box pleat

298: Violinist

| wonko

When I saw this design I knew I had to try it:

Made, oddly, from a “T”-shaped box pleat, designed by Neal Elias in 1971 to celebrate the then popular violinist Yehudi Menuhin, this is a masterpiece of miniature modelling.

We have a violin perched on a shoulder, being held by that hand, a bow hand complete with bow, a serious head tilt, trousers, coat and even shoes! He also free-stands, which is all the more remarkable.

Seriously happy with this fold, I was convinced it was going to hell in a hand basket at 3 junctures when the instructions did not patch what the model had (flaps and creases in different orientations), but in the end it just sort of worked.

Interestingly, it was not all that hard, well, it seemed that way to me – given I had never attempted box pleating before the 365 challenge, I guess my skills have improved, which is a good thing.

297: Taxi!

| wonko

In old Chinatown, when someone wanted to travel in style, they hailed a “coolie” pulling a rickshaw:

This picture was common in days gone by, these days the hustle and bustle of bicycles, motorbikes and tuk-tuks has replaced the hard work.

This is Neal Elias’ “Coolie and Rickshaw”, designed in1967. An ingenious box pleat using a square and tidily fashioning a running man and a 2 wheeled buggy behind, replete with lovely conical hat, wheels and canopy.

I have been wanting to try this for a while, just because really. Taken from “Selected works 1964-1973” by British Origami Society. I am happy with this as a first fold. I modified the body and legs a little to add a sense of movement, and re-worked the wheels so they were round (the original design had them nearly square).

296: Pas de Deux

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In ballet, a pas de deux (French, steps of two) is a duet in which ballet dancers perform the dance together. It usually consists of an entrée, adagio, two variations (one for each dancer), and a coda:

In origami, few designers have mastered multiple figure folding like Neal Elias – this is his “Nureyev and Fonteyn” model designed in 1973 as a tribute to the then “toast of the town” couple as they became an on-stage sensation.

This is a relatively simple box-pleat with some elias stretches to form arms. I found the flrming of her legs the most challenging, tucking it tidily into his trousers so the join between them is less obvious. At this scale, shaping is a challenge, hence her “thunder thighs” and their angular faces. I am happy however with this figurative fold, taken from my copy of the British Origami Society’s publication of Elias’ selected works.

Folded from a 3×1 rectangle (scrap litho paper from yesterday’s squaring), the only pity is that it is not free-standing (but boy would lit look pretty on a card) so I cheated and blu-tacked a paper clip on the back for display purposes.

I was looking for an easier model (because yesterday took so long) -this one fitted the bill admirably.

289: Satoshi’s Mammoth

| wonko

I decided today would be another Satoshi Kamiya model (working my way up to the ancient dragon you see) and so selected his Mammoth, figuring “how hard could that be?”:

LOL

Wow, no I mean WOW! So much technique packed into such a tiny package, resulting in a lovely little pachyderm.

There is much to love about this model – the curly tusks (think Manny from Iceage), hairy fringe above the eyes, the eyes, the woolly tummy, the cutsey tail, the strong 3d shoulders, toes etc.

This took an age – the exacting pre-creasing alone taking over 1.5 hours. there are some torturous collapses and a bunch of accordion pleats but in the end it looks like a mammoth, which is always a good thing.

I learnt a lot folding this, and am really relieved my first fold worked at all – seriously there were 3 junctures where I got up and walked away from it assuming I had stuffed it up – those terrifying moments in a diagrammed sequence when you get to an impossibly complicated stage and it then says now unfold it all and re-fold it a different way.

282: Skillman’s Chair

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Now I freely admit as a kid I was an origami wimp – seeing complicated folds of this “comfy chair” and running a mile, or half-ass trying them, crumpling the paper and sulking. This fold, by Jack Skillman, seemed too hard way back then so I never tried it:

As it turns out, the only confusing part is that you pre-fold a chair shape, unfold it completely and collapse it inside out so all the stickey-outy bits are hidden.

Certainly 12months ago I would have thought this tricksey, but not now. One of the side-effects of the dailt fold is that previously tricksey steps now are automatic to me – oddly I now tackle models really differently and that is a good thing.

