Satoshi Kamiya’s Ryujin series is legendary in the Origami Community. Starting at the relatively simple 1.0 (folded here), the next iteration is 1.2, then a new morphology 2.1 culminating in the insane 3.5:
Whilst I am not sure I have the time nor skill to even attempt 2.1 (let alone 3.5), my attempt at 1 is chronicled here.
After finding much discussion about it on the HK Origami Forum, and only being able to find a blurry (published by Satoshi himself deliberately blurry) I reasoned “how hard could this be?” Continue reading →
I have been a little down, sick and my hands are not working as well as they should be so needed something to boost my spirits:
I took a sheet of 35x35cm Olive Tant and decided to try and re-make a model I have only ever achieved once, much much bigger. Logic would suggest, in retrospect, that it should not have been possible – the paper is too small and too thick, but I sort of decided I would stop when I could not fold anymore.
The net result is quite my favourite bit of bent paper at the moment – a lovely little baby Loggerhead Turtle (designed by Satoshi Kamiya), posed with a little MC but she is beautiful. Sure there were things that would have worked out a little better if the paper were thinner, but I am stoked it worked – it is a jewel indeed.
This is not my first fold of this model – I last folded it in 70cm Kraft and that too is a lovely thing, this little treasure however is nicer IWHO.
I had one last piece of Nicholas terry’s “Tissue Foil” and a little time on my hands so decided to try and nut out Satoshi’s Lion:
This lovely little model is a right pain to fold – some astonishingly complicated twists and turns that are not really well explained in places – some of the odd sinks and manipulations to encourage the body shape were very challenging to understand.
After nearly completing it, I then decided to repeat the process with a piece of mid-tan Tant (newly purchased and arrived) and that also was a challenge – not because I was now unfamiliar with what needed to be done but rather that the paper was so thick that it became very difficult to complete folds.
I amazed myself by completing both – fairly happy with them – I learned lots along the way and, should I fold them again (and yes, I am not against the idea) I think I can do a lot better, now that I know what goes where. Continue reading →
There are a number of models in the origami world I see as “legendary” – the Phoenix (version 3.5) is one of those:
When I bought Satoshi Kamiya’s works book volume 2 I knew I would one day put myself up against this challenge, I also knew it would take me a while to master it.
You may have guessed I am a bit of a fanboi when it comes to the works of Satoshi Kamiya:
As previously stated, my wife and I spent some time in a rainforest cabin and that inspired me to have a go at his Lyrbird – a deliciously complicated crumple that needs to result in a characteristic fan tail, 2 side tail things, wings, legs, body and head.
The Weekly WTF#1 (what’s that fold) had to be a Satoshi model, and I had been itching to make this little beauty ever since I was aware he had designed one:
Initially, I folded this with a odd end of a kraft roll, starting with a nearly 40cm square (nearly in that I discovered it was not quite square), but found it very small for my fat clumsy fingers.
I resolved to fold it neater, so went larger – second fold (the one pictured) is a 60cm square of brown Kraft paper (no, it is not green, and I know of no easy way to make it so).
There is a LOT to like about this model, and some concerns – some of the steps are fairly poorly explained (given the nature of some of the manoeuvres I can not imagine how that would be improved) and some of the folding is through so many layers that without help this model does NOT stay as folded.
I decided to do wet-folding, with a little MC (methyl cellulose) to fold, mould and let it dry before moving on – this lengthened the time to make the model, but in the end made it most beautiful. Some of the subtle shaping would ONLY be achievable with foil-core paper or via wet MC folding.
In the end, this is the most frog-like thing I have encountered that was not actually a frog. the details are astonishing even to me (and I wrangled them out of a flat, uncut square).
“Can I go for a swim Mum?”. “No, you just ate that fly, wait a half an hour or you will get stomach cramps junior!” . “Aww mum, that is an old toad’s tale.”
I ended up with 2 – my first fold, whilst smaller is different to the larger one, they both have interesting postures and attitudes and I am torn as to which one I prefer.
I am sure I will fold this one again – he is so cute, but I think I will wait until I have suitable thin green paper – the model is so well designed that it’s tummy is one colour, rest of the body is the other – so I will be hunting paper that is 2 shades of green front to back (or perhaps making a bit of double tissue – we shall see).
