you all remember that feeling, right – the “new car” feeling, right down to the upholstery smell and the plastic covering the seats:
A mate, Gavin, recently bought his first new car – a white Subaru Impreza (or something similar) so I decided to make him a paper version to remember the occasion
I like this model a lot – preliminary fold with some clever sinking to form the roof, windscreen and windows
Long may it avoid dings – congrats mate.
My son has recently graduated from his Honors program and as part of his Thesis, he had to compose a poster summarising his paper and findings:
So good was this poster that tonight he was awarded “The Alan Bailey Prize” for top student project – yay Matty. I thought it warranted a shiny thing, so invented one
Using Brill-like techniques, I formed a cylinder then pleated and twisted a stem, quite happy with the result, hope Matty likes it – so proud.
…so my Wife and I went to see the fourth installment of “Pirates of the Caribbean” (admitting to be fans) and discovered Capt’n Jack’s beloved “Black Pearl” had been imprisoned in a bottle by Blackbeard (amongst other piratical stereotypes trotted out this adventure):
So I got to thinking about ships, and found a lovely “fully rigged ship” by Patricia Crawford, in the book “Origami – Step by Step”
I had previously made a bottle as designed by David Brill so put the two together and got a satisfying rendition of the classic “ship in a bottle”, which counts as my ONE model today, given the bottle has previously been folded, and the ship stand (Designed by Fred Rhom) do not count (cut me a little slack here).
I learned a LOT folding this thing – scale matters (had to scale the bottle to fit the model AFTER it was finished), cellophane (which the bottle is made out of) does NOT like being cut straight nor folded, nor does it intend to ever stay folded (I resorted to anchoring it in place with sticky tape – so sue me) and finally how jolly hard it is to photograph something INSIDE a bottle made of cellophane.
Still, I think the Black Pearl may well survive to sail another day, the scene after the credits (that few of us theater patrons hung around for) would indicate the adventure continues.
Looking at the options for the box for this month, I stumbled across a design For Fujomono’s hexagonal box and decided to give that a twirl, literally:
A realtively simple fold that is stunningly beautiful – the hex swirl inside and out has a skirt that locks itself into the base – design genius that makes this my favourite box so far.
I think this design is a keeper. The lid is a slight variation of the base, slips over tightly and the finished package is a beautiful sculptural object – it would look lovely in pretty paper and because everything locks in place would be a good gift box also (must keep that in mind)
So tonight I went to see the School Musical with All Hallow’s School and St. Joes “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown”:
The show was wonderful, congratulations to all involved on such a slick production. It reminded me of how charming the characters Charles M Schultz created all those years ago and how relevant their observations of the world still are.
I looked for a Snoopy on his doghouse, but could not find a diagram, so settled on a Robert Lang model I had wanted to try – and I think this looks a little like Snoopy. Folded from “Origami Zoo”, a master work.
I like the posture and proportions of this model, expression in the dog and the fact that when I folded it, he looks like a naughty puppy banished to the doghouse.
Now I saw this “donkey” model and had a go – I think the diagrams are a little inaccurate because my first fold ended up looking a lot like Bambi
Beautiful head, strong forequarters that could withstand some more modelling but the back quarters and weedy tail are in need of work – they cannot all be gems
…so I was bugged that as tiny little triangles, in white, I found it impossible to complete the 5 intersecting shape thing, so I went to the school copy room and asked for some colourful Copy paper – A4.
I got 5 strong colours, cut squares, made them into thirds, total of 6 strips per tetrahedra, 5 tetrahedra – total of 30 bits of paper, 1-2 minutes to fold each unit, 3-5 minutes each to place and lock into surrounding units and it is done.
I find this shape fascinating, and the order of the pattern was only evident after I had completed it – from simple shapes, great complexity and beauty can arise.
High on a rocky promontory sat an Electric Monk on a bored horse. From under its rough woven cowl the Monk gazed unblinkingly down into another valley …
And so begins one of my favorite books of all time “Dirk gently’s Hollistic Detective Agency” by Douglas Adams.
Today we remember DNA, and carry a TOWEL in his honour – may he rest in peace.
Whlst i could not find a “towel” origami (interestingly there IS a branch of origami that deals with folding towels for guest beds into exotic shapes) I thought I would go with the Monk – I decided against the bored horse – am convinced that this monk is more than willing to believe anythig it is programmed to believe in, as a service to it’s master … if you haven’t read the book – do so, it is fab!
I stumbled across this nice geometric “floral” design by accident but rather like it’s simplicity:
It reminds me of an apple blossom, or a star fruit in cross section
Unusually, it is made from a pentagon, and the pre-creasing means the shape is largely just a collapse
Busy day, vicious earache, simple but lovely model – enjoy. You too can have a go at this here
Now it is my brother-in-law’s Birthday today (Happy Birthday Robert!!!) and he loves all things Motorbike (especially high powered zoomy ones), so I thought I would make him a Moped:
This is doubly hilarious because this little dinky model looks like it would be slower than walking
Made with some simple (if compact and intense) box pleating – no cuts nor glue, this is a well proportioned and fun to fold model.
