camel

351: Diaz’s Stallion

| wonko

Roman Diaz is one of many talented Spanish origamists and with this model he captures something of the proud noble stallion:

there is much to like about this model – apart from it being a nifty use of the fish/camel base, the posture, proportions and attitude evident in the horse are present in this little model. He is also free-standing, on 3 legs, neato.

A slight mis-calculation in scale made this model really difficult to fold – the thickness of paper and tiny details made shaping a real challenge – I will fold this bigger because there is much model-ability here, truly clever design.

I got caught up in a much more complicated fold and completely forgot I had no fold for today, so searched the list of “must dos” and came up with this one. Happy with this as a first fold.

348: T-Rex Skeleton

| wonko

This is nuts, seriously NUTS. I started this model 2 weeks before exam block, and have been chipping away at it ever since:

This monolithic modular is Yoshino’s T-Rex Skeleton and I for one am totally impressed with the attention to design detail here. Firstly the overall proportions are correct – no mean feat as it is comprised of 21 A3-cut squares, each piece designed to slot together, each piece correct in relation to the others – wow.

If you carefully consider – the head is 2 pieces (top of skull and jaw), neck (snarly pleated sculpture) is 2 pieces, each arm/shoulder blade assembly is 1 piece, then the rib cage – 6 varying size/curvature ribs (1 piece each), pelvis (2 pieces), lovely long legs, bastard of a tail (5 segments, each took over an hour in itself).

I am really pleased with the result, and will probably work out a wire armature to run along the spine so it will stand. The school Science Department have expressed interest in displaying this beastie as I certainly have no where big enough – tail to nose it is over a metre long and nearly as high.

This has taken an age to fold – each piece was a complex model in itself and the instructions were only in Japanese – no useful annotations and annoyingly a different symbolism than is conventional to describe the steps – grrrr. I had to ask the Japanese Department to see if there were even any clues as to the suggested paper size of whether it was stated if the paper all had to be the same size – in the end I GUESSED it probably was.

Still, it worked, and wow, no I mean WOW – this guy is amazing.

279: Computer Mouse

| wonko

It was announced today that Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer passed away today after a long battle with pancreatic cancer:

It is my considered opinion that Apple Computers lead a revolution in personal computing for many reasons, an important one being the re-introduction of the computer mouse as an integral pointing device for a graphical user interface that drove the computer.

They did not invent it – that particular landmark belongs to Douglas Engelbart’s computer mouse, whose patent was issued in 1970 for a X-Y Position Indicator For A Display System, but I think the Macintosh computer helped popularise it and it seemed to take the PC world years to catch on to this great idea – Jobs saw it immediately.

The world needs visionaries – good visionaries persist as figureheads of successful ventures and Apple’s success in part is directly attributable to the charisma and marketability of the man. Rest in Peace Steve Jobs.

A more complete photo diagram is here:

Have a go at it using this diagram

271: Pelican

| wonko

I have been looking for a nice pelican (yes, I know that is an odd thing to say, but good pelican origami models are hard to find):

This is the best I have found so far, and although it is not free-standing, contains much that is pelicanny.

Lovely bill, nice feet (if a little thin and spindly) and the vestiges of nice wings, I think I will keep looking.

Folded after returning home from a conference (lots of nice people sharing). Busy times, sometimes you get that.

235: Charlie the Unicorn

| wonko

Now I have been told off by Dr Winston O’Boogie for folding creepy crawlys and scary things and was told I should concentrate on unicorns and rainbows:

This is John Montrol’s Unicorn – a relatively simple fold with a nice horsey shape.

So much paper folded inside, it ends up having a plump body and very thick legs and a lovely twirly unicorn stickey-uppey horney thing

This will do me for unicorns for the moment, although I will be on the look out for another one as the horse shape is one much folded by origami designers as it is quite difficult to capture the equine profile.

230: Swiss Army Knife

| wonko

When I first saw this model I knew I had to fold it:

The very idea of a FUNCTIONING Swiss Army Knife seemed undelievable but here it is – Blade, Awl, Bottle Opener and Screwdriver all that folds away much the same as the metal one does – very neat.

A relatively simple fold in the end – some thick layers and the hinges are difficult for copy paper, but I really like this model – a masterpiece of design.

Jeremy Shafer’s “Orgiami to Astonish and Amuse” is an amazing collection of everyday objects folded from paper, a book I can see myself returning to again and again.

You may applaud now, I am so chuffed it worked out so nice.

