Jeremy Shafer is a prolific and super talented Origami Designer:
When I saw his video of the Super Dragon Deluxe I knew I wanted to have a go – such a fun “cartoony” dragon with a lot of detail packed into such an accessible fold. Continue reading
dino/dragon
Copper Dragon
As you may have guessed from subsequent posts, I have been learning to fold Satoshi Kamiya’s Ryujin 3.5:
After a year of lessons, learning bits of the model and patiently/painstakingly working on each of the elements of the design, I managed to combine all onto one model. Continue reading
497: Tyrannosaurus Rex
I have been on holiday, 6 weeks is a long time between folds but I thought I would ease back into it with a simple model … then I saw Fumiaki Kawahata’s TRex and thought “screw it”:
Waiting in my kept mail was the last Tanteidan of the previous subscription, this little beauty on the cover and I thought – how hard can this be? Continue reading
496: Satoshi Kamiya’s Ryujin 3.5
On March 21, 2014, I began a quest to learn how to fold Satoshi Kamiya’s “Ryujin 3.5”, and was lucky enough to be accepted as a pupil of Mr Daniel Brown (MrOrigami).
Daniel sent me a lesson, I had to perform the illustrated tasks and photo my evidence back to him before he sent me the next lesson. The process has been fascinating, frustrating, amazing, annoying, hard, humbling, wild and wonderful.
A year on, I have managed to integrate all the component lessons into the one sheet (well, 2 halves joined at a seam inside) to arrive at this amazing model. It has yet to be fine-shaped – a task that will have to wait until marking and an extended holiday are over, but at least I know that all the creases are now in place, the bits are all where they should be and the beast is something I am unbearably proud of. Continue reading
… there be Dragons!
For much of the past year (2014) I have been learning how to fold Satoshi Kamiya’s Ryujin 3.5, as taught to me via a series of lessons cunningly devised by Daniel Brown (Mr Origami). I started this project on March 21.
This is Part 3 of a series that also includes Part 1, Part 2
Lesson 18 was folding the head in isolation – I must admit that even when searching for photos on how the head of this beast should end up, none really make it clear. What is clear however is that there is a terrifying amount of detail.
Following photodiagrams (in 3 phases 18a, 18b, 18c), I ended up with a beautiful thing that is my take on how a eastern dragon head should look. Continue reading
481: Two Dollar Dragon
…so I am folding this crazy big dragon at the moment – insane 2mx2m square to make something ridiculously time-consuming. A work colleague of my wife gave me a pair of raggedy USD$1 greenbacks and asked if I could do anything with them:
I ironed the notes to crisp them up and flatten the worse of the existing crumples (they are old notes, one nearly falling apart) and began bending a Won Park creation I had been itching to try.
The fold is very dense, helped and hindered (in equal measure) by the robust note paper, and the level of detail here is nuts – the head has 3 sets of horns, eyes, 2 fangs, bottom jaw. Each foot has a set of claws, the body has dorsal spikes and the tail has an ornate tuft. Continue reading
465: Green Dragon
Now I know you are thinking this is not green, but the design is named “Green Dragon” by Piotr Pluta:
After I made the double-sided double tissue I had been looking for a fold that would suit such a busy paper – it sort of looks like dragon skin/scales so the idea took. Continue reading
The Whole is Greater than the Sum of Parts
You may remember I recently folded a Chuka Ryu, and it had a particular spiral bend to it…
… that spiral corresponds to the diameter of the white keep precisely – one sits inside the other.
This now tells a totally different story – what is happening here?
Add your narrative suggestions to the comments section.
454: Unryushi Darkness Dragon 2
I was given a beautiful sheet of Unryushi tissue by a friend. The arrangement (in case YOU want to take part also) is if you give me nice paper, I will make you something out of it.
I prepared the paper by Methyl Cellulosing it to a clean window:
This make it crisp and strong, then, in a dragony frame of mind, I used Tadashi Mori’s own folding tutorial to fold a Darkness Dragon 2.
I had already folded the Darkness Dragon 1, but this model was a refinement I had not tried. There is a killer collapse after some exacting pre-folding – a sort of all these folds happen at the same time whilst inside a bunch of others, but the sense of it makes for a lovely body.