This simple exercise in box-pleating is a nice sturdy design with a modern feel to it, even though it was designed by an architect/mathematician in the 60s. Folded from “Secrets of Origami” by Robert Harbin, my oldest book.

Happy finally to try this model, pleased with the first fold of it also – choosing today’s model seemed to take ages for some reason – so much choice I guess.

281: The Jester

| wonko

Throughout history, people have acted “the fool” for many and varied reasons. In medieval court, Jesters acted the fool in a bid for self-preservation and increased favour:

All too often the jester is actually pretty bright, but uses that intelligence to work out ways of appearing foolish, doing comically silly things and overtly hiding in plain sight. The often painful “notice me” behavior is more of an indication of their own insecurity often than the bravado it exemplifies.

We all know jesters (more correctly, people who “act the fool”) – one can only wonder, when the retrospect finally kicks in (or when someone in the real world finally has had enough and punches them in the face and finally tells them to STFU), how they contemplate the time wasted avoiding behaving like everyone else and realise they actually had to work harder to appear so silly.

This is a wonderful character piece designed by Spanish origamist Fernando Gilgado. A hideous exercise in box pleating, made more so by the use of copy paper, which I struggled to prevent from disintegrating along commonly folded creases. After the initial pre-creasing, nearly no new folds are introduced in this brilliant design. He looks happy, a little silly, and has detailed face, a wonderful pointed hat with bells on. With duo paper, the face, hands and feet end up one colour, the rest (clothes and hat) are the other colour – again, genius in design.

I am very happy with this as a first fold – even if it seem to take an age it was a great way to weather a morning thunderstorm, and I will fold this again.

Because this model is flat, and great on one side (less so on the other), it suits card mounting, like this:

270: False Teeth

| wonko

Anyone who knows me realizes the terror I experience when visiting the dentist:

Don’t get me wrong, our dentist is awesome, and very aware that I have an irrational fear that I cannot control when being worked on.

A red frog (chewy lolly) was the latest culprit, taking away most of a huge filling on one of my molars so today I face a molar re-build and thought origami teeth – there’s an idea.

This delightful model is a compact little box pleating exercise designed by Robin Glynn. When folded from an A4 cut square they turn out essentially lifesize, although they have much fewer teeth than a real set, they are demonstrative of form and look a lot like those chattering teeth wind-up toys sold in joke shops.

Quite happy with this as a first fold.

259: Stag

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Barbz asked me to make a deer, I decided to look for a stag (antlers etc) and found one by Neal Elias:

I like this model – out of a severe box pleat a fairly graceful body, legs and head with lovely ears and antlers emerges.

This was a tough fold – the thicknesses near the nead are really difficult to fold, but the result is quite satisfying as a forst fold – hope you ike it Barbz.

I have also found a bunch of deer-like animals, will experiment more with the form.

258: Rodin’s Thinker

| wonko

When I think of my mate Mike, I think of Rodin’s “The Thinker”:

There are many reasons, including his stunning good looks, poise but most of all because he is a thinker – he considers everything deeply, his responses are considered, balanced, always truthful and often factual 😛

This is a Neal Elias designed model, interesting use of an off-centre waterbomb base and trademark elias stretches to make the arms, I think it is particularly clever that the pose is fairly accurate, it is self-standing (well, ok, sitting), complete with all the body bits and perched on a pedistal to finish.

This is the second model I have folded from “Neal Elias – Selected Works 1964-1973” compiled by Dave Venables, purchased through the British Origami Society. As a founder in the box-pleating techniques that have been more popular in recent years, the shape is figurative yet evokes the object it was mimicking well I think.

I Think, therefore .. umm … what was the question?

242: Trainset

| wonko

Now when I was a kid I did not have a trainset – you know, one of those Hornsby jobbies with the locomotive, carriages and transformer-powered track:

Not sure if I actually wanted one, but there you go – I had friends who did, right down to the chemical you put a drop of in the smokestack to generate puffs of steam in a (from a kids eye perspective at least) realistic way.

