330: Billfold

| wonko

There is something I have learned about Australian paper money – it is NOT paper and it does not want to be folded. So I entered a little bit of a counterfeitting mode and made some paper money out of images and paper:

This is a billfold – one of HUNDREDS of models designed to be folded with an American $1.

Many are intricate and detailed, this one is merely figurative and works on many conceptual levels – making money work, making dollars with dollars etc.

I wonder what “greenbacks” are like to fold – the paper must be pretty strong to survive circulation and for there to be so many designs devoted to the medium I imagine it folds pretty well.

I miss paper money, I miss lower denomination coinage – as we jettison it, prices go up, value goes down, inflation goes crazy and exchange rates go through the roof.

A wise man once said that there is much unhappiness in the world because people spend most of their lives chasing little bits of coloured paper – this is odd because, on the whole, those bits of paper are not the least bit unhappy. DNA, I miss you.

329: Xmas Trees

| wonko

Synchronicity happens – i was asked by my lovely wife if I could make an origami xmas tree – I said I would have a look, and did – there were lots to choose from but then came a posting on the British Origami Society mailing list with possibly the best design of them all:

Designed by Francesco Guarnieri, demoed by Sara Adams here, this beautiful modular is a very clever design. Sure, it is a little labour intensive but wow!

Held in shape by paper tension, lovely pendulous layers interlock and sit atop a snarly trunk, each tree probably takes about an hour and a half but it is a thing of beauty.

I made 4 – naturally. One for the lady in the print room (one of my paper dealers), one for the library (then the TL asked where the angel was – she did not realise I was obsessive compulsive so I folded 4 small gold Brill angels) and 2 for the counter of my wife’s office.

Very happy with these, they look wonderful from all angles and are suitably festive as we creep ever so closer to holidays.

Market Forces

| wonko

…so here’s what I am thinking, right.

I have all these models – HUNDREDS of them, and rather than burn them (as my psychologist recommends) or let them gather dust at my place or throw them away I thought I would sell them for charity.

Some models are extremely beautiful, some complex and interesting, others classically simple and elegant but I have very little space to keep them so I thought that sharing the love was a good plan. There are some models I cannot bear to part with, sorry. This is NOT a commercial sale, as I am not the copyright owner of most of the models, this is a CHARITY ACTION.

Charities that will benefit directly are Australian Red Cross (particularly for their foreign aid programs) and Medicine san Frontiers – sharing the love is important, right? ALL proceeds will be channelled to these aid agencies, the joy I have had in this project is folding the models in the first place – enough wonder and awe wonder for one person.

WANT TO HELP?

Stay tuned, details on what you can do to OWN a unique bit of my 365 Project and more importantly support these great causes will be released here.

BROWSE the model list (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjCUWfazDAWDdGhsTmlWVGtTemIzc2U3eFhlcXBjNVE#gid=0) and check out what they look like in the DeviantArt Gallery (http://neubauten.deviantart.com/gallery/28292036 ) and when the time comes GET IN EARLY to avoid disappointment.

Naturally I will also take orders/requests(for re-folds with the same direction of monies – these aid organisations deserve our support – you get something beautiful and do something beautiful as well – WIN WIN.

328: Superdude

| wonko

Now I tried something, for the first time ever. I planned a NEW model, then folded it in prototype, then adjusted the proportions and now there is a NEW ORIGAMI FIGURE in the world – cool hey:

I must admit to giggling when it just sort of … worked. I then got the class (who had finished and had their papers collected) involved – “look up there in the sky, is it a bird, a plane? No, it’s Superdude“.

I had a clear idea in my mind, rare that it coalesces so perfectly.

This is “Superdude” – like Superman but not yet franchised. He is inspired by “Girl in a dress” by Stephen Weiss and the box pleating work of Neal Elias, but I can find nothing quite like him anywhere but at my place, right here, right now so I will claim copyright.

I was messing around with proportions of an A4 sheet – not having any scissors (I was in an exam supervision and someone carelessly left an un-written on sheet lying around) with out cutting. The basic “S” bend, when combined with a 1/16th pleat provides the frame for this model.

You then tease out the “cape”, splay each ripple a little, box pleat some arms and a head one end, legs the other and you have the base.