Sir Terry Pratchett, one of my favourite authors, imagined a world like no other, a “disk” world, held aloft on the back of 4 gigantic elephants, standing on the back of a giant star turtle called “Great A’ Tuin”:
The breadth of imagination, depth of character, intricacy of story arc and obvious love he lavishes on his books are an amazing legacy. Everyone who is a fan starts somewhere – for me, it was the book “Mort” but there are dozens, each clever, funny and beautifully written.
When presented with such a lovely TURTLE it seemed only natural to attepmt to pay homage to a literary favourite of mine, so set about assembling the component bits. It was as if the stars had aligned, having just folded ELEPHANTS I set about making 4 of them, only to realise they were too big and so made 4 smaller ones.
The disk was paper craft – a circle of cardboard, MAP of Diskworld on top, covered with paper, toilet roll holder cut to be support and bracket that elephants could rest on and a balance for the pitched back of the turtle – voila.
I am quite chuffed with the end result – partly because it matches the image I had in my head, partly because it works as a whole, and is able to be dismantled to boggle and the component parts as well.
I posted photos on terry Pratchett’s Facebook page, I hope he sees them – I hope the model brings his even a small amount of the joy his writings have brought me.
When our kids were little tackers, we went on a summer holiday to Mon Repos, North Queensland, to see the turtles laying and hatching:
During the night, exhausted loggerhead, green and leatherback turtles haul themselves out of the surf, up the beach, gig holes and lay eggs – on the same beach they, themselves hatched from years earlier.
When I first saw this turtle, I assumes it MUST have been papercraft – you know, glue, cuts – very neat but none the less it could NOT be a single bit of paper.
Browsing my JOAS Tanteidan Convention books, to me delight, I stumbled across Satoshi Kamiya’s instructions (HUNDREDS of them) for the turtle (not sure what version) and knew I had to give it a try.
The shell corrugation/tesselation alone is a masterpiece, but then you wrap the unused paper around and inside (forming an internal support for the shell to keep it peaked) and form flippers and a lovely head.
I am so thrilled with this, my first fold – I am itching to fold it again, but cannot for the moment justify the nearly 8 hours necessary, to then have 2 turtles in the house. I cannot imagine folding it smaller – I have seen it tiny but I am not sure my fat clumsy fingers would let me achieve it as so many of the shaping manoeuvres are millimetre precise when folded from a 60cm sq.
I love this model, it takes pride of place in my paper shrine. I have resisted the urge to tape it up solid, as it holds it’s form without assistance – genius design.
I have folded a few elephants – most concentrate on the head and ignore the rest of the animal – not so this little beauty:
This model has much solidity about it. It looks like it has bulk yet uses little paper to do this, an interesting haunch locking mechanism and a tight little bottom (ahem).
Taken from Works of Satoshi Kamiya Volume 2, this is the most elephantine figure I have yet folded and uses some lovely techniques to use the paper very efficiently, yet result in a free-standing, locked model.
The hind quarters, particularly, are well formed, with a cutesy tail and toe nails and all – very nice Mr Kamiya.
I think this model would work on a much bigger scale – maybe when a sufficiently large sheet avails itself I might give it a go.
I am enjoying working up to some of the more challenging folds in this book – some are just plain bewildering to me at the moment but that confusion too shall pass eventually I hope.
I have been exploring folded regular polyhedra, but came across this, a brilliant cut faceted diamond by Satoshi Kamiya and thought I would give it a go:
As a first fold, this is pretty sloppy to be honest – only after finishing it did the geometry I was laying down in pre-creases make sense. I have no doubt that when i re-fold this it will be much nicer.
This fold is a very clever bit of geometry, based on an octagonal piece of paper, making many facets and that classic jewellery diamond shape (this one would be a few hundret carats at that). The top face facets are locked in place by tiny closed sinks (making this very difficult I suspect to fold really small).
It is a pity there is no real locking mechanism to keep the model closed (I cheated and used a little sticky tape) – the bulk of paper does swirl in place but tends to spread when left – this might be different if made with a foil paper.
I seem to be folding a bunch of Kamiya models at the moment – prolly inspired by my latest Origami book purchase
As soon as I knew Satoshi was due to release a new book, I knew I had to have it:
This is the first fold of my first model from “The Works of Satoshi Kamiya 2”, and it is quite recognisably a Golden retriever/labrador.
For anyone who has been blessed with a lab in their life, you realise how wonderfully gentle, soppy, stupid and plain lovely they are.
This model is dedicated to the memory of “Missy” and “Raffy” – two much missed pets (one of my in-laws, the other a mates family pet).
