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blah blah blah, about nothing in marticular – may contain traces of aaaarrrggghh

203: Skateboard

| wonko

Pressed with something to make and tired and shagged out after a busy week I stumbled across this model and thought I would give it a go:

I have seen kids using a mini-skateboard (tech deck I think they are called) and am amazed that this model is a fairly complete imitation of one, including wheels, trucks and deck.

Originally (the dev shots) I used a square from an A4 page – this resulted in a deck that was nearly 20cm long, so re-made it (the other shots) with a 1/4 A4 square and it is perfect in scale

I like how the wheels are made from curls of flaps formed from side sinks, it is fairly faithful – nice work Mr Trollip. You should definitely try this – you will impress the teens no end with you leet paper skills.

201: Winged Heart

| wonko

Apparently, according to JJJ at least, it is LOVE WEEK – awwwww

So I folded Frances Ow’s winged Heart (partly because it is late, I am tired and sometimes a simple fold is ok – ok?

An effective fold, in duo paper the heart is one colour and the wings are another – nice.

197: Scissors

| wonko

I remember when I was in my early teens, I used to be forced to go to a barbershop just off the main street of Nambour (yes, lived there for a while) and the barber, a Maltese man with a thick mustache and little head hair (which is about as unlucky an omen as a thin chef I think) used to cut my hair:

“Short back and sides, with a surfie front” he used to call the hairstyle inflicted on me when all my mates had the finest “mullets” you have ever seen. Those were the days.

As I get older, there is less for the hairdresser to remove, more of it grey and less of it growing on my head – you get that apparently.

I was trolling to Netherlands Origami Society website (yes, these groups of paper benders are everywhere) and came upon a suggestion for scissors based on a stretched bird base, so I thought it appropriate today as I have just had a haircut and, being winter, my head is now cold – FML.

I have been told that the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is about 3 weeks – we shall see.

196: A Werewolf

| wonko

Now I have been a great fan of “Being Human” – particularly the character that plays the werewolf George:

I found this astonishing model by Kade Chan purely by accident – I was googling the telly show to see if there were more episodes planned and found reference to this neato origami model of a werewolf, complete with staring eyes, pricked up ears, ferocious claws and a lovely tail and I knew I had to try it.

This is such a well designed model – entirely doable with copy paper (I used a square cut from an A3 sheet) – with some precision and patience the body comes together without fatiguing the paper too much and astonishing detail is possible because each part is only a few thicknesses of paper, except the arms with are a little bulky towards the end when shaping the shoulders.

I particularly like the claws – scary things they are, with each finger posable and a snarly opposed thumb.

I could only find a vague photo sequence so had to guess in some stages by looking backwards and forwards towards the finished fold to work out what to do at times. This IS amazing, yes, you are right to be impressed – I am.

I will accept a round of applause, and cash to accompany any orders you have for me to fold you one of these.

A Mess of Messerschmitts

| wonko

Battle lines were drawn, with dusk approaching and a thick fog rolling in (or was that cigar smoke?) four valiant pilots entered the melee hell-bent on seeking glory.

So we played 4 person Dogfight – first game was a team challenge – Johnny Razor Eyes and Rampaging Roy versus the veteran VonHammer and rookie Juan Morego. Annihilation is close to the ugly truth as the filthy Hun were trounced, retiring humiliated to their bases to rally their troops.

The fog thickened, the schnapps ran freely and a last battle hatched: Because of the conditions it was impossible to tell who was friend and who was foe, so it was condition red, shoot on contact – last man standing.

Massacre was close to how the battle was later recorded in the avionic history books – rookie Yuan found his mettle, swooped out of the thickening fog to take plane after plane – not used to playing with others he kept on his radio to ensure his compatriots stayed back at base – he was going it alone.

With a full compliment of ammunition and aerobatic tricks up his sleeve he released the first salvo at VonHammar’s final plane to discover his worthy foes plane was out-classed on this occasion. Amazingly (well to me at least) without loss of a plane, Juan was the last plane in the air when the fog lifted and the smoldering wrecks (of people and planes) were tallied up.

Great fun – many thanks (and respect in memoriam) to Paul, Tim and finally Mike for a fun evening.

Valiant pilots seen here in repose, reeling from the devastation and inspecting their new aircraft – the Messerschmitt, heralding a new age in air warfare.

Six Months Revisited

| wonko

So it is a little way into the seventh month of this 365 day odyssey and my son wanted to lay out a full six month’s worth of models … well, because he could really – who am I to argue:

I must admit to getting a little dizzy looking at this mass of paper and time. It took an hour to lay out (a little longer to put away) and each model is an amazing slice of my life:

So much paper, I have enjoyed it so far, hope you are hanging in there as there are lots of hoopy folds to come.

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 😛

June, Done and Dusted

| wonko

Now where did that half of a year go – I cannot believe we are at the end of June already – it is fascinating how you notice the passing when you are tasked with something every day:

Some amazing models again this month, and now I am almost on the downhill stretch I am looking for interesting models to fold – i have no shortage of candidates but am trying to avoid simple things or familiar ones – for the most part i have folded stuff so far that I had not folded before – all good experience.

I am a little concerned that my storage box may not be big enough – 6 months of models almost fill it:

174: A Quill

| wonko

Now in bygone eras (and magical schools) people used to sharpen a goose feather, dip it in ink and write with it – they called this contraption a Quill:

I was browsing for feathers, no iea why, when I stumbled accross a Vietnamese origami forum that had a rather lovely feathery pen thing, so decided to inflict the design on a nice piece of pearlescent white paper I had

fairly simple fold, with some fiddling around to get the nib shapely, in the end quite a nice fold.

