square

349: Orca

| wonko

Now I have gradually come to realise that captive cetaceans must lead a miserable life – dolphins particularly given tehy “see” with sonar, but the Orca is also something that does not belong in captivity:

This is Satoshi Kamiya’s Orca, well my go at it – for the most part it worked but there are some untidy parts that , in retrospect, I cannot work out if they were my fault or the fault of the diagrams.

With duo paper, this model is the standard black with white parts (or is that white with black parts) – was tempted to make the dorsal droop (in honour of “Willy” the orca who never actually managed to get free.

Inching towards the end of this project, need to be strategic with the models I choose, you get that sometimes.

347: Tree Topper

| wonko

So I was putting up the tree again this year and remembered we had nothing to put atop it:

I remembered an “angel” designed originally by Neal Elias, reworked by gabriel Vong that I had put in the “must try this sometime” pile, so set about folding it.

A nice figurative angel, hands clasped in prayer, lovely wings and a nifty gusset at the back to allow you to insert some foliage at the pointy end of your tree.

You should try this, it is actually fairly straight forward. I had a sheet of gold metallic paper (but wrapping paper would make the fold even easier) and bent it laboriously (it was almost card, so the folds around the hands, shoulders etc were hard going – thank goodness for fingernails as my finger tips are bruised and sore from the continued 365 onslaught).

Atop the tree she is lovely – this is an A4-cut square, prolly a little big for our small tree but ideal for a larger one.

345: Blank Expression

| wonko

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.

344: It’s A Unicorn, Joyce

| wonko

A dear old friend is not well, but likes Unicorns – what better example of such a beastie is Satoshi Kamiya’s model:

This has been an all day affair – started this morning before I went out, some more in the late afternoon then finishing off after coming home from dinner out.

Satoshi suggests a starting size of 35cm square, I decided on 55cm, and found even that terribly fiddly, particularly as this was a first fold and I did not know what was going to end up where.

Happy with this as a first attempt – this model will not be auctioned, sorry, it is a gift to Joyce, I hope she likes it. So what’s with the title? I took a photo gallery up to my Mum’s yesterday, seems the models are not as recognisable as I thought (maybe it is because I am so familiar with them), but the number of guesses that were not even close was amazing – you get that.

343: Squid

| wonko

Cephalopods are a tricky subject in Origami, this is a figurative squid by Jun Maekawa:

Having eaten and cooked squid on a number of occasions, the basic body morpholoigy is right, the yummy bits are all there.

A nice set of bilaterally symmetrical pleats, a fun collapse and a 3d re-shaping makes an entirely recognisable squiddy.

There are a bunch of Maekawa’s models that I would like to try – he/she (sorry, not sure) has an original approach to the square and the models have a unique character

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.

341: Jolly Roger

| wonko

Now I do not know much about pirates, nor why a skeletal chap called Roger should be jolly, but there you go:

When I first saw Hojyo Takashi’s 3d looking skull I knew I had to try it. A torturous box pleat in 12ths, the collapse to get the face right was nearly as complicated as the pre-creasing.

Saying that, the resultant model was screaming out for a set of cross-bones, so I sort of improvised them from a second sheet of A3 split lengthwise.

I think this turned out splendidly – amazing given the copy paper was disintegrating in my hands due to the high humidity (it is miserable, cold and grey outside – odd for summer, but there you go) as the paper is hygroscopic and kept going limp. I was sure it was going to split at the bottom of the eye sockets where the most difficult pleating takes place, but no.

The beautifully proportioned skull is 3d up to a point – it is backless, but none the less lovely – I love the eye sockets and nose hole, the teeth are also nice (but if I had folded it bigger scale I reckon I could have crimped some gums and gaps between them also.

Why a “Jolly Roger” I hear you ask – WHY NOT says I.

340: Thorin Oakenstaff

| wonko

May I most humbly introduce to you, Thorin Oakenstaff Esq, Dwarf, gentleman, most of the time:

I am so pleased this worked, even better than I had imagined. I found a hand-drawn crease pattern by the late, great Eric Joisel – I had been hankering after his dwarves you see and wondered how the heck you could fold something like that.

Well, the crease pattern sort of made sense, and I did a rough test fold on an A4 square only to realise it was waaaay too small to model and copy paper was way too brittle, so thought I would upscale it on brown paper. I cut a 56cm square from plain brown paper and began.

After an hour of pre-creasing, and a collapse from hell, you get a base that has enough bits to model into a human like critter with a tall hat – gnome, dwarf, call him what you like there is no escaping the fact that this is bloody amazing.

I started shaking with excitement about an hour before finishing, realising it was in fact going to work after all (after walking away from the collapse twice) and must say he is lovely – there is character in his face, poise in his posture and a spring in his step.

I feel honoured to have folded something inspired by a drawing done by Joisel – I would argue the worlds greatest character folder – I can see me trying this one again, now I know what goes where – each time you fold it there would be sufficient variables to ensure you never duplicate the little guy – so neat.

As an after thought I decided he needed a walking stick, and then decided he also needed a name – “Thorin” from a LOTR dwarf and “Oakenstaff” because that is what I tried to make him as a walking stick. I hope you like him (anyone actually reading that is) – I think he is amazing.

339: Lang’s Scorpion

| wonko

To Quote Michaelangelo

Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.

Extrapolating, every sheet has an origami figure in it – the tricky part of super-complex models is to fold away all but that figure:

This is Robert Lang’s Scorpion, folded from “Origami Insects II” and it was a fascinating exercise in managing paper fatigue indeed.

