111: Wisdom Tooth

| wonko

My son gets his wisdom teeth out today – they were growing sideways and apparently that is not a good thing:

So I began a mission to fold a molar, and struggled to find anything similar, eventually settling on an idea based on a hungarian folder Somoskoi Zsuzsanna that more or less looked toothlike.

Not entirely happy with it but it will do – hope you get well soon Matty.

You can have a go (beware, the instructions are in Hungarian): http://origami.homoludens.hu/sites/default/files/ori_szs_fog_phase.jpg

110: Neelix the Cat

| wonko

Tuesday evenings I watch telly and be silly with a mate. An occasional visitor is the neighbors cat called Neelix:

He is siamese, breezes in looking for whatever he want at that moment (cats are like that) – food, a lap, a scratch; then he disappears just as silently as he arrived.

A nice, simple model (for a change) that is figurative of the aloofness that cats carry themselves with.

It is said that dogs have masters and cats have servants – this is certainly true of Neelix – he has us well trained.

You can have a go at this one yourself: http://www.scribd.com/doc/21751431/Intermediate-a-15cm-6-Inch-Square-Makes-a-7-5cm-3

100 Last Waltz (Revisited)

| wonko

…so I made a second fold of Elias’ “Last Waltz” figure on the day of Lindy and Randy’s wedding, and visited Australia Post …

packaged ever so carefully, bubble wrap and box, sent to the other side of the world

…dancing all the way to Silverdale US, to the happy couple themselves.

So glad it arrived in one piece, so glad they like it. Fitting wedding present. What a handsome couple, the people are not a bad match either 😛

Now the couple live in a lovely glass pavillion:

109: Brill’s Nut

| wonko

Take a rectangle cut from half a square and torture it via box-pleating:

and you get a nut that actually takes the thread of the bolt previously made with the same hexagonality, nice.

This was an odd fold, it looked like it was going to hell at every stage, the inside collapse looked like it could not work, until it just did. Tucking away all that paper inside to leave a relatively clean hex nut on the outside is paper engineering genius.

Folded from “Brilliant Origami” by David Brill (that is 3 Brill models in a row, time for a change perhaps?).

108: David Brill’s Bolt

| wonko

When I first saw this model I thought it was not possible, but thought I would give it a whirl anyway:

This is a bolt, box pleated to have a functional thread and a beautiful hexagonal do-uppy endy thing (sorry, no idea what you call the end you use a spanner on).

It was a fascinating exercise in crimping and pleating that did not come easily – the pattern of valleys and mountains was challenging to fold in pre-crease stage and more torturous to collapse. I found it difficult to reach inside the tube during the early collapse stage (fingers were not long enough to reach) and resorted to using the bone folder to help out the first few crimps.

This was folded from the appropriately named “Brilliant Origami” by David Brill. It has an accompanying model (the “nut”) that I shall try for tomorrow – they form a pair – could be interesting.

107: David Brill’s Book

| wonko

This model answers the simple question – can you take an A3 sheet and turn it into a book:

Yes, yes you can. I am so glad I decided to go large with the paper on this model – an A4 square would have been very difficult indeed – the result is delightful, spine, hard cover and numerous pages – brill-iant indeed.

There is much to admire about this model. From a paper engineering perspective it cleverly folds away most of the sheet, locking the pages in place and forming a nice stiff “hardback” cover. If you use paper coloured differently on both sides, the cover is one colour and the pages the other – very clever indeed (a little difficult to demonstrate on a white-only fold).

Folded from the appropriately named “Brilliant Origami” by David Brill.

106: Liz’s Elephant

| wonko

21 years ago, my adorable squealing little girl was born. As soon as she could recognize an elephant, she was fascinated by them – Happy Birthday Liz:

So I decided it was appropriate to make Liz an Elephant for her 21st Birthday – they say an Elephant never forgets (not sure why, I am sure they have just as faulty memories as the rest of us).

First fold was small and it was difficult to get the pose right without stiffness in the paper, second fold (the birthday present) was folded from light card (reminiscent of elephant hide I thought) and seemed to work better, or maybe it was because I knew what I was doing second time through.

Lovely model, cute expression on it’s face, beautiful trunk and ears, nice stocky, elephantine body.

You can have a go at this yourself, only the side sinks are difficult, everything else is fairly easy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKbQR4mnim8

105: Klingon War Bird

| wonko

About time I did something for the trekkers out there – this torturous model is a Klingon War Bird:

Instructions, in German, suggested size paper makes a microscopic fold, very tough on the paper (thank heavens for fingernails).

I like that the model is at least true to shape – knowing how the fold works now I would use a much bigger piece of paper should I fold this again as some of the detail is lost because of the thicknesses of the fold.

