Scratching around for something to fold, I stumbled across a 2-part modular that I had filed in the “must try” pile:
LED displays are part of my past, little blocky symbols that were all the rage before screens went pixels and graphical. Continue reading
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
Cruising through my copy of “Origamania” by Lionel Albertino, I came across a little creepy crawley I had not folded:
This scorpion is pretty clever – remarkably (by other scorpion standards) simple really for the effect, it efficiently creates the legs and leaves a nice body that can be made into a tail. Continue reading
Continuing on the theme of butterflies, I could not go past this one, designed by Robert Lang:
Taken from “Origami Insects II”, it is one of a number of creepy crawlys that I have yet to fold from this book. Continue reading
As any cat owner knows, cats seem to be able to tie themselves in knots, and this pose is fairly typical of a stretch pose:
Well, I say cat “owners” but in reality, cats own and train us to serve them, it is in the nature of cats really. Continue reading
Currently, in Queensland, there is a project to weave one million stars:
This is a Froebel Star, one of the million forming around the state. Continue reading
Modular stars are a thing, there are many beautiful ones including multi-sheet omega stars (8 pointers), but this little beauty is crafted from a single uncut square:
From a sunken waterbomb base we tease xyz planes then fashion points from their intersections – genius. Continue reading
I must admit I like folding modulars – sure they take a little while but the concurrence of units to whole is a fascinating process:
This is David Mitchell’s “Omicron” – a fascinating block modular that, when folded with the right paper, looks solid and impossible. Continue reading
Origami, the final frontier. These are the journeys of the paper folder “Wonko”, his ONE YEAR MISSION, to seek out new models and folding techniques, to boldly fold where he has not folded before:
This cutie little Trek-inspired ship was hidden away in a Tanteidan convention book I have and all the annotations are in Japanese so I have no idea who the designer is, sorry. Continue reading
This model is testament to the design genius of Neal Elias:
Taking the bird base, and a colour change, we fashion a jockey (with the cutest little cap) atop a rocking horse. I love the detail here and will probably fold this again, only with a slightly bigger bit of paper. Continue reading
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
…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
Most Tanteidan magazines start with a section that deals with modular folding. I was surprised to find a modular cube designed by Jun Maekawa, along with a bunch of variations.
With cursory research, it appears “borromean” relates to interlocking shapes, and this cube has “ribbons” of colour that weave in among each other in an interesting way. Continue reading
Trapped in a particularly uninteresting supervision (I am a teacher, sometimes we have to supervise other teacher’s classes), I began bending paper unsure what I was going to make.
First I fashioned a hand, devising some lovely slender (skeletal almost) hands and looked at the paper I had left and then it came ot me – zombie hand emerging from a grave.
After much experimentation on the tombstone mostly, abandoning a full cross (yes, I did successfully box pleat one but in the end it seemed unnecessarily fiddly for the concept) I settled on a simple headstone.
This is the second time, whilst doodling, a new model has emerged (the other being superdude) and I am quite chuffed with it.
If you KNOW what you are looking at, it is obvious: basic scenario of undead digging themselves out out the grave; but honestly I had some hilarious guesses from passers by who noticed I was folding and wondered what it was.
I have included the dev sequence in 2 parts (partly because I wanted to document it clearly enough so someone else could have a go at it and partly because I wanted to remember how I did it – the box-pleat on the tombstone is neat, but I have not yet come up with a scheme to eradicate the seam down it’s face.
This is a little early for Halloween, but would love someone else to have a go at folding this to see if the photsequence is stand-alone or needs extra annotation.
Any takers?
I was trolling fakebook and came across a lovely video posted by noted origamist Jo Nakashima:
Designed by Maria Sinayskaya, this simple but beautiful wreath modular is a keeper – make it out of coloured wrapping paper, small, and it is a lovely tree decoration.
I like this a lot – a good solution to a “what the flooping heck am I going to fold today” situation. Folded in 8 parts, you should have a go at this.
Nearing the end – 10 more to go until this challenge ends – wooo!
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