Shaping the arms, neck, head and legs gives you a nicely proportioned super being in mid-flight (although someone should tell him that capes are so 90’s – no one wears capes these days)

327: Octopus

| wonko

Now normally, there is a set of directions that I follow to make someones model – we origamists call them diagrams. Sometimes diagrams have yet to be made for a model but some enterprising designer unfolds their creation and traces all the folds as a starting point – we call this a crease pattern:

This delightfully devious and slippery fellow was folded from my first crease pattern – you can see it here: octopusCP. Naturally, folding from a crease pattern is much more challenging as there is NO indication as to what folds are done first.

Sipho Mobona is a masterful paper engineer and is responsible for beautifully naturalistic models but finding diagrams of his models is really hard work, so you sort of have to … improvise.

Had I not done the Hoodie, all those months ago, I would not have had a hope in hell of achieving this model – pre-creasing into 32ths was painful, literally, then crumpling along selected folds was problematic (I originally crumpled it inside out, only to unfold and re-crumple the right way round).

The details here (pity the photos do not really do it justice) are amazing – we have 2 lovely bulbous eyes, a siphon (the thing they jet alone with when in a hurry), 8 beautifully curly tentacles and a pendulous and tasty-looking body. genius from one square of paper, no cuts, no glue, no shortness of swearing.

Very happy with this fold – I learnt a lot along the way but he is soo cute, very octopi-like and I could spend hours just re-positioning the tentacles for lifelike crawley poses – very cute.

You may applaud now, and pass the lemon and cracked pepper – delicious on a bbq’d octopus indeed.

326: Rough End First

| wonko

All too often we feel like we are dealt the “rough end” of the pineapple:

It is a curious expression that, I think at least, has something to do with inserting said pineapple in a pineapple-unfriendly place (makes my eyes water just thinking about it).

This is a pleated structure designed by David Petty and it contains techniques I will use elsewhere.

You can see the pineapple-like structure (squint, close one eye, through a mirror) … yeah, there it is and this design is meant to be folded with duo coloured paper, as the top would then be a different colour to the bottom – neat.

I have seen much larger paper sculptures using this “stretched pleated rib” technique and now I know how they were made, which is a good thing.

Paper and folding is taking up waaaay too much of my life right now – have other things I HAVE to do but will somehow muddle through,

325: 3 of 11 Dimensions – XYZ

| wonko

Now in my understanding, life/existence as I know it exists in 4 dimensions (X, Y, Z and Time):

I am trying to understand physics, it does my head in when they talk of strings and the need for 11 dimensions to make sense of them.

Busy day, a modular to bridge the gap. This nice little modular by David Petty.

Happy with this as a first fold. Other things in the pipelines.

324: Gandalf theWhite

| wonko

“You Shall NOT Pass!!!!” Now if you are a Lord of the Rings fan, you will recognise the significance of that, if not you will cynically decide that is my comment on the coming exam season (no, students, I do not mean it that way – relax):

This lovely White Wizard is designed by Victoria and Vladimir Serov, and was first made by me MONTHS ago and packaged up and sent to York in the UK to a friend as part of a Christmas hamper.

He has been travelling for months and arrived yesterday (our time), Today (their time) so I can finally post it as part of this blog.

I have actually folded this 3 times – let me explain: the instructions are in Russian (no, I do not speak Russian either) and even with the best translation engines available I could not for the life of me work out which way was up. With my tissue foil there is a good side and a back side and first time I folded it I realised near the end that the paper was the wrong way round. So I folded a second one (knowing I wanted to keep one and send the other) and ended up making exactly the same mistake again (stupid me), so UNFOLDED IT, reversed all the creases and re-folded it the right way around. thank goodness for good paper.

The resultant lovely grasps (with fantastic little hands) a gnarled wooden staff, has a fantastically detailed face – frown, curled moustache, beard, and a lovely robe, topped off with a pointy wizard hat.

Extraordinarily fiddly, at times I had to walk away, calm down before returning to it – 2mm pleats are not fun with fat, clumsy fingers.

After months in a box, travelling via seamail, the White Wizard arrives safely in York and now takes pride of place. Very happy with this model, so much character and a suitable “Happy Christmas” inclusion for Mike and Colette.

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).

322: Fledgling

| wonko

Comes time in the life of all magpie chicks, when pin feathers have moulted and the adult feathers, shiny and new are through, untested. The fledgling inches to the edge of the nest, mindful of the effects of gravity. With encouragement, and a gentle nudge, the fledgling spreads its wings, tenses the flight muscles it has been exercising more recently. In an act of self belief, it launches into the great blue yonder:

This is Jun Maekawa’s Crow (or similar, cannot read the Japanese, sorry) – I like that this bird looks like it needs to grow into it’s feet and wings – much as I imagine a fledgling does.

