Perusing origami books, as you do, I chanced upon a delightful little pelican:
Designed by @tommy03, making use of a beige/white duo 6″ kami square, this delightful model captures the essence of a pelican better than any other I have seen.
“What a wonderful bird is a Pelican – whose beak can hold more than it’s belly can.” – A rhyme my mum used to say to me as a little tacker – hoping to gift this to another mother tomorrow.
Sometimes simple is stunning too.
There is so much happening in the world of Origami design, it is amazing to see new models emerging of every subject imaginable. I am working on editing/test-folding a bunch of Chinese diagrams currently, and thought I should fold this beauty to check on the sequence in the diagrams:
I started with 2x 45cm squares of Kraft – intending to fold BOTH the landed and flying versions of this model (yes – 2 different forms in the same model!), reached a part of the diagram I could not get past – I ruined, ragequitted and snowballed one of the sheets in frustration … only to realise the impasse just required a different view of the model.
Plunging on, through a challenging sequence, I muddled to the end and the result is quite amazing. I like that someone has focussed on the “on the ground” version of a model usually depicted in flight with wings extended. These critters were land dwelling, occasionally in the air, and their body morphology is full whack – prolly why they no longer exist (except as remnant critters like bats). Tapejara’s were thought to be particularly agile fliers and formidable predators, remnants of these have been found in Brazil.
This is part of an astonishing collection of new designs coming soon as a book from origami-shop.com and showcases some amazing layer /sheet management. I _almost_ want to go back and now fold the flying version of this model … almost.
Fun, challenging fold. I think folding this critter much smaller represents a huge challenge – the pleats that form the back legs/toes at this size ended up being 4mm – my fat clumsy fingers struggled to fold these accurately (and you form these pleats part way through the sequence – not in pre-creasing). Going smaller will be “interesting” for a more nimble folder.
A long while ago, a new artist on the scene, Fynn Jackson, started releasing astonishing mask crease patterns on social media.
He later commercially released his designs and I purchased his crease pattern packs for masks 1-35, along with the more recently released noses 1-9.
I love Fynn’s work, and eventually will develop my own CPs of faces. There is so much expression in the score and fold bundle, so decided to expand my collection and try out a bundle of manilla card in the process. I contacted @Jacksonorigami and asked him about selling finished masks – he (to my surprise and delight) freely encourages folders to monetise their rendering of his designs, so long as we do not share the purchased CPs (so please DO NOT ASK) …. so I got to thinking about an upcoming Gallery shoppe associated with my papermaker friends PAQ – put 1 and 1 together and arrived at 6.
I set about folding 6 faces I had not tried before from Fynn’s rich collection of characters, each using different aspect ratios, techniques and all quite wonderful. I was encouraged (by some of the wonderful ladies in PAQ – I am looking at you Ann and Wendy!) to consider selling, and began thinking about displays that would make them work as purchaseables.
Continue readingEveryone called Charlie Brown “Blockhead”, a past Deputy Prime Minister continually is caught acting like one, so I began wondering what that would might like:
I had recently folded Boice Wong‘s astonishing pair of figures called “Emptyhead” (I named them Dumb and Dumber), so started there, and re-familiarised myself with the crease pattern, devising a smoother collapse (as I adopted the much criticised method of “parachuting” the last time).
I briefly toyed with the idea of posing him like Neo during Matrix’s groundbreaking “bullet time” scene, but decided to go simpler because he would be a … simple … soul.
The tricky bit was to use minimal paper for a neck, leaving enough of a pleat tube to sculpt a 2×2 solid cube, and explored that geometry a bit before settling on a scheme.
Continue readingI had forgotten how wonderful it was to lose yourself in a fold, particularly an Eric Joisel design:
I decided it was time to re-fold Joisel’s Cat because … the last time I attempted it back in 2011 (as part of the original 365 project) she turned out barely recognisable:
Naturally, the cat is looking at something, I decided it must be a rat. There are few more character-ful designs than Joisel’s Rat, so I folded him again – this time on a sheet 1/4 the size of the cat (to sort of get the scale right).
I reasoned the rat was around for a reason, so quickly found Jeremy Shafer’s “Cheese” design and decided the rat’s next meal would be cheese (unless he himself did not become dinner for the prowling cat). I folded the cheese with a square 1/4 the size of the rat to sort of get the scale right.
All too often a fold is completed in isolation – few designers design “sets” of models that are sort of meant to go together. Joisel’s Cat and Rat reference each other in their diagrammed sequences – I like that. Both models have challenging sequences – each with places where your judgment on where a fold goes completely changes the attitude of the model – I like that also as it let’s you infuse character into the model, and often means subsequent folds look different.
I think the only other origami artist that comes to mind for designing “scenes” is David Brill – his masterpiece “Brilliant Origami” is full of fun tableaus.
