1hr

243: Cessna Plane

| wonko

I have had this model, described via hand-drawn diagrams for ages and thought it a good one to finish the month with:

This is a tidy little plane, named Cessna after the style of modern single engine aircraft it is modeled on. I am not, however, sure who the designer is – can anyone enlighten me?

A clever use of the bird base with some ingenious accordion pleating to liberate the wings and some interesting pucker pleating to form tail and propeller, there is some very dense folding to shape the fusilage and a cute domed cover for the cockpit, even some vestigial landing gear underneath.

Happy with this as a first fold, can see myself trying to refine it so it is tidier – am sure I could tease some wheels and maybe master the propeller a little better in subsequent folds.

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? )

230: Swiss Army Knife

| wonko

When I first saw this model I knew I had to fold it:

The very idea of a FUNCTIONING Swiss Army Knife seemed undelievable but here it is – Blade, Awl, Bottle Opener and Screwdriver all that folds away much the same as the metal one does – very neat.

A relatively simple fold in the end – some thick layers and the hinges are difficult for copy paper, but I really like this model – a masterpiece of design.

Jeremy Shafer’s “Orgiami to Astonish and Amuse” is an amazing collection of everyday objects folded from paper, a book I can see myself returning to again and again.

You may applaud now, I am so chuffed it worked out so nice.

226: It’s a Mammoth

| wonko

I have always loved oddball humour, and when I discovered the panels by Gary Larson I became an addict, buying everything he published. His acerbic observations of scientific concepts amused me greatly, combined with his caveman humour and we come close to my fav Larson comic of all time – the experiments in early microscopy shown in this panel. This is doubly accurate as, unlike dinosaurs, Mammoths are a relatively recent extinction, with frozen specimens found still to have plant material in their gut and butchery marks on their bones – I guess Mammoth burgers were tasty to early hominids.

Looking for elephantine, I came across a Woolly mammoth in “Origami Zoo” by Robert Lang thus completing a “hat-trick” of models by him:

this figurative mammoth is lovely – seemingly correct morphologically, the hunched and raised shoulders and relatively demure hind quarters, lovely curly tusks, placid expression and gently curling trunk

This model was nearly a fail, using copy paper – some very thick layers inside make shaping the body very difficult an the paper fatigue nearly split at the shoulders – gently gently was necessary at the collapse stage.

Very happy with this as a first fold, and will fold it again I think with some nice textured paper – this would probably work in large format also as you could model toes and a more complete facial expression. I used a square cut from A3 copy paper and the final model was small and tight – thinner paper would have helped I guess.

217: A Little Crabby

| wonko

I have been a little crabby lately – not sure why:

Times are busy, change is inevitable and I am not sure I cope well with it at times (prolly less well when I am tired)

This is a lovely fold, based on a waterbomb base and teasing 8 legs from one set of flaps and claws from the others – very clever and not too difficult really (compared to others I am contemplating) – some neato pre-creasing makes most of the folds before you need them.

Sleep, chocolate and tea – perfect remedies for those times when you get a little crabby also.

210: Hippogriff

| wonko

Being a fan of Harry Potter, I am glad I have finally seen the last part of the saga at the movies.

It is late, I am tired, this is my first fold for a Hippogriff – there is promise and I will try again with thinner paper as I think the model has a good basic shape:

Hectic day, you get that.

207: Cat Ready For Dinner

| wonko

This delightful cat is a David Brill model worth folding – so much character and a smug expression on it’s face:

It is said that dogs are people pets and cats are place pets – this one certainly looks like it owns the place.

Busy afternoon – happy with this first fold, my subsequent attempts will be much more refined – duo colour paper has the head, feet and tummy a different colour to the body – nice.

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

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)

195: The Eiffel Tower

| wonko

Vive le France – it is Bastille Day and I ask what is more quintessentially French than “Le Tour Eiffel”:

I resisted the obvious froggy references and went straight for a cultural landmark – albeit a fairly ugly bit of schrapnel left over from a world expo.