Still, boldly go, hey 🙂 You can have a go yourself: http://www.papierfalten.de/documents/faltanleitungen/bird_of_prey.pdf

104: Baby Rhino

| wonko

News.com carried a story yesterday about the birth of a baby Rhino at Australia Zoo. Naturally I thought it appropriate to celebrate this with a model:

I have a few Rhino designs – some very detailed, some figurative like this one – I like this one however for a bunch of reasons – the proportions seem right, it hints at a tough hide and stocky body, lovely mouth, has simle horns and ears and abounds in rhinocity.

Used my “bone folder” for the first time on this model, lovely creases

103: Baby Loggerhead Turtle

| wonko

When our kids were little, we holidayed at Mon Repos near Bundaberg to watch the annual turtle egg laying and hatching.

This model reminds me of the lovely little turtle hatchlings we watched, in the still of the night, emerge from their underground clutch and waddle clumsily towards the ocean. In truth they were about this size and sadly, only one or two of the entire clutch of hundreds of eggs will survive to adulthood.

Nice simple model, busy day, you can make one too: http://donyaquick.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=24#/d224qix

102: Gecko and Fly

| wonko

Now when I first saw this I thought there was no way I would be able to do it – such intricate pleating, not possible on A4 photocopy paper:

So I cheated, and cut a 40x40cm square of white wrapping paper and gave it a whirl. there is much to like about this model – the gecko’s placement above the fly, the tail, some of the feet.

This model took me ages – on and off much of the day. The result is lovely – considering getting it framed as it’s rectilinear format might suit a shadow box frame, Some distance may provide perspective. The fold was torturous, such pleating, unfolding and twisting in other directions, many times I thought the paper would disintegrate.

Fairly happy with the first fold – will not be repeating it. Diagrams only, not clearly drawn, some baffling maneuvers and even at this scale (the largest paper folded to date) some of the folds were microscopic.

You may, however, applaud discretely. I need a cup of tea!

Storage and Display

| wonko

The most common question I get asked (apart from how do I find the time to do this in the first place – try not to think about that one too much) is what do I do with the models when I have made them:

Monthly storage in a shoebox on top of our china cabinet (no, not the most elegant of things, but practical until something else comes along). I like to display a couple of days back, particularly if there are some nice models amongst the month.

After a monthly picture is taken, the month’s folds are then archived in a plastic box (must look to source some silica gel sachets to keep them dry – humidity causes some to unfold). It looks like the archive box is about the right size – it is nearly 1/3 full and I am nearly 1/3 of the way through this adventure.

The aim will be to get these all out again and photograph them together in a 365 image.

… well, you did ask.

101: A Ram

| wonko

I was cruising sites in Polish (no, don’t ask) and came across a rather nifty animated archive of charming animals – this is a ram:

He has a rather splendid set of horns, cute feet, twisty tail and nicely formed muzzle (with a lower jaw you cannot see in the photo.

Happy with this as a first fold, there was some lovely precise rabbit ears (the main technique – odd – rabbit ears for a sheep, but in the end it all tastes like chicken), I do think I would mod it a little on subsequent attempts to round out the body.

You too can have a go: http://dev.origami.art.pl/show.php?id=31&format=SWF&dzial=FLA

100: Elias’s “Last Waltz” for Lindy and Randy’s Wedding

| wonko

Lindy and Randy get married today, which is actually yesterday (curse this linear time) and as a MILESTONE fold I thought I would attempt Neal Elias’s “Last Waltz”:Fittingly it is a bride and groom dancing at their wedding. there is much to love about this model – it WORKED first fold, contains 2 figures (joined at the hip) and they have a fairly natural posture, are both dressed formally (him in a suit and her in a meringue) and it is free standing.He has his hands on her shoulder and waist, she is reciprocating and the model withstands viewing from all angles.Made from a 3×1 rectangle cut from white wrapping paper (testing it out for a larger snake project later), when made with 2-sided paper he ends up a different colour to her – very clever indeed.

A joy to fold, another joy to attend Lindy and Randy’s wedding via UStream – hope this is a fitting wedding present.

99: A DNA Double Helix

| wonko

Talk about “life, the universe and everything”, this model is an intriguing exercise in pre-folding:

Organised ridges, counter folds of diagonals and the model seemed to curl in on itself in a magical sort of way. Interestingly it is composed of 42 base pairs – I wonder if that is a coincidence?

Folded from an A4 page, strangely, the resultant model is huge (as the reference stage suggests, but is has an inherent strength and rigidity that I found surprising.

You can try this one for yourself: http://erikdemaine.org/thok/dna41.html