K Jilkishiyeva

1168: Cotton-top Tamarin

| wonko

As a once obsessed biology teacher, I am very interested in critters that are distant relatives – in this case the group of “New World Monkeys” contain some astonishing and cute members – few cuter or more critically endangered than the Cotton-top Tamarin:

Origami primates are fairly rare, but the more exotic specimens hardly ever get a representation. It was wonderful to see that in a soon to be published book “Origami Oddities”, by Kunsulu Jilkishiyeva that this Tamarin was designed so thoughtfully by her.

Test folded from a 45cm square of peach/natural matt Damul Kraft paper from origami-shop.com, the sequence is fun, tricky and contains some very satisfying collapses.

There is heaps of opportunity to go nuts with the shaping here, as the head is expressive (yet has no facial features – yet), the hands are fully fingered, the back legs in the original design were points (I rendered them more as paws), the tail is lovely and lively, the “cotton top” is fun.

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1167: Aye Aye

| wonko

Primates are a diverse collection of animals that contain us hominids, apes and a variety of “monkey-like” critters. One of the most primitive, obscure and endangered is a type of Lemur, native to Madagascar, called the Aye Aye:

Largely nocturnal, and generally feared because of it’s slightly crazed appearance and creepy long fingers, apparently it uses its fingers to reach into decaying wood to pluck out juicy grubs – yum. I had never seen anything like it rendered in origami until I was proofing a soon to be published book by Kunsulu Jilkishiyeva titled “Origami Oddities”. I knew I had to try it.

Using a 45cm square of Damul Kraft (from Origami-shop) in brown/natural, the pre-creasing was fairly straight forward, the first collapse is complex (an “everything at once” style collapse I love). Isolating the features is pretty straightforward, but this is not a beginners fold, it contains some deliciously complicated maneuvers.

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