E Clemente

The Last Dogfight

| wonko

A group of mates has, periodically over the last few decades, gotten together in a smoke-filled room to play a board game. Not any old game, but “Dogfight” – a dice-based, card controlled WW1 battle of the airspace over Europe.

Although most of the players were well passed their fifties, we squabbled like little kids, goaded each other fearlessly, preened and peacocked at our prowess and got nit-picky about the many nuances of rule variations hard won.

dogfight battle - endgame

It was honestly some of the best fun to be had, and the chaps were good sports, one and all. In January, one of our quartet passed away. “Dr Winston O’Boogie” (Michael) flew off into the sunset for the last time to great fanfare.

A quintuple ace in training

We have met since, dragging a young buck into the fold, and played until Michael’s house (the home of our epic aerial battles) was finally sold.

Tonight is our last hurrah!

Marc Kirshembaum's Biplane and Eduardo Clement's Avioneta

I have struggled to find a suitable way to celebrate such a wonderful partnership, but turned to Origami, as is my want. I wanted to fold BIPLANES for the original pilots, and a smaller plane for the new recruit, and have really struggled with these models. The Biplanes are designed by Marc Kirschenbaum. I wanted to fold them smaller but failed many times, only being able to manage them from 60cm squares (and not very tidily sadly) – red, naturally in honour of Von Richtoffen (or Snoopy, take your pick).

The smaller plane is “Avioneta” designed by Eduardo Clemente – a charming little fokker.

I hope the guys like them. I remain forever grateful for the opportunity to act like little kids when surrounded by the wonder and majesty of imagination, fun and friendship. Chocks away Chuck, fly true one and all.

815: (265/365) Pez 3

| wonko

Browsing through Eduardo Clemente’s “Papiroflexia”, I am amazed at how prolific a designer he was, and how many variations on models he published:

This is Pez#3 – a rather handsome fish with lovely colour changes. Continue reading →

812: (262/365) Tiny T-Rex

| wonko

This rather adorable tiny dino is designed cleverly by Eduardo Clemente:

I am so impressed with the body morphology of this model, position and proportion of limbs seems really well considered. Continue reading →

811: (261/365) Stink Bug

| wonko

My citrus trees have a problem that starts about now in the season:

Infestations of stinkbugs arrive and soon they are thick with debilitating sucking insects. It would not be so bad but I seem allergic to their secretions, making getting rid of them difficult.

I have tried garlic, chilli spray, soapy water, using an old vacuum cleaner to suck them off but to no avail. Poisons are not something I want to use but seem to have no choice. Continue reading →

810: (260/365) Pez

| wonko

In catch-up mode, this is Eduardo Clement’s “Pez”:

A delightful fish fold that is designed for paper that is the same colour both sides. A charming fold from his book Papiroflexia.

relevant because we recently spent time on the waters of Hervey Bay (yes, we did see whales, but yeah)

694: (144/365) Hump Day

| wonko

So it is Wednesday, ‘Hump Day‘:

Silly season in the assessment calendar, lots happening and a 2do list from hell.

This is Eduardo Clemente’s ‘Camel’ – a dromedary or bactrian (who knows the difference?) Continue reading →

685: (135/365) Bug

| wonko

Old-school origami can still be fun, and this model is no exception:

Eduardo Clemente’s book “Papiroflexia” contains a plethora of old-style 60’s origami, before the boxpleating, tree-maker days. Continue reading →

626: (76/365) Little Snail

| wonko

Spirals have most recently been explored by Tomoko Fuse, but lovely spiral shail shells have existed in traditional origami for a long while before that:

This is Eduardo Clemente’s snail, well, one of them. As a bi-colour model it cleverly manages the 2 colours ensuring the soft slippy bit of the snail is one colour and the rounded spiral of the shell is the reverse. Continue reading →

625: (75/365) Mariposa

| wonko

I must admit to liking folding insects in Origami – something about the extreme paper wrangling necessary to separate out features from the sheet is a great challenge:

This is Eduardo Clemente’s “Mariposa” or Butterfly. An interesting fold indeed. Continue reading →

624: (74/365) Babe

| wonko

It is rare that with relatively few folds the essence of a 4 legged beastie is so well captured:

This is a continuation of the exploration of Eduardo Clemente’s work, his simple pig, charming little critter it is. Continue reading →

623: (73/365) Burro con Carro

| wonko

Yoshizawa Sensei once said “The Horse and the rider are not one, nor should a model of them be”, or words to that effect and I think this model is an interesting reflection of that sentiment:

This is Eduardo Clemente’s “Burro con Carro” which I think means “Donkey and Cart”. Fashioned from a 3×1 rectangle, the technique involves completely wasting the middle square to provide a join that more or less makes sense between the cart and the tail of the donkey.

The trouble is, the join is so thick that modelling the hindquarters of the donkey is compromised, the cart does not sit quite right and the front of the model is so light that modelling front legs and head/ears is flimsy and a bit of a fail. Continue reading →

622: (72/365) Nesting

| wonko

Sometimes tending the nest is more important than what is happening elsewhere:

This is Edwardo Clemente’s “Mother Bird” (I think that is what it is called, it is all in Spanish) and is a charming little bi-colour model that manages to tease a lovely flappy mother twitter bird, a pair of hungry chicks and a colour contrasted nest from a single sheet. Continue reading →

621: (71/365) Little Mouse

| wonko

Under the weather at the moment, folding while suffering a streaming headcold is not much fun. After 2 model fails, I thought I should go simpler:

I stumbled across an obscure book by Eduardo Clemente called “Papiroflexia”, it is full of historically revolutionary designs I must try. Continue reading →