Why a quill? Well, we are hours away from some announcement or other from J. K. Rowling about the Harry Potterverse, so I thought it appropriate.

“You’ve Got Mail!”

| wonko

…so I have been waiting on mail from OrigamiShop.Com – my birthday purchase and was delighted when my son told I had a parcel on returning home from work today:

I was a little concerned because the packaging was damaged in transit (Large format paper must be a nightmare to ship) but the book was bubblewrapped and the paper will be fine, if a little crinkled to begin with. Besides a lovely book (which has the “Ancient Dragon” as a sort of middle-range hardness model – hahahaha)

I bought a starter pack of “tissue foil” – this laminated paper has tissue+foil+tissue sandwiched together – I have never used it before but it is apparently good for compact, intricate models – we shall see.

So much marking … will I be able to resist starting from Satoshi’s collection?

163: The Bullfight

| wonko

Miguel the Matador struts confidently into the arena, the crowd erupts, enraptured. El Toro stampedes into the arena, head held high, the crowd roars entusiastically:

Proudly El Toro circles the matador, alert yet regal the matador watches his worthy opponet, a balletic interplay continues, each proud adversary taunting the other until…

they both live happy ever after, El Toro got put out to pasture and the Matador, a champion for animal rights forms PETA and abolished the barbaric … yeah, I know, I got nothing.

Interesting figurative model – each suggestive of form without being nit-pickingly detailed – I like them, except for the sport they personify. I was looking for “Llopio’s moment of truth” by Neal Elias but could not find a licensed diagram, so I bought the book that it is in – it is being shipped from the British Origami Society as we speak, so settled on a much simpler but none the less effective model by Robert Neale.

I had to cheat – you can just see the splayed paper clip and blob of bluetac holding up the matador (his ankles are too weak and the balance is all wrong for him to stand unaided, sadly.

Why a bullfight? Well, we have been invited to a Spanish-inspired lunch by some old friends “The Goodies” so I thought getting in the mood was a good plan.

Little Plane (that could) – Revisited

| wonko

Now on a Tuesday evening a mate and I get together to watch telly shows (BSG, now TOS Star Trek) and occasionally play a 60’s board game called “Dogfight”

My little plane, piloted by a newly allied Spanish ACE pilot Juan Morego was the last to take to the skies, became an ace quickly in a blinding side-attack on Jerry, and faced up for the final showdown with Von Hammer. He bravely (some would have said foolishly) chose a full on frontal assault:

Juan fired off a burst of 5 rounds, and was countered with 5 return rounds, Von Hammer appeared confident. Juan fired off  4 rounds in the second wave of attack just as Von Hammer’s guns jammed, his controls became unresponsive and all the fly-boy tricks (loop, barrel roll) could not get him out of the line of fire. Valiantly, Juan Morego downed Von Hammer, our arch nemesis for the very first time. Short of fuel he had to return to base so could not check the wreckage, but assumes Von Hammer lived to fight another day.

Needless to say there was great celebration on Juan’s return – a traditional feast (roast beef and yorkshire pudding all round, followed by copious pints and whiskey chasers, cocktails with silly umbrellas and waay too much fruit, flaming shots and then the final blow – a late night kekab). There will be sore heads and one or two queezy tummies amongst to the ranks on the morrow but good luck to them – fine bunch of chaps.

155: See Hear and Speak No Evil

| wonko

About a month ago I bought a huge sheet of tracing paper. Well, I call it paper but it is actually a type of opaque plastic called “vellum”. For my birthday fold I decided to see what vellum could do:

The paper was 42cm square (cut from a 42x60cm rectangle) and straight away I knew it would be tough – vellum does not like to be folded but once it is, hates being unfolded.

This INSANE design sculpts 3 wise monkeys Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru and places them under a palm tree via some miraculous paper torture. See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil is a pretty good life philosophy but there were evil words muttered whilst this fold was wrestled into place.

Getting the monkeys to look monkey-like with the density the body ends up being is a real challenge. facial expressions, such that they are, and arm postures alike were tough fought, but I am pretty happy with the end result.

I have learnt a lot from this exercise – vellum can be folded, but fatigue shows itself as splits, particulalry at the pointy ends. It hates being re-folded in the opposite direction on a fold (reversed), is VERY strong, once folded it stays there – consequentially, this model is rigid and is not trying to unfurl (much as I imagine tissue-foil behaves).

Will I use it again? not sure – when my tissue-foil arrives along with my Satoshi book I now have a point of comparison, I am honestly surprised the model worked at all, but will accept congratulatory applause now.

You too can have a go here – be warned, this is NOT an introductory exercise.

Happy Birthday to me 🙂

May, Done and Dusted

| wonko

So ends another month – May was a big one with a few seriously cool models in it (well, I think they are cool anyway), and I think I will add some of them to the Library Display just to freshen it up a little

In May I challenged the paper beyond what it was ever capable of doing – Schneider the spider was testament to paper fatigue, invented a bunch of designs (you see my skill level is going up so I see folded solutions to problems) and am happy with my progress to date.

What scares me a little, if I let myself think about it, is that I am not even half-way yet. Tying the fold into something that is happening to me and my family and friends seems to make the mad panic of “what am I going to fold today” a little less panicky … onward and upwards tho, hey.

Hope you are enjoying the ride, say “hi” to your mum for me.

150: Trophy for Matthew

| wonko

My son has recently graduated from his Honors program and as part of his Thesis, he had to compose a poster summarising his paper and findings:

So good was this poster that tonight he was awarded “The Alan Bailey Prize” for top student project – yay Matty.  I thought it warranted a shiny thing, so invented one

Using Brill-like techniques, I formed a cylinder then pleated and twisted a stem, quite happy with the result, hope Matty likes it – so proud.