2hrs

288: Happy Birthday Gemma

| wonko

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.

268: Hermit Crab

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When I first saw this design I put it in the “yeah, prolly not” because it looked hard:

A twisted shell, claws, legs, eyes on stalks and a seemingly impossible series of paper torture instructions. Previewing instructions, many of them made no sense until you were in the moment – the impossible collapse to get the legs and claws together was so poorly described I just sort of improvised, symmetrically, and it turns out what I did was what I was supposed to – psyche!

I am really chuffed that this model worked – a real challenge to manage the paper fatigue as some of the major axes are bent, swiveled and stretched to the point of splitting, fortunately I was able to shepherd the paper through to the end.

A trecherous fold really as, just when you think you are on top of it, the instructions require you to fold it inside out – arrrgghhh! It makes sense, the critter needs to be inside the shell but I wish there was another method to get there as I nearly tore it asunder in an attempt to turn it inside out without losing the already folded body – ended up unfolding it nearly completely and then re-forming as best as I could inside.

Quite happy with the result, it does look hermit-crabby, although it looks like he is ready to trade up to a larger shell.

252: Umulus Rectangulum

| wonko

I liked this modular when I first saw it and knew that it would look wonderful in colour:

An interesting elbow bend, tubular construction and odd folding in fifths make this model interesting to make

You start with a split A4 page, box pleat and lock the tube, then slide one inside the other to make a rectangular hoopy thing, then nest another inside that one, then lock a third over the top of that one and you end up with a lovely sort of impossible looking shape

I like this a lot, the illusion of intersecting shapes in well designed and although a little time consuming it is satisfying and a keeper I think.

250: Child Protection Week

| wonko

This week is designated “Child Protection Week” so I looked for a model that was for me the essence of the message:

Education is where I went – kids educated by older people is one of the best forms of protection around and this group of figures shows the careing and respectful relationship betwixt teacher and student to me.

I like how the elder teacher is balding (but in denial as he has comb-over side tusts of hair on an otherwise bald head), the student looks up hopeful from a book for guidance – just wonderful.

Folded based on a David Brill pair “Gippetto and Pinocchio”  from the aptly named “Brillian Origami” book, I like this grouping and hope you do to. The teacher is folded from a 2×1 and the student from a 2×1 that is 3/4 the size of the teacher. The book is a Brill book also (a spelling book, that only has 3 pages between a lovely bound cover), adding to the scene I think – the student’s hands looked empty without it.

Some lovely figurative folding, suggesting detail without folding every last nose-hair of it; the teacher’s head is a staggeringly complex box pleating trick and the student features a torturous collapse, but overall I can see the models are related, their bases were similar and the folding style of one compliments the other nicely I think.

248: Centipede

| wonko

Now yes, I will be the first to admit this is NUTS!:

But you only know half of it – this is my SECOND centipede folded today – you see I learned a general principle: how to tease legs out of a straight edge, and I got … a little … carried away. I should have been taken away for doing this twice in one day – 2 HOURS each creepy crawley, and some sore hands to finish with but it was so totally worth it – hahahaha.

This model is based on Peter Engel’s Centipede, although I found many of the steps incomprehensible so sort of “improvised” and I think it is rather special – ONE piece of paper, 32 (yes, that is right THIRTY TWO!!!) legs, a rather splendid mandible and antennae and some of them stickey-outey-tail-things they have.

Folding on this scale is crazy (thank goodness for fingernails) – the problem is finding a piece of paper LARGE enough to make this model not torture (both times I failed, cutting the largest 4×1 I could out of an A3 sheet). At this scale the feet are very difficult to fold with fat clumsy fingers, and it was a days work just to stop the paper tearing. Just for the record, NEITHER centipede suffered paper fatigue, splits or tears – that in itself is a miracle.

The technique is extensible, and, given longer pieces of paper I can make more legs – very nifty trick that I will remember as any straight edge now is a candidate for a row of stickey outey things.

149: The Black Pearl in a Bottle

| wonko

…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.