I like this model – partly because I folded it via a general principle rather than an exact pattern and the technique of “benching” the model is useful for other things I have planned.

Surprisingly, this model is quite rigid after the bottom layer is scalloped – must make another one for the French department, although I am disappointed they did not offer crouissant or other baked treats to celebrate.

189: Roller

| wonko

Now in posh car circles, a Rolls Royce is called a “Roller” – how do I know this? Well, I don’t, but that is what it is called on the telly. I am going driving today, so thought I would do it in style (at least in my head):

A tortured and fiddly design that hints at a sort of grandeur (notice the grille and fancy flaring of this boxy, limo-type body).

When I casually regarded this model I thought “yeah, that should only take a few minutes” but in reality it took me an age which meant I was late setting out for my long drive – I did not account for the poor diagramming and almost random steps half-way in or the annotations in colloquial French – you get that.

In truth, I would not really enjoy this sort of car – too frightened to drive it unless someone dinged it, unable to pay for servicing etc – I like my little zippy car that runs on the smell of an oily mechanic.

186: Teddy Bear

| wonko

I once had a friend that could comfort me when I was sad, that I told all my secrets to, that kept me company when the lights went out, that never complained or criticised me, that joined in on all my adventures, that I loved completely and unconditionally. This is Ted, my bear:

So a friend of my wife is having a baby – what better to welcome the little one into the world than a bear:

So I have had this design for ages and wanted to try it out. Scale was important, as I was going to mount it on cardstock with some double-sided tape, the height is 1/3 the original square size, so … easy. After performing my “first fold” on an A3 cut square of copy paper, I then fashioned a 26cm square out of brown paper from the baking drawer in our kitchen for his little brown brother.

A fairly difficult fold to complete with copy paper – thicknesses make subtle details clumsy. Surprisingly, brown paper (you know, the stuff you line cake tins with) folds beautifully – is strong and thin, must remember that.

I like how the finished model has character – I have now folded a few of these and each one has it’s own unique posture and facial expression – a lot like real teddy bears I think.

You may collectively go awwwwwww now 😛

185: Bald Eagle for July 4th

| wonko

After abandoning a search for a decent “statue of liberty” model, I decided to settle on an American Bald Eagle as a symbol of independence, what the 4th July is celebrated for in the US:

After looking around, I settled on a figurative bald eagle by Robert Lang from “The Complete Book of Origami” and happy with many aspects of this fold.

Difficult to complete with copy paper, the thickness and brittle nature of copy paper means that several steps are likely to distress the paper severely and the body thickness makes shaping late in the fold difficult – quite happy with this as a first fold. I added pleats on teh wings to suggest feathers as I thought the wings needed it, and modded the talons a little to make them less clumsy.

Should I fold this again, I now know what becomes what and so would approach some of the steps a little differently, but living/folding is learning – right?

180: Rocking Horse

| wonko

Now I have been a customer of Rocking Horse records in Brizvegus for as long as I can remember – they stock an important mix of local releases, electronica, avant-garde, metal, obscure and dance music ephemera that appeals to me.

They are in trouble – difficult to compete with torrents and copyright theft (I know many young people who have never purchased music ever, but have iPods full of the stuff). I decided to visit today, purchase a bit but sadly everything is on sale – not a good sign. Today’s model is a rocking horse:

This little model actually rocks also, very tidy (if torture to get all the paper inside the body and leave the rockers largely fold free so they, well, rock…

I like the body proportions – very horsey – and the weight distribution is also good – very well designed model by Ronald Koh (the same guy who designed the King Cobra)

Precision was important here, and a little luck – many of the folds were judgment calls, no landmarks are trickey if you have not folded a model before and do not know what ends up where.

Happy with my first fold, fingers crossed that a good record store can survive – brissie would not be the same with out it.