You should have a go at this yourself – take care, 32nds are a pain to fold on a small piece of paper – Instructions are in Austrian but the diagrams make plenty of sense.
Now I have never tried MODULAR origami – it is a huge and enthusiastic movement in the society of paper benders – making modules that lock together to make a compound shape. I found instructions for Francis Ow’s 60° Unit and thought I would give a tetrahedron (6 of these units) a go:
I … got a little carried away and discovered they can nestle amongst each other in a lovely geometrically interesting sort of way. With this module, apparentyl, it is possible to complete 5 (yes, you heard me, 5 = 5×6 = 30 strips of paper) intersecting tetrahedra – scale beat me here (the tiny units are just too fiddly to lock together – must try it on A4 scale).
This is a new frontier for me, and it interests me strangely – the units are self-centring, lock each other so require no glue, have an amazing tensile strength when locked together and are simple to fold (1-2mins each). Based on 1/3 of a square, the folded thickness apparently is mathematically proved to allow a 5-intersection – we shall see.
You should try this – I enjoyed the modular approach and will probably try another in the next month (there are lots of flavours that do all sorts of things geometrically speaking) – Engineers (and those budding ones) should have a fiddle – something stunningly beautiful about regular geometry (better not say this too loud, maths teachers might hear me)
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.
Now I had relegated this model in to the “yeah, prolly not” pile but on a whim this morning thought I would give it a whirl:
The detail here is amazing – propeller, landing gear, double wings with strut to keep them apart, tail, engine, reasonably shaped fuselage
I would like to pretend this model came easily – it did not – so many obscure instructions, torturous collapses and closed sinks (often only to discover they were inside the body of the model and would not be seen anyway). It is a paper engineering marvel that I nearly gave up on 4 times.
In the end, an A3-cut square collapsed down to a tiny plane that is 10cm long and has a wingspan of 12cm – wow! Accuracy was a real problem as the model is so oddly shaped getting corners sharp on deeply fatigued paper was tough – copy paper is NOT the ideal medium for this model, still remarkably it held up (with some very gentle coaxing towards the end).
I am very happy with this, the first fold. Should I decide to fold it again I would do it much smarter. I will, however, accept discrete applause now, thank you.
Achtung!
Jetzt wir singen zusammen die Geschichte
Über den schweinköpfigen Hund
Und den lieben Red BaronAfter the turn of the century
In the clear blue skies over Germany
Came a roar and a thunder men have never heard
Like the scream and the sound of a big war birdEins, zwei, drei, vier ….
Up in the sky, a man in a plane
Baron von Richthofen was his name
Eighty men tried and eighty men died
Now they’re buried together on the countrysideTen, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin’ out the score
Eighty men died tryin’ to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of GermanyLeft, two, three, four ….
In the nick of time, a hero arose
A funny-lookin’ dog with a big black nose
He flew into the sky to seek revenge
But the Baron shot him down “Curses, foiled again!”Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin’ out the score
Eighty men died tryin’ to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of GermanyNow, Snoopy had sworn that he’d get that man
So he asked the Great Pumpkin for a new battle plan
He challenged the German to a real dogfight
While the Baron was laughing, he got him in his sightThat Bloody Red Baron was in a fix
He’d tried everything, but he’d run out of tricks
Snoopy fired once and he fired twice
And that Bloody Red Baron went spinning out of sightTen, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin’ out the score
Eighty men died tryin’ to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of GermanyWell, ten, twenty ….
Now one of the things I enjoy playing, with my mate, is an old-school game called “Dogfight” – great fun of plane v plane between German and American allied forces, set in WWI, when fair game and honour existed between aces. One of the game elements is a cannon:
A fairly clever figurative model that uses the windmill base as it’s starter and ends up fairly complete
I quite like the wheels, although they are formed at step 15 with the most hilarious instruction “Fold as shown, you might find this easier if you had folded these at step 2” – hahahaha, not. The designer is right, it would have been easier, but a headsup might have been prudent…?
Nice figruative model – I could see some little ones of these on a game board, but they would get hella-fiddly in places (might do a test on the limit of smallnicity I can fold them) … Dang, now I need a biplane (think Red Baron) …
An odd-proportioned rectangle first drew me to this model – 1.5:1; that means slicing off 1/3 from one side:
Two figures, standing (oddly) beside a lovely card table, pack in hand
This reminds me of a Neil Elias figure, but is cunningly (and surprisingly simply) crafted by Eugeny Fridrik. I loved how the table appeared out of a gusset – seemingly by magic.
You too should have a go at this model – here. I had to do a little papercraft from some of the offcut paper to make the card hand, and there is a nice little pleat keeping it on each figure’s hand – very tidy.