This is a set of folds based on the same box-pleating trick, and really there is little to stop you making a whole swagger of types of carriages using it – I made 3 variations but can imagine more. An interesting cross pleat and collapse was used (in some cases many times) in each model, useful to remember.

Although these are technically separate models, I present them as one as they would, individually, be uninspiring.

239: Little Red Riding Hood

| wonko

Someone gave me a copy of foreign version of “Red Riding Hood” that I missed in the cinema that I thought was artistically interesting. A modern slant on a village terrorised by a werewolf, so I thought I would fold “Red”:

“Oh Grandma, what big eyes you have, ears, teeth …”, yeah, it was never going to end well. This model is designed by Stephen Weiss and reminds me a lot of the box pleating figure work of Neal Elias.

From a single A3-cut square we tease out a ruffled skirt, arms, head and feet and it results in a poseable model – very neat indeed. The instructions stop at the basic figure, so I added elbows, knees and tried to fashion feet (the thickness of the paper there made anything but “club feet” problematic – with thinner paper I think I could have fashioned shoes and socks for her.

When I first saw this model I thought that I would have to use tissue foil for it – indeed the recommended paper was much bigger and thinner but I decided to try and nurse copy paper through the fold and am delighted with the results. This would be a perfect little “dolly” for a well behaved little girl (Kit, are you listening? )

220: Saint Mary Mackillop

| wonko

Apparently today is the feast for St Mary Mackillop – the first Australian who has been verified to do enough miracles to qualify as a saint.

Interestingly, I drive past the church school she used to teach in in South Brisbane. I would love to say I actually knew this, but a staff member mentioned it during a meeting so I fired up my collection of nuns for a suitable model to provide the tribute.

A relatively simple box pleating exercise designed by Fred Rhom called “Vera Cruz” this works well for the purpose.

there are a few things you can vary here as most is folded without landmark – the height of the cross, the tallness of the nun etc, nice figurative model.

209 Elias’ Bull

| wonko

When I bought “Selected Works” by Neil Elias, I was delighted with teh collection of box pleating models from the founder of this technique

After watching masterchef tonight I thought “What a lot of bull” – judges and contestants sprouting such a lot of false sentimentality the model I decided to fold was really obvious (at least to me)

there is much to like about this model – it looks stroppy, like it is readt to charge – head down, horns to the front, nice. The hind quarters are also good except the back legs seem an odd proportion to the rest of the model. Knowing how hard it is to plan and design a mode however I will forgive Mr Elias.

Very happy with this as a first fold – I must explore more of Elias’ work, many amazing figures from an origamist before his time. Not a good sign that the wife could not pick what the animal was (I think it is relatively obvious – maybe that is just me)

204: Android

| wonko

Now I am no fanboi of ANY operating system (they are ALL buggy, quirky and make little sense from a design perspective), and recommend NO hardware (it is ALL junk with 100% failure rate) but I thought some of my geekier friends might like this tribute:

A fairly faithful (at least from the front side of the model, it is fairly ugly at the back but might make a good card-mounted model) rendering of the Google Android mascot.

Apparently it should be green which is a little tricksey in a white-only first fold scenario but you get that. It features box pleating in TENTHS which in itself is interesting, but the initial collapse and shaping were interesting and I am happy with this as my first fold.

make me an offer, I might be convinced to fold one for you – you can have a go yourself here (be warned, it is not an introductory fold)

199: Lego Block

| wonko

Now I like a good challenge, but this was a little beyond the pale:

I have seen photos of this model less than half as big and I am buggered if I can work out how you could fold it that small as I struggled at this scale.

A fascinating exercise in box pleating that makes the peggy things and the pitty things on the same surface of a page, then bending it into a self-locking box – wow!

I can see how this could scale infinitely, adding rows of pegs and pits but I am glad I chose only 2 of each as this alone took me an age to nut out – I had a practice with each component first (the site I found it suggested this was a good idea (well, at least I think it did, I cannot read Italian very well.

Why lego? Well, I have been playing with lego robots for a week or so in prep for a robotic unit with year 10 students – lots of fun.

You should have a go at this yourself here