125: Snapping Turtle

| wonko

The “Hare and the Tortoise” have a lot to do with what I was involved in today:

Our school had their inter-house cross country run. I was the far checkpoint and saw some hares and a LOT of tortoises – you get that, they are teenage boys after all.

This lovely turtle caught my eye for the shell, a delicate pleating pattern held in sort of 3d by side pleats, nice. It has all toes, a cute tail but the head (as diagrammed) is rather featureless, sadly – should I fold it again I think I would re-work the head completely as there is plenty of paper there to so some nice features.

Designed by John Szinger, you can have a go at this yourself here

124: May the Fourth Be With You

| wonko

Now the date is a word-play on a classic Star Wars line, and what better to celebrate Star Wars Day than with C3P0:

This is a mask – even from an A4 sheet it is quite large – I Hazard to suggest that an A3 sheet would make one that was wearable. Fairly happy with it – simple fold, busy day.

123: Sparrow

| wonko

Looking for an easy model, busy evening – this model has 20 steps, each simple – the result, delightful:

I like this model a lot – I can see plenty of modelling potential – the wings, it’s beak, lovely plump body, under-developed feet – neat and a really different approach to constructing a bird – many steps done by judgement (rather than landmarks) so lots of potential for character – mine looks like a soon-to-fledge youngster.

122: Geiger Xenomorph (alien)

| wonko

I loved Ridley Scott’s “Alien” – so dark, terrifying and it introduced a much reprised xenomorph originally designed by H.R. Geiger.

When I first saw the instructions for a paper xenomorph (in Spanish) I filed them away in the “yeah, prolly not” folder.

Conventionally the diagram should have symbols to reinforce what is happening (sometimes with words also, except these were in Spanish). First exception to the rule was a TURN OVER with no corresponding flip symbol!!! Grrrr. Following my realisation that I was folding the wrong side, I tried again only to be baffled by “Quedan la dos solapas mirando hacia la derecha” describing a collapse, followed by “Introducir las solapas dentro de los bolsillos” to describe a pocket tuck … poor paper (and finger tips) by this stage. Thank you Google translate.
Now I admit I broke a rule here – I got part way towards collapsing the base and realised I missed an instruction to open some side flaps so did all the nasty folding over the top of some snarly pre-folding instead of on the yet-unfolded side. I discovered this when i opened up the model expecting to find pre-creases only to find none – oops. I was determined to complete this model, so I started again – so sue me.

This is AMAZING – appendages, tail (ouch, that was painful to fold at this scale) and I re-worked the head to be a little 3d and characteristically domed – very pleased with this model. For an A3-cut square to reduce to a model barely 7cm tall, there is a LOT of paper torture, thank goodness for fingernails – I am amazed the copy paper did not simply disintegrate (it would have had I used the model I folded in error first).

For all you Alien fans out there, this one is for you (in commemoration of the theft of a classic line in the movie “Paul” I saw last night – “get away from her you bitch!” – lol.

121: Lang’s Rabbit

| wonko

“White Rabbits” for this month is provided by Robert Lang:

This beautiful rabbit is my favorite so far because of the shape and detail. This is the Year of the Rabbit also, a happy coincidence.

As a first-fold, I found It torturous to fold – Mr Lang, your instructions 21-24 were baffling, and three times I put the model down, contemplating abandoning it – the left side suffered so much paper fatigue by the time I finally understood where the fold ended up that it was fraying and beginning to give on a major crease (you can see the resultant stress in the middle photo of the dev series below) – luckily in the final model you cannot see this but … gee wiz it was nasty! In retrospect, however, I understand how difficult it would be to diagram and explain, the paper inside the gusset goes to hell and you sort of have to sink-crush-twist to let it sit flat.

I wish I had chosen a larger bit of paper for my first fold – an A4-cut square made this very fiddly and it was a challenge to keep points sharp and creases crisp – especially in the final halving of the model prior to body shaping (I did this very carefully as it looked like it would split along the back (danged copy paper again is an issue).

Very happy with this as a first fold – learnt lots (including a confirmation of the genius that is Robert Lang). Folded from “Origami Zoo”, I will be folding this one again I think as it is a keeper.

April, Done and Dusted

| wonko

PHEW!

Looking at this collection of models, I get a little wobbly to be honest. Laying them out on the floor to photograph them I realised how much time I am sinking in to this project – not sure if that is sustainable. Maybe more “rock” origami is required 😛

There were some seriously snarly models this month, many personal milestones, it has been an interesting ride so far – hope my patience, abilities and selection of as yet un-tried models lasts the distance. I gotta do some simpler ones I think, too many Joisel’s or Lang’s in a month is a recipe for fatal paper cuts.

