717: (167/365) Michael LaFosse’s Le Papillon de Nuit

Le Papillon de Nuit translates, roughly as “The Night Butterfly” – a charming fold with a lovely detailed abdomen:

Unlike the other La Fosse butterflies, this one works and then re-works layers on the wings, making the finished model smaller but unique in shape. Continue reading

716: (166/365) Michael LaFosse’s Mudarri Luna Moth

Catching up, finally, and continuing exploration of the form, this is a luna moth: apparently the main difference between a moth and a butterfly is that moths typically do not have winds that meet above the body – I may have just made that up:

I like the slight “swallowtail” formation here – lots of work pre butterfly formation in getting proportions right makes this seem graceful. Continue reading

715: (165/365) Michael LaFosse’s Butterfly for Russell Cashdollar

Yes, I know, it is a day late, but i have been busy marking, so, yeah:

This is another Michael LaFosse butterfly – more fancy than most with the pleaty zig zags adding decorative touches. Continue reading

714: (164/365) Michael LaFosse’s Butterfly for Tony Cheng

Continuing my exploration of the butterfly form, where better to look than a lovely papillon from Michael LaFosse’s “Butterflies” bible:

This lovely little flapper again uses bicolour paper cleverly, has a nice efficiency of final model size for starting paper size and was fun to fold. Continue reading

669: (119/365) Lillian’s Butterfly

Dedicated to Lillian Oppenheimer, a luminary in the early ’70s Origami world, this butterfly, designed by Michael LaFosse is pretty neat:

Interestingly, not poles apart in technique from “Alexander’s Swallowtail“, I chose different colours and was careful with the wing formation so it was morphologically distinct. Continue reading

668: (118/365) LaFosse’s Origamido Butterfly

Continuing my exploration of Michael LaFosse’s Butterfly folds, I present the “Origamido” Butterfly:

Named after his signature brand of hand-made paper (of which I have a couple of sheets yet to fold), this little butterfly is lovely – the wings seem delicate and the body seems in proportion and is colour changed. Continue reading

667: (117/365) Alexander’s Swallowtail Butterfly

I must admit to never having folded any of Michael LaFosse’s designs, not sure why:

I found a few designs that I thought I would like to have a go at – all butterflies, and this is one of them. Continue reading

241: Un Papillion de Joisel

Eric Joisel was a treasure in the paper folding community – this is a butterfly designed by Michael LaFosse in memory of him:

A simple fold with much potential for modelling, the body ends up being thick and the wings delicate

Happy with this as a first fold, hope you like it.