…continuing the fishy theme, this is Ronald Koh’s Oranda Goldfish:
A lovely plump little fellow, I am sure I have had these at one time or another – round body, abundance of thin fins and round head. Continue reading
2hrs
508: Koh’s Wakin Goldfish
Continuing the fishy theme, this “goldfish” looks more like a salmon:
The base, similar to the previous two manages to devote more to body, less to fins so that it looks like you would get a decent fillet of this little fishy. Continue reading
507: Koh’s Veiltail Goldfish
Continuing on the “something fishy” theme, I thought i would have a go at the Veiltail:
This goldfish mutant is nuts – bred for the profundity of tail, the body is stunted and a small muscular tail necessary to drove the massive drapery of tail fins. Continue reading
503: Man and Woman
Flipping through an obscure copy of Papiroflexia Bicolour by Fernando Gilgado, I was struck with a pair of … models that looked like fun to make.
I had some small (10in) squares of handmade Kozo left over from the eagle fold and thought I would give it a whirl.
The fun and hilarity began – I have provided you with a cutout so you can do some arrangement depending on your orientation and preference – is it “Adam and Eve”, “Adam and Steve” or “Eve and Gwen” – you decide. Continue reading
Totoro Kit
Sensei Cassidy was lurking, she did not want to impose, but she was carrying some origami-related paraphernalia and … well … origami:
She had this kit, based on Totoro (apparently a cult Anime film/ character/ universe/ thing), with some pre-printed paper and instruction sheet on how to assemble.
Initially I thought it wold be a cut/glue exercise, so smiled politely and said I would give it a whirl when reporting was done. On further investigation to my relief it was folding only, and some odd stuff as well.
The large character is Totoro, apparently, then there are 2 smaller characters of a similar shape, and then, for no explicable reason, a bus that is a cat (well, a catbus) – which apparently makes complete sense. Continue reading
495: Soma Cube
I can remember a block puzzle my maths teacher introduced to me, the “soma” puzzle was a lot like 3D Tetris.
There are 7 puzzle pieces, all variations of stacked cube clusters that fit together into a 3×3 cube when put together right.
A fab fold, a simple series of box pleat collapses and a variety of techniques make these fairly robust puzzle pieces. Continue reading
492: Money Spider
People keep giving me foreign and local paper currency. A work colleague gave me a pair of battered US1 dollar notes and asked if I could do anything with them. I had heard (old wives tale perhaps) that it was unlucky to kill a money spider. These little critters apparently bring financial good luck.
I figured MAKING a money spider should be lucky, so set about to find one. Won Park, in his book “Extreme Origami” has a rather lovely spider fold that requires 2xUSD$1 notes, so I thought I would give it a try. Continue reading
485: Segway
…so I am a teacher, and I teach senior students:
I have, on occasions, joked about how cool it would be to own a Segway – my classes are physically far apart and getting between campuses takes time, hence the idea that a PTD (personal transport device) would be cool. I _never_ in my wildest dreams imagined my students would do anything about this pipe dream – let’s face it, we all say things in jest.
It was an ambush, total surprise – I think I was the only one who knew nothing. It still gives me goosebumps thinking about it. I was teaching my year 11 class when the whole year 12 class arrived headed by Tom on a Segway. They had crowd-funded a second hand one as a end of year gift – wow, just wow!.
Tim’s Surprise
A mate, Tim, knew of my paper bending tendencies. He is also a Bank Manager and so he came across a rareish paper Australian $20 note:
Once upon a time, boys and girls, Australian currency was made of paper, not shiny brittle plastic as it is now.
Much to my surprise, a letter arrived addressed to me, containing a lovely crisp $20 note – limited edition and precious, along with the instructions to make something out of it.
I have agonised about this – creasing a rare thing is fraught with guilt and I am sure currency collectors would be horrified, but it came with challenges – most “dollargami” is geared towards American “greenbacks” which are not 2×1 – the $20 note is oddly a 2×1 rectangle, meaning conventional dollargami landmarks are in the wrong place. Continue reading
480: Dollar Formula 1 Racer
On receiving a lovely hard cover copy of “Extreme Origami” by Won Park from Book Depository (wow, how do they offer those prices, delivery times and no postage???) I naturally skipped to the back and looked for the nastiest fold to try:
This model is insane – I chickened out folding it on notes because the pre-creasing into 32nds with my fat clumsy fingers was not possible I thought so I scaled up and used plain paper for my first fold. Continue reading
479: Dollar Koi
There is a branch of Origami that I have not explored because I live in Australia and our bank notes are no longer paper, they are plastic:
Moneygami, an exacting discipline that uses USD paper notes, a particular format where all notes are the same size and still made of paper is fascinating for a bunch of reasons.
The accuracy needed to tease so much detail out of such a small rectangle of tough paper is an art, and Won park is an astonishingly talented designer that designed this fish – a lovely catfish/Koi Carp.
Mind buggering (and finger bleeding) details include a luscious fantail, scales, gills, fins, a majestic head with EYES that are part of the “greenback” printed design – wow!. Continue reading
454: Unryushi Darkness Dragon 2
I was given a beautiful sheet of Unryushi tissue by a friend. The arrangement (in case YOU want to take part also) is if you give me nice paper, I will make you something out of it.
I prepared the paper by Methyl Cellulosing it to a clean window:
This make it crisp and strong, then, in a dragony frame of mind, I used Tadashi Mori’s own folding tutorial to fold a Darkness Dragon 2.
I had already folded the Darkness Dragon 1, but this model was a refinement I had not tried. There is a killer collapse after some exacting pre-folding – a sort of all these folds happen at the same time whilst inside a bunch of others, but the sense of it makes for a lovely body.
452: Smile!
In the olden days children, photographs were taken with a specialised piece of equipment, usually by a professional, using FILM:
In those days, you posed the shot, measured light levels, pulled focus and ensured the picture was worth taking before you wasted the plate – photography was expensive and much more of a science (some would also argue much moe of an art).
In the modern idiom, nearly every thing has a squillion megapixel camera, you point, shoot 60 frames, pick the least worst, apply a filter and upload it on Instagram and have your “friends” praise your artistry. Continue reading
446: Sunny’s Giraffe
Sunny’s birthday is coming up and she loves Giraffes:
In browsing for a suitable model, I discovered a Tanteidan containing a Satoshi Kamiya giraffe that I had not folded, so it seems it was meant to be.
I lke this model a lot – it is full of the essential giraffe features, economically uses the sheet and contains some wonderfully complicated folds. Continue reading
433: Spikey Cuboctahedron
So I have this line I sometimes use: “find some nice paper and I will make something for you”:
A friend (*waves to Jan*) found a packet of 15cm (ish) hand-printed Washi and teh challenge was on.