Why a fledgling? A new batch of year 12s launch itself into the real world today. Their future is entirely in their hands, the potential is all there, they will make of it what they see fit. I hope they look after each other, and themselves, that they make the world a better place to be and never forget that they can make wonderful things happen if they can be bothered.

Happy with this as a first fold, lovely feet, nicely proportioned body, economy of use of paper, great design.

321: Zombeh!!!

| wonko

I love it how you can have a serious and in-depth discussion with students about Zombies:

They are experts – both the “undead” and “infection” zombies could, like, totally happen – yeah, and it is well understood how to dispatch them.

Having not long finished an adaptation of Jane Austin’s classic tale “Pride and Prejudice (and Zombies)” I am in touch with my undead self.

Well, in truth, I am a little undead zombie myself – marking does that to my brain, with perilously close deadlines and waaaaay too much to actually do before it, I neeeeeed braaaaaaiiinnnsss!!!

This is Jun Maekawa’s Zombie – well, I assume that is what it is as the book I got it out of is entirely in Japanese and I cannot read it, so, yeah. I love this posture of this model, the hands reach out sinisterly and there is just enough of a facial expression to know he is gunning for your fresh brain.

Glad I used a scrap of lithography paper for this model – copy paper would not have let me puff out and flatten the face before disintegrating.

320 Kasahara’s Mouse

| wonko

Now I like a good rodent, particularly one that is simple to fold but lovely in proportions – this mouse is such a beastie:

A tough fold in an A4-cut square to be honest, but the tinyness of it is worth the pain and bruised finger tips due to the thicknesses of the folds.

Lovely ears, poseable arms and legs and a splendid tail – from relatively few folds actually, glad I have found this one, I think I will add this to my “can do by heart” collection because of the finished shape.

Busy day, lots going on – lots of it red pen on things that need marking – hate this time of year, you get that sometimes.

I must investigate the animals of Kunihiko Kasahara some more – nice touch with the media, classic style.

319: Performing Seal

| wonko

The crowd gasped and applauded enthusiastically at the task do deftly performed by the seal on display. The seal sighed, feeling that the humans watching it were easily amused and so concentrated on the mathematics of parabolic hyperflexion and existential philosophy to pass the time until the next fish was tossed her way:

This is Fred Rohm’s “Performing Seal” an old-school model that is clever none the less. Perched atop the nose of a reasonably nicely formed seal is a beachball – all ONE piece of paper, some nice bending in this.

This and the “Magic White Rabbit” both make use of a blended waterbomb, should I fold this one again I would ensure it is less square.

Quite ingenious, we use a 3×1 rectangle and tuck most of it away to leave the seal.

I have never understood the justification from animal trainers – the whole “reinforcing natural behaviours” falls flat on it’s face with these sorts of tricks – still, so long as the crowd loves them it cannot be all bad – right?

318: Dromedary

| wonko

On review, I have not folded many camels – I have no idea why this is:

This is John Montroll’s “Dromedary”, a one-humped Arabian camel and there is much to like about the model, if not my first fold of it.

Lovely ears and face, curious sunken hump, legs more or less in the right place.

I might fold this one again, I learned much on the first time through, and it was a mashup of his “camel” instructions to a modified base, so I did not really know what was going to be what until fairly late in the piece (hence the disoriented development pictures).

Busy times, lots to do, spent waaaay too much time on this, you get that.

317: Fiery Dragon

| wonko

As a DnD fanatacist, I am always on the look out for a good Dragon – Kade Chan’s Fiery Dragon is one such beastie:

Having loved folding Chan’s “Werewolf” I have had this model in the “must do” pile for months.

WOW – to take an A3-cut square and twist it to this degree and get such a lovely result with no paper fatigue demonstrates the brilliant design here – the body is so thick, wings so tortured, tail so tight, head so detailed that any of these features could have meant the paper split asunder but no.

Coaxing copy paper through tricksey folds is beginning to be an obsession of mine – I have no doubt that many of these folds would be easier with more robust paper but … well … where is the challenge, right?

From all angles, this little beauty is 100% dragon and I will fold this again. If you look carefully he even has eyes. Potter fans will probably label this a “Horntail” or “Ridgeback” dragon, because we are knowledgeable about such things also 😛

Mastery of the square is something Kade Chan is known for, economy of fold and attention to media are the hallmarks of a talented designer. I feel honoured to have folded this one.