A folder I follow on Facebook asked for volunteers to test his diagrams for a new crab design so naturally I put my hand up:
This is Tuan Hoang Pham’s “Shore Crab” design, a delightfully dense creation that is morphologically fairly close to a ghost crab in my opinion. Continue reading
I have lost count of the times I have been asked this by students, presumably based on the assumption that because I fold paper I must make a mean paper plane:
Truth be told when I make simple paper darts they fly terribly, not sure why. Many of the worlds great origamists started with paper planes – I did not. Continue reading
“Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I’m half crazy….”:
There were fewer chilling cinematic moments than the last conscious moments of HAL, the conflicted computer in Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey. The slow disappearance of cognisance is so beautifully portrayed. Continue reading
I seem to have an endless fascination with clever origami boxes – this one caught my eye and I knew I needed to try and fold it:
Anna Kastlunger has designed a nifty scalable box with an integrated hinged lid that is delightful and possibly useful for precious things. Continue reading
When planning origami models that will be good for permanent display, locks and paper tension matter as a model will try to unfold itself:
This genius design results in a fairly faithful swallow, the body is rounded, beak and head cleverly proportioned, tings and tail streamlined – it looks like it would fly. Continue reading
Trolling around in the members area of Origami USA, I found a model that looks like it is made of 2 separate pieces of paper and decided to give it a try:
This is Diego Fernando Becerra Ramirez’s “Spider On Leaf”, a clever use of paper that fashions, via a bird base, a spider and leaf, managing a colour change in the process. Continue reading
Social media, gift that it is, has fundamentally broken two concepts I think. The “friend” and the “like” now no longer mean what they used to, and culturally I am not sure we are not really ready for that change:
The “friend” has come to mean some random that stalks you, watching what you do. Continue reading
Those of you familiar with a traditional crane (Tsuru) will notice this one is a little odd – that is because it is folded on top of/inside a flapping bird:
This is an ingenious and complicated fold, for bi-colour paper that cleverly interweaves one model in the other. In the 3D photo below you can see the flapping action more completely – this model moves!
I realised I had never folded a traditional flapping bird, so this was a bit of a revelation – such a simple action model indeed. Continue reading
The Chinese Zodiac is rich with myth and legend, most cultures are full to the brim with such fancy. Chinese New year is based around the Lunar cycles, as such seem oddly placed to us westerners:
Moon cakes, yum cha, char sui hanging in a chinese butcher’s window, the red of firecrackers, the noise and smoke of a dragon dance – all wonderful to be part of. Most cities have a “China town”, in Brisbane it is a section of Fortitude Valley – these areas come alive at this time of year … mmmm, need some dim sum and a nice pot of jasmine tea. Continue reading
It is a little known fact that people will believe just about anything. Tell them that a furry, egg laying, duck-billed, webbed footed, egg laying, pouch carrying mammal that lives in burrows underwater and protects itself with poisonous spines … and they believe it:
There are few things more distinctly Australian then the Ornithorhynchus (colloquially called a “Platypus”) and it seems in the origami world there are nearly none of them.
Stupid me, I did a poll on Fakebook about what I should fold to commemorate (or mourn, depending on your perspective) Australia day – today’s national holiday. Annoyingly the Platypus won hands down. Continue reading
Look away, look away … we are going to need a bigger boat:
Interestingly, people’s opinions of sharks in Australia, particularly by those who do not live here, varies from reality markedly. One would believe, if one believed what you see in the media, that sharks are a problem, everyone gets attacked – this is far from the truth.
Although this is a stereotypical tale of woe, I was interested in the folding sequence as each of the tree parts use different bases, wildly different techniques initially and yet there is consistency when you get to the final shaping. Continue reading
…you went in, the water was fine. You notice a nice fishy, it seems to want to be friends:
This is part 2 of a series by Fernando Gilgado, again, like part 1 it uses bicolour paper and clever colour changes to highlight details. Continue reading
It is a beautiful day, waters clear, the water beckons, it would be wrong not to go for a swim. You put your toe in, the water is lovely, swimming gives you a new found freedom:
This is part 1 of a 3 part story – what could possibly go wrong- we rarely see the danger, far off in the distance, and why would we consider it, we are ok, nothing could go wrong. Continue reading
Those who know me realise I am a little obsessed with paper folding, some would say to excess. The truth of the matter is I am constantly amazed what you can coax a flat sheet to do. I think I missed my calling as a materials engineer:
I like models that I can visualise, as I am folding. Equally, I am fascinating when there is a tangle and then, out of the mess, something wonderful emerges. Continue reading
Needless to say the media is abuzz with reactions to Trump’s inauguration. Let us hope that the he does not become the “Bane” of their existence (even though part of his speech was plagiarised from the Marvel Universes’ fictitious tyrant presidential coup, I am sure this is merely coincidence):
One has to have hope in the power of intellect, value of human dignity, common sense and sane application of spray tanning solutions. Continue reading
