10 Things I have Learned So Far

| wonko

1. Paper is not paper

This may seem obvious but it is really not. I started this challenge determined to see what I could get copy paper to do and to my surprise it can be coaxed through many a torture.

Wood-pulp based papers are damaged each time you crease them – the crease breaks the fibers and hence weakens the paper at that point. Given most folds have common fold axes and vertices, after repeated manipulation the paper disintegrates at those points first – often just before you finish the model.

I have discovered that large format does not obviate the problem, actually it makes it worse. 80GSM copy paper is pretty fragile, the torsion of a large piece actually stresses common folds and vertices more.

I have folded with tissue foil (well, origami shop’s tissue foil which is different to laminated tissue+foil) which has a lot of cotton in it, and lithography paper – both take creases well, do not disintegrate easily and hold their shape after folding also which is a good thing. I am always on the look out for nie folding paper. Surprisingly, brown paper (as used for kitchen cooking etc) also takes folds well and is remarkably strong. I have also folded vellum (plasticised tracing paper) and it is strange – it is really hard to crease but once creased it stays creased. All papers vary in their re-foldability (the ability to take a crease and reverse it’s direction).

Most papers are hygroscopic meaning they absorb water – oddly copy paper is milled on one side which means it uptakes moisture unevenly causing it to curl and unfold. I have taken to storing my finished models in an airtight box with silica gel sachets to keep them dry. Continue reading →

289: Satoshi’s Mammoth

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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.

288: Happy Birthday Gemma

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A friend turns 40 tonight, and quite likes roses, so I thought a paper construction might compliment the rose bush we were taking as a suitable milestone:

Made from 40 pieces of paper, this is a variation of Maria Sinayskaya’s “Little Roses” kusudama (rose ball), a curious construction that features triplets of lightly bent petals that interlock in threes, making pentagonal vertices – the maths here does my head in.

Was lovely to catch up, Happy Birthday Gemma, and happy house-warming Mark, Gem, Jake and Kit.

287: Fuse Box (Small Flowers)

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Tomoko Fuse is a genius in designing intricate boxes:

this is called “Small Flowers” because of an incidental pattern the overlapping edges make, sort of looks like aflower. I made it in colour only because a monochrome version would not have been remarkable.

The lid and the base are each comprised of 4 pieces of paper, an interlocking modular that is fairly rigid and would make a nice stocking case or filled with some sweet treat.

Why a “Fuse Box”? Well, Energex had a transformer on the street go pop and our school spent the day without power – all interesting. I thought a paper play on words might be fun.

286: Spiral Star

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I saw a video of this interesting structure and decided I should give it a whirl:

It is Tadahi Mori’s “Spiral Star” – a lovely fiddly modular using 6 bits of paper that interlock to form a 12 pointed star with lovely spirals near the centre.

If this was not so fiddly, it would make a nice decoration for a festive tree I guess, but even with A4-cut squares it was dense and tricksey.

Quite happy with this as a first fold and, yes, I know I have done my monthly modular but … meh, it interested me so there you go.

285: National Ride To Work Day

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I heard on teh radio this morning that it was National “Ride to Work” Day and narrowly avoided running over a flock of cyclists near the freeway entrance – it got me thinking what riding to work might be like:

I had a model I was looking for an excuse to try, and initially tried it on paper smaller than recommended (a 2×1 rectangle cut from an A3 sheet) only to find it sort of worked in miniature scale, but decided it needed to be bigger. Our school art department has this paper designed for lithography, thin, light, lovely.

I cut a rectangle 1m x 50cm and this is the resulting fold, quite magnificent if tiny given the huge bit of paper it started as. Quite wonderful if I must say so myself. Designed by David Brill, this masterpiece has much to love – the horse (or more correctly pony) is very horsey, and the integrated rider looks like he is riding – very clever indeed.

I was trapped at work, waiting for a meeting so had a little time to kill – so glad I killed it with this. this scale model lets me build character into the elements, the rider’s knees and elbows, alert horse ears and a mouth. The designer apologized for the thin front legs but I am prepared to overlook that minor detail – bravo Mr Brill!

284: Seated Koala

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Charming folds are charming whether they take 6 hours or 12 minutes, this is a charming fold:

A figurative koala, seated lazily – lovely rounded rump, flat nose and fluffy ears, not bad for under 20 creases.

