139: Playing cards

| wonko

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.

Library Display

| wonko

So I have this big plastic box of models – 4 months worth of them, and I enquired if the School Library (I am a teacher btw) would like to use them for a display sometime:

The day after I suggested it, the display case was empty and we began laying them out

It is terrifying, and wonderful, to see so much paper torture in such a concentrated dose – some lovely models amongst that 4 months worth.

They can look after them until the end of the term I guess – we shall see how they fare being on display (they do look pretty under lights) – at least I can lock the cabinet to stop inquisitive fingers touching them. I hope the dust from the adjacent building site is over and done with – we shall see.

138: Flu Jab

| wonko

This afternoon I went to get my annual Flu Jab:

I am told it is “just a little prick with a needle” but I am sure the bloke who injected me does not like to be referred to that way 😛

I thought I should go original design also, not thinking I needed a pattern, so did a little free-form shaping, some simple pleating and crimping. I am fairly happy with it – it looks syringe-y and a little 3d too which is nice – not very tidy on the reverse side and the needle looks not very sharp.

137: Magic Ball

| wonko

I saw this lovely bit of geometry and reasoned it was actually just a repetitive tessellation:

The folds, whilst tiresome (there are a lot of them) are not difficult if you are careful, but the collapse was a new form of torture – it took ages to get all the pleats into place, wrestling with such a flexy squirmy model was tricksey.

In the end, it is soft, pliable and great fun to play with – it has an odd material strength when stitched into a tube (via a line of stickeytape – shhhh) but then distorts and flexes in very sexy ways.

Great exercise in pleating, crimping and patience – had no idea it would take this long, but enjoyed it in a strange way

136: Starship Enterprise

| wonko

..Space, the final frontier. These are the journeys of the Starship Enterprise as she continues her 5 year mission …

Talk about “boldly going where no copy paper has been before”, this delightful little model is the result of wrestling an A3-cut square into something that is 17cm saucer to nacelle.

I really enjoyed torturing the paper to make this model, although paper fatigue and the sheer thicknesses in places caused it’s “structural integrity” to be compromised. I am pleased that it is relatively complete – it has a bridge rather vulnerably perched atop a nice saucer, 2 engineering marvels in nacelles attached rather nicely to the main hull, even a main deflector dish – so cool.

Why an “Enterprise”? Well, my mate and I finished BSG and will, tomorrow night, start the Original Star Trek episodes (Kirk, Spock etc) – both of us are healthily obsessed with all things Trek (we have seen it all, I used to even be able to speak Klingon!). I look forward to our time exploring sci fi so …. two to beam up Mr Scott…

135: Fantastic Mrs Fox

| wonko

Curiously, a female fox is called a “vixen”. this delightful model is Roman Diaz’s fox:

I must say I really enjoyed folding this one – there are some fantastically complicated steps, astonishing collapses, intricate sinks and some nice fine work – thank goodness I used a square cut from A3 – the facial expression particularly is just fabulous and such a lovely tail.

This took me about an hour, I had seen the diagrams but having Sara Adams talk me through the steps (via a video tutorial) made it so much easier (as some of the diagrammed maneuvers were baffling). With 2 colour paper there are white highlights in all the right places – brilliant design

You should try this too here

134: Lang’s Tarantula

| wonko

When I first saw this model I knew it was going to be a tough one – so much paper compressed into such a compact model:

I searched for some large format copy paper and an architect friend gave me some A1 80gsm, from which I cut an 80cm square (well, as I discovered when I was folding, it was not quite square, but I soldiered on)

The SCALE of this model is terrifying, the finished model is bigger than my hand and horrifically spider-like, even as a white first-fold. I am itching to fold this again, with some thinner, more robust paper.

I would like to say this was a quick model, in truth it ate nearly 4 hours (but I did manage to make some rather spectacular pumpkin soup during the many tea and chore breaks). Some of the steps are astonishingly tricky, and I could not imagine achieving them easily on a smaller bit of paper – the body and leg thicknesses were very tough and I am afraid the paper suffered paper fatigue on many primary creases.

I am seriously chuffed I managed to achieve something so spider-like, there were many junctures where I thought of giving up and folding something simpler (and denying all knowlege of the crumpled mess in the bin) but patience, perseverance and earl grey tea took the photocopy paper places it should not have been able to go.

You too can have a go at this here … wish I had seen this video before finishing the thing.

I love this pose-able model, and accept your discrete applause for being able to fold it. I am sorry Mr Lang, I will attempt to make the bits neater the next time I fold it – you are a design genius however.