188: Edelweiss

| wonko

Now I am on the look out for effective flowers, and oddly Origami has lost of four-petaled ones (which in nature are fairly rare). this edelweiss caught my eye:

Made from a frog base and a deep sing, the bloom has a lovely symmetry about it and the stem works will together with it.

A simple fold, will try it out in colour als to see if it is effective – building up a repertoire of paper blooms soif I need to consider a bouquet at some time that is a possibility.

Why Edelweiss? 2 reasons – (1) Mum is home from the UK and it might be nice to give her flowers (awwww); and (2) I saw pictures of @Edelweiss – the dog owned by @jzagami and thought it so cute … yeah, I know, tissue thin justification but you get that.

Addendum: Made some light lilac blooms on 2 colours of green stems – they stack you see – noice, unusual, different – I hope my mum loiks them 😛

187: Spiral Box

| wonko

Looking at the plethora of boxes I still have to fold, it is difficult to select just one. I chose this spiral box because the spiral on the lid is echoed in the construction of the bottom:

A rectangular box (as opposed to square) that cleverly tucks away flaps inside itself to make a sturdy and tidy construction

Quite happy with this one, fairly simple to fold and lots of fold landmarks once you get past the fifths.

186: Teddy Bear

| wonko

I once had a friend that could comfort me when I was sad, that I told all my secrets to, that kept me company when the lights went out, that never complained or criticised me, that joined in on all my adventures, that I loved completely and unconditionally. This is Ted, my bear:

So a friend of my wife is having a baby – what better to welcome the little one into the world than a bear:

So I have had this design for ages and wanted to try it out. Scale was important, as I was going to mount it on cardstock with some double-sided tape, the height is 1/3 the original square size, so … easy. After performing my “first fold” on an A3 cut square of copy paper, I then fashioned a 26cm square out of brown paper from the baking drawer in our kitchen for his little brown brother.

A fairly difficult fold to complete with copy paper – thicknesses make subtle details clumsy. Surprisingly, brown paper (you know, the stuff you line cake tins with) folds beautifully – is strong and thin, must remember that.

I like how the finished model has character – I have now folded a few of these and each one has it’s own unique posture and facial expression – a lot like real teddy bears I think.

You may collectively go awwwwwww now 😛

26: An Aussie Kangaroo

| wonko

“Australia, Australia, Australia, we love you, Amen. This here’s the wattle, the emblem of our land. You can stick it in a bottle, you can hold it in your hand.” (apologies Monty Python)

What could be more Australian than a Kangaroo? There are lots of designs – few look roo-like sadly (mostly folded by people who have never actually seen one), I will keep looking as I am not happy with the hind legs or head of this model, all else is fairly good.

I like that there is a Joey in the pouch and the front legs are positioned right but the bulk of paper there makes further shaping problematic, still for my first attempt at this model I am fairly happy with the outcome.

You too can fold a Kangaroo for Australia Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COgQlI0HzDU

25: Chook

| wonko

Many contemporary folders have changed the face of Origami – Florence Temko is one such paper artist – this remarkably simple model is very chook-like and contains very few foldsThanks @ackygirl for the lend of the book with this design in it – it is labelled “Rooster” but I have other models that are more “cock-a-doodle-doo” than this one, so I have labelled it a chook for now.

Arrgh, should know better than to edit a published post, the DATE of this post was yesterday, had to recreate it because wordpress plunged this post into “scheduled” mode and therefore it was not visible in the timeline – I did not cheat, you can trust me

24: Terrier

| wonko

Now I have seen a lot of dogs, some do not look very dog like, most in flat profile but this cheeky little terrier looks like it is expecting you to throw the ball for it – nice and simple, surprisingly, but lovely and dimensional (with a pudgy body and an alert expression on it’s face)cutey little turned up nose, curly tail and the only type of dog I will let my kids have, sorry (they have asked, not in my house said I)

You should try this – really simple and delightful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-30n1Drgp-s

17: An Irrelephant

| wonko

…as my daughter often points out, anything that is not pertaining to elephants is irrelephant (lol, she even has a tshirt that proclaims that).

So I thought I would make her an irrelephant

I have lots of elephants, this is quick and capable of some nice poses – I modified the body a little from the diagrams I had, rounded the tummy and repositioned the bum/tail to make it more “dumbo” like, might try another later in the year, we shall see. Nice big ears – does that make it an African or an Indian Irrelephant? … Google it now!!