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.
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.
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.
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
..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…
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
