63: Polar Bear

| wonko

Looking through the British Origami Society website, I stumbled across a simple pattern for a Polar Bear:

Made from 1/2 a square triangle, you fold half the bird base and massage from there – nice little model designed by Max Hulme that uses creases to create a 3d body and hindlegs out of nowhere. As a first fold I am very happy with this one, but would improve the posture and expression next time I folded it now I know what makes what.

Why a Polar Bear? Well a colleague suggested it (thanks Bruce).

You can try it too (diagrams are a little rough and leave a lot open to interpretation): http://www.britishorigami.info/practical/creative/bestof/mh.php

62: Horse

| wonko

I intend to try a few horse models – thought I would start with the least horse-like and work towards something nicer:A tiny-wee model that takes a square from A4 and reduces it to a very tight mass of paper. Not sure that the legs  work very well and the tail is clumsy (partly because of the bulk of paper bent to form it), but it is a start

61: Jack In the Box

| wonko

Wow, no I mean WOW!

This little beauty is a masterpiece of box pleating, designed by Max Hulme.  I was sure it had no chance of working correct as the whole working in 6ths, 12ths and quarters was a real pain on such a small scale. Made from the largest 2×1 rectangle that can be cut from an A4 page, I think next time I make it I will do it bigger and it is really fiddly with such big fingers.

This pattern was given to me by a Year 12 student years back on a Kairos rereat, and one look at it relegated it to the “yeah, maybe later” pile to try – I decided to give it a whirl first-fold today and am totally chuffed it worked.

I am amazed with the intricacy and detail – his face has ears, body is wearing a coat with sleeves, he is sitting on the most torturous but beautiful spring and most magically of all, actually folds up into a tiny neat box so the lid closes – wow!

60: White Rabbit

| wonko

Yes, I know, it is a habit, but a useful one to say “white rabbits” on “The Ides of March”:

A quick, but nicely posed rabbit for the beginning of the third month, hope you like it. I have done other rabbits – notably 32 and 10 but am not sure I can find 12 of the little blighters – we shall see.

February, Done and Dusted

| wonko

Month 2 done and dusted – looking back some notable models, lots of complicated ones too (hope I have not peaked too early):

Quite happy with progress so far, but with 306 still to do there is no time to relax just yet.

59: Incense Burner

| wonko

Deceptively simple, this exercise in pre-folding followed by a magical collapse results in an interesting box/table/container…thing:

I like the design, geometry, clever self-locking but am not sure a paper container is the best thing to light up incense in.A nice simple model to finish the month with – thanks @ackygirl for the loan of the book this comes from.

58: Rhino-cocerous

| wonko

I was lent a book (thanks @ackygirl, must remember to return it) that contains some designs I have been meaning to try – the Rhino looked impossible:

The head of this beastie has some 15 layers of paper in it, bending it puts stress on photocopy paper (it began to split up neat the ears) but I like the body formation, it has the cutest little hooves and tail. The body armor looks right (as my feeble memory allows me to remember the last one I saw at Western Plains Zoo).

I was mightily pleased when this model worked first-fold, as there is a bit of guesswork needed to get the proportions right – it looks rhino-y tho so I am happy with the first fold.

57: Grasshopper

| wonko

Now I first found a partially incomplete PDF of this model and thought that it, for the most part made sense:

Little did I realise that the important parts (head, legs, abdomen) were not actually explained so I … improvised. It is an ingenious re-working of the frog base – the same one that I taught my tutor group, with some twisting and tweaking to make extra limbs – nice to remember when next I feel inventive.

Mightily pleased with the result but it is some serious paper torture – A4 page twisted, crimped and bent down to make a model that is barely 5cm long – my reference pad (underneath) is sideways to display the model.

I like it – realistic enough to make my daughter jump (she is afraid of them) so that says something at least.

56: Wise Owl

| wonko

I like this fold, the eyes, winds, body shape all work, not bad for a first fold:

Why an Owl? Well, being surrounded by so many wonderful (and wise) QSITE members past, present and future reminded me of the wisdom we all rely on – to me, wisdom is an owl (tissue thin justification I know but there you go). Also, against all wisdom, QSITE have me on their board again, editor of their Journal – silly fools, surely they have learned better by now?

55: Green Tree Frog

| wonko

Now I like frogs, could not eat a whole one, but they are gentle animals – this model reminds me so much of those lovely soft green ones that we used to get back when the weather worked – you know, they lived under your toilet rim and emerged blinking into the light to feast on moths that fluttered around the flouro tube in the laundry:

I misjudged the scale a bit, sorry – it uses a 2×1 rectangle and initial glimpses at the method seemed to suggest way more crimping than actually was required – he ended up fairly life-size. I like the eyes, and the vestiges of padded feet – must find a more realistic one for my next frog – toes on all 4 feet are not that hard, surely (hahahahaha).

Why a frog? Well, my pastoral care group today (thanks to some superb golf-putting by Josh) won a golf tournament thingy and were presented with a HUGE bag of red frogs – I wisely took them and strategically decided to distribute them evenly AFTER classes finished, else my munchkins would have been bouncing off the walls I reckon with all that sugar and artificially deliciousness.

Tidy

| wonko

Now storage is getting to be an issue – the shoebox is full and I am not through my second month, so I decided to buy a tidytub:57 litres, hope it is enough (the next size up seemed big enough to hide a body, and the size smaller was not much bigger than the shoebox) – did not think paper was measured such but there you go.

I think it will be really cool if/when I get to 365 to have them ALL in a photo, so they need to be stored, think this is a solution.

After the 366 ritual BONFIRE I can re-use the tub for papers and stuff storage under the house,

54: Monkey

| wonko

Now according to the design I was working to, this should look a LOT like a monkey:

Sure it has 4 legs, a tail and a curious pot-belly, but it is monkeyish as a biro is blue-whale-ish.

After what seemed like an age, and some serious paper torture, I am not entirely sure this is not almost completely unlike any monkey I have ever seen (and yes, i have been bitten by one in Kuala Lumpur) … anyways, I tried – they cannot all be gems.

Thanks Harry for the suggestion, have a try for yourselves: monkey

53: A Duck

| wonko

I have lots of designs for birds, but up until now not one that I was happy enough to call a duck – this one is lovely:

It has a nice plump (roastable) body, cute tail, nicely mallard-y head and bill.

You can try it too: duck

52: Rock, Paper, Scissors

| wonko

Now in class we are doing algorithms and programming, and a simple logic exercise we are working on is a visual game of Rock, Paper, Scissors:Rock, Paper, Scissors

With relatively few folds, and small squares of paper (4 cut from an A4 page), I managed to fashion 3 hand gestures indicative of the conventional game gestures.

Hope you like them. I shoulda done Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock though – would have been waaaaay cooler.

51: Quentin Trollip’s Pig

| wonko

A pig is such an interesting (and apparently intelligent) animal, pity it exists for nothing else but food. This model, designed by Quentin Trollip (love that name) is adorable:

From shout to tail, all details are there, including beautifully dainty trotters (with cleft hoof, thank you fingernails) and a plump delicious looking hind-leg.

Why a pig? Well, we are having roast pork for dinner, so it only seemed fit to honour the animal whose murdered bits we shall consume later tonight (with gusto and gravy).

You should try this – it is relatively easy (apart from 3 snarly sinks in the head):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEh5jDf0ViA