists near the freeway entrance – it got me thinking what riding to work might be like:

I had a model I was looking for an excuse to try, and initially tried it on paper smaller than recommended (a 2×1 rectangle cut from an A3 sheet) only to find it sort of worked in miniature scale, but decided it needed to be bigger. Our school art department has this paper designed for lithography, thin, light, lovely.

I cut a rectangle 1m x 50cm and this is the resulting fold, quite magnificent if tiny given the huge bit of paper it started as. Quite wonderful if I must say so myself. Designed by David Brill, this masterpiece has much to love – the horse (or more correctly pony) is very horsey, and the integrated rider looks like he is riding – very clever indeed.

I was trapped at work, waiting for a meeting so had a little time to kill – so glad I killed it with this. this scale model lets me build character into the elements, the rider’s knees and elbows, alert horse ears and a mouth. The designer apologized for the thin front legs but I am prepared to overlook that minor detail – bravo Mr Brill!

269: Brill’s Dolphin

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Now I am going visiting to the Sunshine Coast today, so thought something marine would be appropriate:

This lovely dolphin reminds me of “flipper” who appeared to frolic in the sea. The sad truth about captive dolphins however is that they lead miserable, confused lives and have a really short lifespan due to stress and noise in their tanks. There is increasing and justified pressure to release dolphins and orcas from captivity as it is inhumane.

The design for this model is ingenius, the body is triangular in cross-section, lovely tail flukes, sharp dorsal and pectoral fins and a beak, with open mouth.

It was difficult to photograph this model, so I perched it (via a blob of blutac) atop a mangled paperclip. Well dome Mr Brill

250: Child Protection Week

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This week is designated “Child Protection Week” so I looked for a model that was for me the essence of the message:

Education is where I went – kids educated by older people is one of the best forms of protection around and this group of figures shows the careing and respectful relationship betwixt teacher and student to me.

I like how the elder teacher is balding (but in denial as he has comb-over side tusts of hair on an otherwise bald head), the student looks up hopeful from a book for guidance – just wonderful.

Folded based on a David Brill pair “Gippetto and Pinocchio”  from the aptly named “Brillian Origami” book, I like this grouping and hope you do to. The teacher is folded from a 2×1 and the student from a 2×1 that is 3/4 the size of the teacher. The book is a Brill book also (a spelling book, that only has 3 pages between a lovely bound cover), adding to the scene I think – the student’s hands looked empty without it.

Some lovely figurative folding, suggesting detail without folding every last nose-hair of it; the teacher’s head is a staggeringly complex box pleating trick and the student features a torturous collapse, but overall I can see the models are related, their bases were similar and the folding style of one compliments the other nicely I think.

212: Brill’s Dragon

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End of another month, thought I would wrestle with a dragon to celebrate and found David Brill’s interpretation of the theme:

I like this a lot, for a bunch of reasons – it has a lovely head and tail, well placed wings and when photographed flat (hey, another model suited to a card) it looks like the Welsh Flag.

Some fiddly flap rearrangement and some folding by eye (rather than to landmark) makes this model interesting, my guess is each time it is folded it’s posture is subtly different.

Tidy use of plain paper, I was concerned the media would let me down but it was fine, meaning the model is well designed in my opinion (models that demand tissue foil are less so). There is an accompanying figure (Saint George – you know,  “George and the dragon” fame) but it is a composite figure, so might hold off on him for the mo.

Folded from the aptly names “Brilliant Origami” by David Brill, I really like that book, and there are still LOTS of things in there for me to fold.

207: Cat Ready For Dinner

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This delightful cat is a David Brill model worth folding – so much character and a smug expression on it’s face:

It is said that dogs are people pets and cats are place pets – this one certainly looks like it owns the place.

Busy afternoon – happy with this first fold, my subsequent attempts will be much more refined – duo colour paper has the head, feet and tummy a different colour to the body – nice.

165: Sugar Plump Fairy

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I once shared a house with 3 other uni friends – much happened, most memorable. Late one night, instead of finishing a due-next-day assignment, Mark was seen flitting and pirouetting through the house:

We coined the expression “sugar plump fairy” after the dance he was attempting, it stuck. Happy Birthday Mark!!!

I like this model, simple folds, precise creasing that gives form from flat surfaces – very clever Mr Brill.

This model is designed to be a Christmas tree topper – I can see how that would work given the convenient pocket at the back. It is not free standing (although I could mangle the lovely minimalist legs into feet and knees I guess – that would ruin the lines however.

Hope you like it.

149: The Black Pearl in a Bottle

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…so my Wife and I went to see the fourth installment of “Pirates of the Caribbean” (admitting to be fans) and discovered Capt’n Jack’s beloved “Black Pearl” had been imprisoned in a bottle by Blackbeard (amongst other piratical stereotypes trotted out this adventure):

So I got to thinking about ships, and found a lovely “fully rigged ship” by Patricia Crawford, in the book “Origami – Step by Step”

I had previously made a bottle as designed by David Brill so put the two together and got a satisfying rendition of the classic “ship in a bottle”, which counts as my ONE model today, given the bottle has previously been folded, and the ship stand (Designed by Fred Rhom) do not count (cut me a little slack here).

I learned a LOT folding this thing – scale matters (had to scale the bottle to fit the model AFTER it was finished), cellophane (which the bottle is made out of) does NOT like being cut straight nor folded, nor does it intend to ever stay folded (I resorted to anchoring it in place with sticky tape – so sue me) and finally how jolly hard it is to photograph something INSIDE a bottle made of cellophane.

Still, I think the Black Pearl may well survive to sail another day, the scene after the credits (that few of us theater patrons hung around for) would indicate the adventure continues.

133: Brill’s Bottle

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I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy:

A fully formed container, neck, base, hollow and interesting

I like this design, and was sure it would not work – forming the neck and pleating the base to seal it make it a very clever model indeed.

Folded from the aptly titled “Brilliant Origami” by David Brill. Looks like a spirit bottle – it suggests you fold it out of clear material and put a ship inside it – that would be cool also.

Hope you like it – not bad for such a tired brain.

109: Brill’s Nut

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Take a rectangle cut from half a square and torture it via box-pleating:

and you get a nut that actually takes the thread of the bolt previously made with the same hexagonality, nice.

This was an odd fold, it looked like it was going to hell at every stage, the inside collapse looked like it could not work, until it just did. Tucking away all that paper inside to leave a relatively clean hex nut on the outside is paper engineering genius.

Folded from “Brilliant Origami” by David Brill (that is 3 Brill models in a row, time for a change perhaps?).

108: David Brill’s Bolt

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When I first saw this model I thought it was not possible, but thought I would give it a whirl anyway:

This is a bolt, box pleated to have a functional thread and a beautiful hexagonal do-uppy endy thing (sorry, no idea what you call the end you use a spanner on).

It was a fascinating exercise in crimping and pleating that did not come easily – the pattern of valleys and mountains was challenging to fold in pre-crease stage and more torturous to collapse. I found it difficult to reach inside the tube during the early collapse stage (fingers were not long enough to reach) and resorted to using the bone folder to help out the first few crimps.

This was folded from the appropriately named “Brilliant Origami” by David Brill. It has an accompanying model (the “nut”) that I shall try for tomorrow – they form a pair – could be interesting.