S Kamiya

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.

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.

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.

323: Satoshi’s Smilodon

| wonko

The smilodon is often called the “Saber-toothed Tiger” but is not a tiger at all:

This lovely (extinct) beastie is a Satoshi Kamiya masterpiece, a real exercise in restraint – resisting the urge to set creases early to get nice, rounder shapes later.

I had no idea what was what with this model – as my first fold I learnt a lot from this – I found the lower jaw very fiddly and in the end it did not look a lot like a jaw in my opinion, but the head, saber-like front teeth, haunches and rest of body are beautifully proportioned.

This took me an age (well, in truth 3.5 hours) and although the pattern suggested a 25cm square, I went bigger – 38cm square of lithograph paper and that was fiddly enough.

I like this a lot, it is very cat-like but emanates raw power and ferocity (regardless of how cuddly characters like “Diego” in the Iceage franchise was, these guys must have been snarly and fearsome up close and  personal).

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.

261: Satoshi’s Pegasus

| wonko

“I am Pegasus, my name means horse…” – I am old enough to remember a folksey song by Ross Ryan about a mythological winged horse:

I had some time, amidst trips and other things today so thought I would give Satoshi Kamiya’s Pegasus a go – it has been taunting me from the pages of his book.

This delightful horse is remarkably horse-like (which I guess is a bonus) but also has the most lovely wings, I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Dainty little ears, lovely head, nifty legs – one bent as if about to take flight, with hooves, a flowing tail, just a masterpiece of design that takes such a big sheet of paper (over 30cm square of tissue foil) and reduces it to a lovely little 8-10 cm model).

There were many instances where i had to just get up and leave this model for a while – tricky, precise and the layers get so thick – I cannot imagine attempting this with regular paper. Keeping the legs sharp and shaping the body through all those layers was tough work – very happy with this as a first fold however.

Yes, a discrete round of applause would be appropriate.

246: Satoshi’s Chocobo

| wonko

There is a yellow bird that features in Final Fantasy called Chocobo:

Satoshi Kamiya calls it a “yellow bird” and advises not to attempt this model in anything other than tissue foil – reviewing the instructions I figured I could (maybe, perhaps, possibly) nurse copy paper through the torturous process and so set about to push an A3 cut square to it’s limits

I am so chuffed that I succeeded, managing to complete all folds, using plain copy paper – yes, that IS an achievement and yes, you should applaud now!

Based on some interesting box pleating, sinks and swivel folds, the tweety bird shape evolves rapidly – look at the feet, even beautiful claws, feathered wings and a tail, very pleasing

This is the second model I have folded from “Works of Satoshi Kamiya”, I am working my way towards the “Ancient Dragon” (yes Josh, soon, soon, sheesh!). I had my good paper out for when I finally admitted defeat but, who would have guessed it worked first fold – yay me!

229: Satoshi’s TRex

| wonko

Now it is a pubic holiday here in Brisbane for the RNA, and rather than do something show-related, I thought I wold “treat” myself to a Satoshi Kamiya model:

Mistake # 1 – ignoring the suggested paper size – I Folded this from an 18cm square, suggested minimum was 35cm – lol. It became increasingly obvious as I got further and further into this torturous fold that scale was an issue, but I soldiered on with my fat and clumsy fingers.

Budding Scientists: What is wrong with the picture above? )Answer follows*.

So much paper torture but the result, from the outside is actually fairly simple in appearance. I like the body proportions, and the modelability of the eyes and head (difficult to see at this scale). It is a pity this model is not free standing (I had to use a blob of blutac and a bent paper clip as support).

This fold was great for a bunch of reasons, including the exacting nature of the pre-creasing (half millimeters count … mistake #2), a stonkingly difficult sink half way in which baffled me for nearly an hour as I unfolded, refolded and wondered how the layers would ever sort themselves out.

I am happy with this as a first fold, and will fold this model again with a larger format paper. I did not use copy paper but figured with 120 steps, tissue foil was probably the way to go as some of the primary creases get major fatigue.

*Worked out what was wrong with the second picture? It is a WELL recognised fact that TRexes NEVER ate paper, silly.

205 Satoshi’s Splash!(swan)

| wonko

The idea behind this model is fascinating (and a little difficult to explain in a white only fold) – use half a sheet of paper to fold a landing bird and leave the other half unfolded to be the pond it is landing on:

Quite difficult to achieve using copy paper, the finished model if done with 2-colour paper has the water one colour and the bird the other – very neat.

This is the first model I have chosen to fold from the “Selected Works of Satoshi Kamiya” – not the easiest but an interesting one none the less. The thickness of the body made subtle shaping of the bird difficult (without accidentally creasing the pond area) but I am quite satisfied with this as a first fold of this model – I am now eager to get a large format bi-colour page and try it. I could imagine some nice serpentine crimps on the pond surface, or maybe come concentric ones based on where it has landed – there is paper enough to do that and it might look nice.

Surprisingly the page is essentially divided in half horizontally to make the pond/bird – I initially thought it would be easier to diagonally fold it (annoyingly my paper is diagonally creased because that is how I cut a square from copy paper which explains the extra crease on the pond surface) – since when has Satoshi chosen a simpler path tho.

I like the wings and can see much potential in shaping the bird with thinner paper

Book Ordered

| wonko

So I have a birthday looming, have always admired Satoshi’s work, plan on attempting the ancient dragon later in the year and wanted to try some tissue foil (chose white) so thought why not.

The Origami-shop.com is well regarded in the origami community so I have signed up and it is all good. They have a huge range of things I would love to own.

I had long admired a volume entitled “Works of Satoshi Kamiya” and found it at 56.83 euro – excellent value – very happy, just awaiting international post and it will be mine.