An astonishing set of mathematical and geometric constructions were necessary to find reference points before the base was folded, then collapses, accordion pleats and some seriously sharly tucking away results is a remarkably shapely arachnid (8 legs + claws + a curvey, stingy tail).

I am so chuffed to actually finish these instructions, considered abandoning it twice, had to get up and make a cup of tea twice during it’s genesis. Small inaccuracies compound – a half a millimetre here results in half a centimetre out of alignment later on, so I tried to be as careful as my fat clumsy fingers would let me be.

In the end, a 60ish cm square collapses down into a lovely little 18cm model. I only had a tiny bit of paper fatigue right on the last step (typical) when attempting the final tail curl through 30+ layers of paper – it really did not want to bend – you get that.

Lithography paper is strong and fairly resilient, but it is still a little thick for this model – not sure how I acquire thinner/stronger paper as I want to fold more complex things – might try brown paper, I have a nice wide roll of that, will see how it goes.

338: Maekawa’s Triceratops

| wonko

I have folded a few dinosaurs, some have been simple but this little beauty has a good body shape and a fab head:

This is Jun Maekawa’s Triceratops – folded from his book “Genuine Origami”. There is something calming about folding a Maekawa model – I needed calming down as I had a model fail today – some super complex one with Russian instructions that made only partial sense.

I discovered Maekawa’s work relatively late in this project – there are many more in her collection that I would like to try – his models seem to have a “character” to them, difficult to isolate but her style is evident.

Near the end of a massive project – holiday time will see a mix of complex, ball-breakingly super complex and simple, I suspect – depends on where my head is at. I _want_ to pretend I have had a plan but, honestly, for the most part each day I decide there and then what I feel like folding – as evidenced by the mostly blank spreadsheet ahead of the day I have just folded. I like that tension (except when I arbitrarily try something too hard for me – you get that).

Very disappointed with the auction idea – after so much encouragement, to receive only 3 bids so far is disheartening and very depressing, thinking of abandoning the whole idea (and 4 of the 12 voices in my head are urging me to return to the bonfire idea) – you get that I guess, Internet “interest” is different from real interest in many ways.

337: Hercules Beetle

| wonko

Woke up, brain would not stop, so thought I would punish it with a super complex Satoshi Kamiya model:

This is his Hercules Beetle and it is snarly to fold indeed – even at this scale (I started with a 54cm square) there are terribly fiddly bits.

The details here are a little dizzying – six thin legs, a pair of pedipalps, wings, separate wing covers, a lovely 3d abdomen and a snarly pokey-outey head thing.

I think, even with lithography paper, this model was a real challenge – I would gather something like tissue foil would be more suitable. Still, very little paper fatigue after nearly 3 hours of folding and such a dense body fold, this is quite an achievement to actually finish it.

I have a few Satoshi models still to try, including the Ancient Dragon – his design style is distinctive. I am amazed at the ease I now leap into a complex open sink, hideously complicated collapse and snarly swivels.

336: Maekawa’s Cow

| wonko

Always on the lookout for a good COW, I stumbled across this little beauty:

This is Jun Maekawa’s Cow, an interesting fold containing many new techniques for me, particularly treatments for flaps you need to multiply (ie. one stickey-outey bit that becomes 3 via some neato crimping and a swivel or two).

I like this, it reminds me of those old world illustrations of cows that appear almost rectangular – great painters are not necessarily accurate anatomists.

Not sure if I have room for more cows in this project – we shall see what turns up. A little brain-fragged at the moment, a good rest after a particularly brutal week will be welcome.

335: White Rabbits!

| wonko

A pinch and a punch for the first day of the month:

This is Jun Maekawas Rabbit, a lovely 3d head and body and an interesting development – some precision needed in the early stages else it catches up with you later on.

This is my LAST first day of the month – woo hoo! that means only 30 Models to go after this one.

Of the rabbits I have folded this year, I think my favourite one would be Lang’s – something about the body shape and ears. They are all good – bid on one if you are so moved.

334: The DEVIL is in the DETAIL

| wonko

I have grown to respect a number of designers of all nationalities and Fernando Gilgado from Spain is one who is guaranteed to produce a challenging model:

This is the Demon, and the devil in the details, trust me – his head alone is frightening – 2 sets of horns, beard, snarly mouth, eyes etc. His body is very dense, arms and legs 20+ layers of paper but that bunching results in the most splendid wings and a pointy demonic tail.

This instruction set was a real challenge – apart from folding it during school time (in between end of year report checking and tidying up), the instructions were in Spanish, and some aspects of it were very fiddly indeed. Even at 54cm x 54 cm, the head and facial features were too small to fold tidily, still, as a first fold I am very pleased with this. It is a monster, wing span of nearly 30cm and he looks very menacing – in a cutey sort of way.

I thought the “angels” of yesterday needed some “demons” today to bring some sort of balance to the paper cosmos. A suitable end of my second last month of this challenge.

332: Elephant

| wonko

You know when you get a song stuck in your head, and it will not go away? Usually the song is totally daggy but so solidly lodged in your psyche that it effects your judgement:

“Baby Elephant Walk” is stuck in my head at the moment – I will excorcise it with some Rammstein later but for now my mind turns to folding elephants. This is my first fold of John Montroll’s Elephant (taken from his book “Origami Sculptures”).

Not really happy with it – an early inaccuracy compounded through the model making the legs asymmetrical and the shoulders gape – you get that sometimes. I quite like the head/ears/trunk and the rear has modelling potential. I will fold this again, when I have more time, if I remember (unlike an elephant, I forget things all the time).