449: Chaka Ryu
I stumbled across low res hand-drawn diagrams of a Ryu (Chinese dragon) and with a cursory glance said “why not give that a go”:
Two weeks later and a whole bunch of improvising helped me realise that may not have been a wise choice but I have something that is at least based on Hoang Trung Thanh’s model but not faithful to it.
On folding the range of pleats I added a ziggy zaggy spine, decided on 3 rows of scales and invented a method of locking the leg units (each leg is a separate sheet of paper) into the body pleats. I also stuffed the body (with neutral facial tissues) for a little shape and added a nice row of belly scales which I think make it look pretty nice.
The head instructions were un-followable (to me at least) so I sort of wrangled a new head with some lovely horns and a nice open mouth. Continue reading
445: Mother of Dragons
I was paper shopping, as you do (my daughter calls me a paper nerd) and stumbled across a hand-made sheet of blue embossed Lotka that reminded me of dragonscale:
She who must be obeyed (SWMBO), an avid gamer and tamer of Dragons, had asked for a dragon so I put 2 and 2 together and got 17, well 5 to be precise. I have been exploring dragon-form, with the current Weyr (or wing) containing 5 dragons so far (Darkness Dragon by Tadashi Mori, Fiery Dragon by Kade Chan, Green Dragon by Piotr Pluta, Riu Zin 1.0 by Satoshi Kamiya and nearly a Western Dragon by Shuki Kato)
After examining the paper, and its fold receptivity, SWMBO decided on a Fiery Dragon so I start bending, patiently (the paper is more like fabric so although you can crease it, it tends to want to unfold again.
442: Ryujin 1.0
Satoshi Kamiya’s Ryujin series is legendary in the Origami Community. Starting at the relatively simple 1.0 (folded here), the next iteration is 1.2, then a new morphology 2.1 culminating in the insane 3.5:
Whilst I am not sure I have the time nor skill to even attempt 2.1 (let alone 3.5), my attempt at 1 is chronicled here.
After finding much discussion about it on the HK Origami Forum, and only being able to find a blurry (published by Satoshi himself deliberately blurry) I reasoned “how hard could this be?” Continue reading
415: Smaug the Golden
I have been looking for a nice dragon, you know, in celebration of the forthcoming release of “The Hobbit” (being a bit of a fan):
I saw a coloured/cut version of this dragon on Deviantart and thought it worth trying, turns out it is a WIP from Tadashi Mori, who released a video of how to fold it so I was away.
It reminds me a little of the “Ancient Dragon” by Satoshi Kamiya, but is much easier to fold and is a lot less brutal to the paper.
I can see huge modelling potential for this dragon, Tadashi calls it a “darkness Dragon” and I hope he is continuing the development of the model. I added knees, claws and modified the wings slightly so they stay out in display.
I like the tail and general morphology of this dragon – the central body length (betwixt fore and aft legs is a little compact, neck a little long and hind legs a little bunched but it is a nice fold none the less.
I am very happy with this as a first fold, and will probably fold it again. I used 55cm square Kraft paper and it seemed to hold up pretty well.
Soooo … who would like this little beauty? He needs a home, is only a little bit bitey but 100% dragon (well, 74% dragon, 26% paper, but with imagination…)
edit: smaug long since found a home, sorry
412: Satoshi’s Coelophysis
I have many designs for dinosaurs, few more elegant that the Coelophysis designed by Satoshi Kamiya
This raptor has a marvellous stance, gracious body proportions and a menacing appearance – quite a feat given it started as a square cut from A3 copy paper.
A very well designed model indeed, quite dense in places but very economical with paper, I like this chap a lot – it was a good challenge. At this scale it is more like a Compsognathus.
I had forgotten how much fun Satoshi’s models were to fold, must try something harder.
“Rexy” Revisited
You _may_ remember I folded a TRex Skeleton a while back, and I am pleased to say he finally has a new home:
As part of a science display, outside a science lab, he is now resplendant, mounted on a dowel with fishing wire (go team), he looks mean and hungry.
The display contains some info about the dino, and some fossils etc and I hope it provides interest for the punters.