This model seems like it wants to get up and go places, so I have begun creeping out the family by making it do so (Blu Tac is a lovely thing)

133: Brill’s Bottle

| wonko

I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy:

A fully formed container, neck, base, hollow and interesting

I like this design, and was sure it would not work – forming the neck and pleating the base to seal it make it a very clever model indeed.

Folded from the aptly titled “Brilliant Origami” by David Brill. Looks like a spirit bottle – it suggests you fold it out of clear material and put a ship inside it – that would be cool also.

Hope you like it – not bad for such a tired brain.

132: Pyramid

| wonko

In the late 70’s (1979 to be exact), my musical world changed forever. I bought a record (remember them kids – black plastic circular things you put on a turntable) by a then teenage Gary Numan – it was “The Pleasure Principle”:

The music was electronic and I knew I had found my passion, the cover was baffling – a dapper teen in a suit, glancing casually at a glowing pyramid:

A simple re-working of the Waterbomb, some nice symmetry, it is delightfully complete on all sides

Made to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of that album, and the fact that I am going to see him and his band in concert tonight (WOOO!) supported by Severed Heads. Very excited by both, just quietly, as I had long given up home of ever seeing either live and resigned myself to collecting all their recorded works.

131: A Bit of Bull

| wonko

Given my (perfectly reasonable) obsession with cows, it is surprising that this is one of only a few so far:

A rather cute water buffalo bull, head down, beautiful horns, bum up

A simple, figurative fold after a huge and exhausting day.

130: Cylon Reading it’s Script

| wonko

Tuesday evenings for over a year now a mate and I get together and watch 2 episodes of Battlestar Galactica, gradually wending our way through the seasons. Tonight is the final 2 eps:

I like the idea that the CG extras (robot Cylons or “toasters” as they are lovingly referred to) would have to check the script to determine their cues to enter, gesticulate mecahically and kill all humans, so I modded a fold of a german person wearing a hat reading a newspaper to suit:

…squint, look at it in poor light, chemically enhanced and … you got it, right? Well, it is sort of figurative, and sort of works – I really wanted to do the whole cylon centurion but could not find a fold that worked.

If you have not seen the more recent incarnation of BSG you really should – it is landmark Sci Fi, I like it that episodic drama can literally take your breath away, move you to care about the characters, make you question things and be so danged entertaining to discuss.

129: Making a Spectacle

| wonko

Now I had this idea that with box pleating it should be possible to make life-size spectacles:

So I set about experimenting, discovered that I could form 6×6 lenses, a nose bridge and some reasonable length arms with a 4×1 rectangle cut from an A3 sheet:

Quite cool – an original invention, chuffed with the result. hope you like them also – the ultimate in UV protection (and all light for that matter)

Don’t pretend like you do not want to look this cool 😛

And for those faithful following this nonsense, here is my crease pattern/plan so you can have a go yourself:

128: Mother’s Day Brooch

| wonko

Mother’s Day is a chance to do something nice for Mum, because…. When your Mum is going to be overseas, it takes planning for that to happen:

This first fold was completed a couple of weeks ago – snail mail to the UK is slow, so I needed to make the coloured ones for cards in time for them to arrive today:

I made a card for each (Mum and Mum-in-law), hope they like them. The coloured roses are rather special – made from imported Yuzen Washi, mounted on to blank cardstock I think they look lovely.

This is a variation of a camelia fold I have yet to try. With 2 colour paper the leaves would be one colour and the rose another, neat:

Designed by Sy Chen, YOU should have a go at this yourself – it is simple and the result is lovely. I am sure your mum would love it – go here for a video demonstration

127: Baby Elephant

| wonko

This lovely baby elephant approaches the form from an A4 sheet, uncut:

I like this model a lot, the shape, position of trunk, tail and ears remind me of a young elephant and there is lots of paper so the potential to massage in detail and character are rich – very clever.

Why a baby elephant? We helped daughter daughter and her fiancée move into their first unit last night – she has always loved and collected elephants and so it seemed right to send her off with one. The house will be quieter and less interesting without her around. Love you Liz xoxo

You should try this one for yourself – be careful, the instructions are in Danish – I love the google translation engine – littoral translations are often hysterical – my favorite “45: Inner Crack rump and tail.” which means “reverse fold the tail” but it works for me on a bunch of levels.

126: Skier

| wonko

The Elias base is a great one for figures:

This delightful downhill skier is a fine example – I like the posture, the arm positions, it looks like he is on motion. Folded from “More Origami” by Robert Harbin, another application of the Elias base. A fairly simple fold for a hectic afternoon/night, hope you like it.