Hope you, the blog reader, are also enjoying the journey.

120: Joisel’s Goldfish

| wonko

Ending such an EPIC month, I thought it appropriate to try a model from Eric Joisel – this is my first-fold of his Goldfish:

Now I know I could have modelled the body a little more, and Eric himself poses a design challenge to put in a nice Davor Vinco-inspired eye, but I am pretty happy with this as a first fold – I learned a lot by folding this, and next time I would make it smaller and much more 3d

Folded from an A3 cut square, using an odd asymetrical triple preliminary fold out of an eccentric pony base, the model has a certain fluidity to it, and seems to fold itself in places – true genius of design.

I like that the tail, although again asymetrical, is complete both sides, and there is lots of opportunity to pose fins, and shape mouth, nice

You can have a go at this, it is fairly straightforward (apart from when it is not) http://www.ericjoisel.com/ps_assets/pdfs/fish.pdf

118: Grammophone

| wonko

In simpler times, music was encoded onto black plastic discs as bumpy valleys a needle would bounce along to extract the sound. In even simpler times that sound was amplified by a large cone, no electricity involved at all:

These days it is all iPods, mp3s, downloads and stealing music – sometimes the older, simpler times were best – certainly stereo turntables create a lovely chocolatey sound that modern digital sampling techniques have lost.

Why a grammophone? the kids at school perform in the formal concert tonight – the symbol of music for me is “His Master’s Voice” which was a grammophone with a dog looking quizzically at it.

This is an interesting box-pleating exercise that at almost every step looked like it was going to hell in a hand-basket. The final opening of the cone was a revelation.

Amusingly my daughter saw on my screen the words “Pagina precedente” and “Pagina successiva” and immediately assumed I was looking at something naughty – when in fact the instructions were in Italian. Folded in 1/12ths, with an interesting collapse to put the record on the turntable first, I like this a lot and hope you do to.

You can have a go yourself also: http://www.origamidauria.it/diagrammi/diagrammigrammofono/grammofono1.htm

117: Tapir

| wonko

Now I for one am celebrating “World Tapir Day“:

I had to google it, I am sure I have seen them in zoos, but they seem to be an odd combination of pig-elephant-anteater-thing (an odd evolutionary concoction more real than a man-bear-pig), with a lovely temperament apparently (but I am not sure if they taste like chicken though)

An interesting base, tough in the final stages due to all the paper in the middle, but the overall shape in pleasing – this is a Malay Tapir (they vary continent to continent, region to region) designed by Jun Maekawa and is a fitting tribute.

116: Snake Charmer

| wonko

I remembered, passing the King Cobra, that Fakirs and other showman use Cobras in ceremonial and entertainment fields, and had a vague memory of a charming little model tucked away in one of my origami books:

Designed by Fred Rhom, folded from “More Origami” by Robert Harbin, this is an action model – you press the apex of the stickey-outey bit and the snake rears up (sort of like it is coming out of a basket).

I modded the snake (to make it cobra-like; there was paper, the hood flattened nicely and I merely hinted at a head, quite an effective alteration I think). This model uses the “simplex” base – a useful one for figures.

I put a Fez on him, not because I think fezzes are cool Doctor, but because by reducing the paper for the hat you increase the paper available for the flute (yes, that is supposed to be a flute, not a nose) – would like to re-think this one as I think it should be a horn but there was never going to be enough paper in there for that. I would have liked to re-think the “basket” end because the original design does not look at all basket-like; providing the spring for the raising snake is however the job of that bit.

Quite a cute model and suitably snakey, nearing the end of the month thank goodness, looking forward to some simpler folds to come (or not).

115: Anzac Digger’s Slouch Hat

| wonko

Now I know what I was going for here, but could not find anything that quite did the job. An iconic symbol of our diggers, the “slouch” hat is a distinctive Akubra with one side of the brim held up by a “rising sun” badge, the other flat(ish) and a sort of dimpled crown. Why a slouch hat? Well, today is Anzac Day and whilst I struggle to be involved with any military action (and doubt I would be brave enough anyway) I can only admire those who put their life on the line for something they believe in (or are ordered to do).

I fold this in memory of Bill O’Donnell, and the plethora of service personnel who are now only with us in fond memory.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.


Now I think I have the “intent” of this hat, if not the polish of a published design. I found a rough “bush” hat, based on a waterbomb base by Darren Scott and sort of improvised from there with the basic form

I am sure, if I had pre-planned a little better, I could have used the gusset on the raised brim side to form a sunrise badge (and indeed, if you look carefully you can see the frayed remnants of a failed attempt).

Raising a circular crown was not something the flat paper wanted to support, forming the dimples was difficult as each curve made the brim curve oddly, but I think the profile is right.