Busy day, some of the work I did was mine, you get that.

283: Le Coq De Joisel

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It is a year since Eric Joisel passed away in Paris. The origami community still mourns his passing:

This proud and “cocky” rooster is a Joisel masterpiece, I feel privileged to fold it. I had a sheet of A2 architectural drawing paper so made a square from it (nearly 1m x 1m) and folded the rooster from that – it was a tough fold to be honest as so much paper is gathered into the body. So tough a fold in fact that the paper failed on both legs and neck – I will fold this again with more resilient paper I think.

I see so much potential in this model – given thinner, larger paper I can see you could model wing feathers, eyes and more – as it is it has a lovely tail, beautiful chicken feet (including spurs), a glorious comb and an up-turned beak mid “cock-a-doodle-doo!).

You too can have a go at this model here, and learn a little more about the life and times of Eric Joisel here. Few would argue that Joisel was the greatest character folder the world has yet seen. I hope his family and friends take solace in the fact that he added so much beauty to the world over so many years. RIP Eric Joisel.

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

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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:

280: Infinity Cubed

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Now I got thinking about infinity, as you do, and that I could beat it by cubing it, then a modular idea struck – make an infinity out of cubes:

So I began collecting business cards – white on the back, and performed 2 simple bends (and ONLY 2) per card – then explored ways of linking them together securely using techniques I had previously discovered.

This sort of construction eats up a LOT of cards – 426 in this construction – each cube side has an inner and outer skin card, making it finished, white, smooth and lovely. This thing is HUGE, surdy and really rigid.

This took a bit of thinking out, I started it on Tuesday and, bit by bit, it coalesced into something wonderful and profoundly beautiful (well, I think it is) – such a nice intervention between old discarded business cards and the landfill they will eventually become.

279: Computer Mouse

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It was announced today that Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer passed away today after a long battle with pancreatic cancer:

It is my considered opinion that Apple Computers lead a revolution in personal computing for many reasons, an important one being the re-introduction of the computer mouse as an integral pointing device for a graphical user interface that drove the computer.

They did not invent it – that particular landmark belongs to Douglas Engelbart’s computer mouse, whose patent was issued in 1970 for a X-Y Position Indicator For A Display System, but I think the Macintosh computer helped popularise it and it seemed to take the PC world years to catch on to this great idea – Jobs saw it immediately.

The world needs visionaries – good visionaries persist as figureheads of successful ventures and Apple’s success in part is directly attributable to the charisma and marketability of the man. Rest in Peace Steve Jobs.

A more complete photo diagram is here:

Have a go at it using this diagram

278: Passing Notes

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Now those who know me realise 2 things – I love music but I cannot read those little black dots on the lines for nuts:

It was doubly problematic when I was in a choir as all those around me were able to sight-read and I … sort of … faked it (I have good pitch and developed a skill of singing along).

It was/is a frustration that is heightened when I am confused, tired, stressed and … well … pretty well all the time really.

This model, designed by Jeremy Shaffer is a neat little cluster of notes and is very tidy, considering it came from a square there is lots of tough hiding of paper inside to make a polished model.

WHY fold this? Well, today JJJ released a new radio station – “Unearthed” that promises to give a whole bunch of unsigned bands a place for their music to be broadcast – this is a wonderful thing IWHO.

277: Azalea

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I realise I have not folded many flowers – in my opinion not a lot of them look like flowers:

This azalea is pretty good – yes my first fold is a little wonky but I can see how if I were to fold it again I could improve it.

A nice design using Rhodes double-bird base, I can see applications for this flower and may try it again when I am less busy.

276: Nautilus

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Tomoko Fuse is undeniably a genius, her work with exacting spiral forms unequalled:

This is her “Nautilus”, a lovely recursive form that, after the pre-creasing, almost folds itself.

Elegant and graceful curve, perfectly planned pleats and a tidy shell end make this model a keeper for sheer geometric beauty alone.

I want to pretend that I go tthis first try – truth is I folded a set of folds wrong way round first go (bloody Japanese instructions), but restarted because I wanted to make the model (so sue me)

Will be folding this again – would love to fold this in large format, will see how I go. really happy with this – who said geometric sequences were not beautiful (it is just mathematicians that wring the joy out of them :P)