605: (55/365) Starship

Origami, the final frontier. These are the journeys of the paper folder “Wonko”, his ONE YEAR MISSION, to seek out new models and folding techniques, to boldly fold where he has not folded before:

This cutie little Trek-inspired ship was hidden away in a Tanteidan convention book I have and all the annotations are in Japanese so I have no idea who the designer is, sorry. Continue reading

592: (42/360) Sooo…Mr Whitehouse, Can you Fold a Paper Plane?

I have lost count of the times I have been asked this by students, presumably based on the assumption that because I fold paper I must make a mean paper plane:

Truth be told when I make simple paper darts they fly terribly, not sure why. Many of the worlds great origamists started with paper planes – I did not. Continue reading

532: A Krafty Little Fokker

Manfred von Richthofen, AKA “The Red Baron” flew a TRIPLANE – I know, right! Now a Triplane makes no sense to me, but using it, von Richthofen shot down his last 19 enemy planes, and subsequently crashed himself (you win some, you lose some):532KraftyFokker

I have lost count of the times students have asked if I can fold a paper plane. It turns out I can fold one with quite a level of detail, but not one that flies. Continue reading

Segway V2

I was recently asked how I folded my Segway model because someone wanted one. I was loathed to part with my original and to be honest I had no idea, I just folded it, so decided to revisit the model (which seems unique in the origami community) and see if it can be methodologised:SegwayV2

Originally I folded in 32nds, but decided in re-working the model 24ths work better, and are easy folding once you have thirds. The balance was always consuming enough paper for the body to leave enough for the control stalk which splits at the top. My original cheated because the proportions were off ( so I sneakily cut a strip off to shorten it) but on 24ths, it just works. Continue reading

515: Viking Longship

Ever since first watching the telly series “Vikings” (currently 3 seasons, worth looking for) I was a fan of the gritty realism and glimpse into the lifestyle (albeit cinematicised) of what I imagine was a hard working and noble race:515LongShipViews2

The character “Floki” was an odd inventor genius and ship builder, I think he would have approved of this design – a teensy weensy longboat complete with oars, sail and dragon bow sprit.515LongShip

The design is challenging, for as much as it requires a really odd 10×1 sheet of paper as for the instructions in cryptic Spanish – quite a challenge in themselves as the diagrams were heavily stylised and gave hints as to where to fold rather than solid landmarks. Continue reading