S Mabona

1044: Geisha

| wonko

I attended the 2021 April OUSA Foldfest – a 25 hour online marathon of folding tutorials, lectures and virtual meet nd greet:

Sipho Mabona's Geisha

One of 2 deciding reasons to attend was the opportunity to be taught a model by Sipho Mabona – his “Geisha”.

At 3am, I awoke, made tea, cut some paper ready for the workshop (international time is cruel), and, thankfully followed alone a complex but beautiful sequence.

By pure coincidence, my paper looked like Sipho’s, and my final model is really close (amazing for a first fold, testament to the sequence and expert tutelage).

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931: Sipho Mabona’s Fugu

| wonko

I have had this model on my “to do” list for ages – I had shied away from it because of what I perceived was a brutal precreasing sequence and impossible collapse:

That said, with a little large scale and some accurate pre-forming, the laying of the corrugations was fairly straightforward – all based on halves. Laying crenelations across these were fiddly in low light, and had I realised they would be angle bisecting squares later then I think I could have been more accurate. Continue reading →

588: (38/360) Sipho Mabona’s “Swallow”

| wonko

When planning origami models that will be good for permanent display, locks and paper tension matter as a model will try to unfold itself:

This genius design results in a fairly faithful swallow, the body is rounded, beak and head cleverly proportioned, tings and tail streamlined – it looks like it would fly. Continue reading →

434: Sipho Mabona’s African Elephant

| wonko

When I first saw this model, folded with elegance, playfulness (in outrageous colours) and joy by Sipho Mabona, I wanted to try it myself:

Designed recently and soon I hope to be included in a book so I can purchase the diagrams, I stumbled across a video tutorial and had to have a go. Used as WTF#6, I first folded it in white, then decided to give my newly purchased VOG paper a go.

I had a huge piece of burgundy/purple paper, rough texture on both sides and decided to use it for this model – so glad I did. The texture looks a little like craggy elephant skin, the paper holds it’s form and was a delight to fold.

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236: Sipho Mabona’s Koi Carp

| wonko

When I first saw installation art, in origami, folded and designed by Sipho Mabona, I knew I wanted to do stuff like that also – this koi is elegant and beautiful:

Lovely dorsal and pectoral fins, graceful tail and head complete with gaping mouth.

There is much to admire about this model – it is tricksey to tease the fish from a square and Mabona achieves this fiarly simply – very happy with this as my first fold, althought it was a little fiddly to do the mouth crimps at this scale (I used an A4 cut square).

I can imagine schools of these, and indeed that is how Mabona displays them – in slight size variations floating in groups as if being fed in a pond – lovely stuff, feel privileged to fold it.

You can have a go here: pdf

74: Carp

| wonko

I realised I have not done many fish as of yet, so this little beauty will suffice as a piscean addition to the growing collection:

It is a Carp, but has shark-like lines also – good strong pectoral fins, delicious looking dorsal fin and strong tail flukes, with a little more paper mangling I am sure I could craft a lovely wobbeygong or gummy shark. I am happy with my first fold however.

With all that is going on around us – CARPe-Deium 😛

You can have a try for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgeD2uGQqPA