Hope it is a fitting Anzac tribute.

114: Hatching Chick

| wonko

This model is cute – designed by Peter Engel, it is an egg with a chick inside, and is an action model (in that it moves):

The chick’s head peers out of the cracked egg, beak ready to cheep:

This is an easter-inspired fold that is not too difficult – would work well in 2 colour paper as the chick and the egg end up being different colours if folded correctly.

You can try this for yourself – a video of the fold, apparently authorised by the designer is available here.

On a related note, I am finding it really difficult to decide if resources I find on the net are authorised, or pirate copies of copyrighted works that appear in pay-for publications. I am TRYING to do the right thing here but the interweb is not helping as so many legit resources turn out to be copyright theft. Indeed, I am beginning to wonder if publishing my “development” shots might also be breaching copyright laws – I will seek advice from the British Origami Society on this one I think.

113: King Cobra

| wonko

When I first saw this set of diagrams I thought I wanted to try it (common sense did NOT cut in at any stage):

Originally diagrammed for a 1×30+ square, and originally designed to be a massive sculpture with a 2m+ wide hood on a wire-frame armature, finding paper to suit was a challenge. I settled on white wrapping paper (used for “Last Waltz”) and cut the longest length possible with a 15cm square as the governing width – I managed 18 squares long, roughly 4/7ths the required length, and accepted that I would just be missing some coils of the body.So, over a 7 day period, doing a little (well, actually quite a lot) each day, I began the task of revealing the snake that was trapped in the long rectangle of paper. Starting with the HEAD (seemed like as good a place as any), keeping the rest of the paper not mangled was an issue on my work desk, so migrated to the dining table.

Having shaped lovely fangs, a prominent forked tongue and beady eyes, I then moved on to the first pleating marathon to form the HOOD – here scale was my enemy – the pleats necessary to stop the hood unraveling were accordion crimps with insane measurements like 2mm each – thank goodness for fingernails and my bone folder. I found I could only do these folds during daylight as overhead lighting on this paper made existing creases very difficult to see. At this stage the paper suffered paper fatigue and I strengthened the tiniest pleats with a little PVA glue – yes, I know this is cheating but I want the model to last, not fray and split.

After the hood was complete, the task of cross-pleating the BODY could begin – this was insane – the diagram said crease in diagonal 1/16ths – given that I had a 15cm width, I thought bugger it and creased in 15ths – so I could use a ruler as there were NO folding landmarks. Once the pre-creasing was complete, then alternate crimps (each 1/4cm) formed the scales – HUNDREDS of them.

The inherent beauty of the model was obvious – the diagonal pleating is architectural and although time consuming, the result is stunningly beautiful and very satisfying. Once scales were in place, right down to the tip of the tail, body SHAPING was next – carefully folding along the body to tuck rough edges under and round the body to make it snake-like. I put this off for a day or so because I was so pleased with the flat pleating and worried about breaking it to make it round. Additionally I added pleats on the inside surface to cause it to curve inwards, although it seemed to want to do that on its own accord.

All that was left was to devise a way of posing and displaying the model – I wanted it to have it’s head raised – that was the threat pose the model was designed to showcase – originally I fashioned a wire to make a sort of internal scaffold, but went to a craft shop looking for white plastic tubing to encase the ugly wire and found a “doll stand” in white enamel. $5 later and I have a permanent display for it.

This has taken me ages, and I doubt I will consider such a marathon project again. There was a LOT of repetition, which I suppose makes this model simpler, but at no time did I regret starting it and all the time I was folding I was excited to see what it would turn out like. I will probably keep this model, and with it’s nice stand it will probably find a way into our china cabinet (it currently sits atop it).

What have I learned from this model? Accuracy matters, patience is it’s own reward, small errors accumulate, near enough is NOT good enough and tea is a good folding accompaniment, beer is not.

If you have managed to continue reading down to here I thank you for staying awake. Polite applause is now appropriate.

112: Bunny Box

| wonko

Now all responsible adults are prepping the the imminent visit of the Easter Bunny. This little box is perfect for collecting the spoils of an easter egg hunt (so should be made in advance to avoid disappointment):

Clever use of paper, pockets, easy to fold and actually very bunny-like. A square cut from an A4 page makes a box big enough for the largest haul of mini eggs – an A3 square would make slipper-sized boxes (an idea for “fluffy bunny slippers”?).

Designed by Jacky Chan (do not think it is the kung fu chappie tho it would be cool if it was) as my “white rabbits” for this month (given the “rock” displaced it in it’s rightful place.

You should totally fold some of these for kids you know – easy and quick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9zwCP7dg5o