I love how this model is demonstrative of form without necessarily capturing every detail. The fold technique is odd, but interesting and each time I wrangle the head/shoulders, you get a slightly different aspect, expression and posture – lovely use of a sheet.
I used lithography paper for this, but have also folded it with a piece of double-sided kami, with good results. I think I like the white fold, however sandy/buff would be more demonstrative of the actual dog’s colour.
This is the first, of a series, taken from this wonderful book – some serious challenges ahead – bring it on!
Determined to try something harder, I had flagged satoshi Kamiya’s Minotaur a “must try eventually”:
I also wanted to try my new “envelopener” – an ingenius paper cutter from The Origami Shop that splits a page on a crease – being frustrated at not being able to cut a straight edge easily on large format paper.
This lovely mythical beast is part man part bull but Satoshi takes this to a new level, making the man beastly as well.
So much paper is worked here, starting with nearly a metre square, the resultant model is barely 15cm tall and so dense in places that detailing was very difficult. I love the expression of his face, the arms and hands, hooves and fantastic tail.
Such innovative use of the sheet, you do not realise that the arms end up being about 30+ layers thick. I have seen this model folded by others and it was standing – mine, made from 35GSM brown Kraft paper does not (without the assistance of a wider armature stand I made for him)
As a first fold, I am very pleased with how he turned out – I might fold him again, one day, as I learned a lot from this fold.
I have many designs for dinosaurs, few more elegant that the Coelophysis designed by Satoshi Kamiya
This raptor has a marvellous stance, gracious body proportions and a menacing appearance – quite a feat given it started as a square cut from A3 copy paper.
A very well designed model indeed, quite dense in places but very economical with paper, I like this chap a lot – it was a good challenge. At this scale it is more like a Compsognathus.
I had forgotten how much fun Satoshi’s models were to fold, must try something harder.
Now I hate it when things get the better of me. Mid year I tried this model only to have it disintegrate in my hands half-way through amid a flurry of swearing:
This is Satoshi Kamiya’s Wizard – well, my rendition of it at least. It is fairly faithful to the instructions and I am totally stoked I actually made it to instruction 159 with paper largely intact and the resultant tortured mess looking even vaguely wizard-like.
This is a breathtakingly difficult fold – take ONE square of paper and from it fold a man (face, hat, hands with 5 fingers each) in a pleated, swirling robe, and make she he has a full-size staff as well. He free-stands, one hand grips his staff, the other is in mid-conjure and there is a sense of movement and authority about his pose.
Wow!
This has taken me an age, I have tried not to proceed until I actually understood the next instruction (no mean feat near the end when judgement is more important that reference creases) and for my first successful fold I am totally stoked. I videoed a 1.5 hour section near the middle of this model, last weekend, and thought Australia day (today, a public holiday) was as good a time as any to finally finish it. I did not take into account the effects of the stifling humidity of the paper, making it very brittle, so care, attention and only a little bit of swearing was necessary.
Now I know what ends up where, I suspect the next time i fold this (and yes, I think I will) will go more smoothly I suspect.
Some folds are good for telling you that you still have much to learn – this is one of them:
An ASTONISHING model, that took me an age to almost achieve, so many different techniques and punishing to the paper. I started yesterday morning with a 60cm square of brown paper determined to keep folding until either I totally buggered it up, the paper disintegrated or it worked.
As it turned out, errors (small inaccuracies) in folding early on, and a few misinterpretations of unexplained folds meant that later stages were more complicated and hence less tidy.
I have learnt a lot from this fold – there are some breathtaking manoeuvres and heart stopping moments when you turn the page and the next instruction is “unfold everything” but in the end I am satisfied that I got a vaguely “ancient dragonny” model and more importantly I now know what goes where. I will fold this again and am sure that second time around the result will be tidier but take a moment to consider the details:
8 horns, skull, eyes, jaw on the head alone, lovely toes, 4 of them on each of 4 feet, amazing wings that look like they are flapping, leathery scaled body (a ridgetail, for sure – Potter fans agree?). The body, at it’s thickest, has over 40 layers which makes some of the shaping and final modelling tough work. I am at a loss to know what sort of paper you could do this with – I am however amazed with the brown paper – it did not tear or fatigue even once – long after the folder had sworn, stormed off only to return later and keep trying.
I am really glad I tried this model, a useful reminder that I am no master of the art, merely this guy who bends paper,
