871: (321/365) Little Pig

Always on the lookout for a cute model, I saw this design shared freely on Fakebook by it’s creator:

This is “Little Pig” by Hung Cuong Nguyen, a lovely rich and complex model that seems to eat paper like … well, like a pig. Lovely round body, beautiful ears and a tail I decided needed to be curly. Continue reading

867: (317/365) Not Drowning, Waving?

This time of year is horrible. The plain truth of it is that, for a teacher, we have more marking than a reasonable person can do, and deadlines that seem impenetrable:

I guess it is why teachers in Australia are payed the big bucks, right? Continue reading

866: (316/365) Iris Butterfly

The online Origami community is rich and supportive. Last night Kade Chan shared his publicly diagrammed “Iris Butterfly” diagrams via Fakebook and  knew I had to try it:

I used a fake US dollar bill, but it is actually designed for a Hong Kong dollar (which I think is a little less long and a little wider) – the proportions of the note would change the wing shape subtly. Continue reading

862: (312/365) The Night King

Now I am as much a fan of Game of Thrones as the next person, but I do like a good ice zombie as a baddie:

This is Nick Robinson’s “Hairy Man”, but I think it is much more demonstrative of an icy undead monster. Continue reading

859: (309/365) Jumping Frog

The traditional world of Origami has many classic folds, it is constantly amazing to me how few of them I have actually folded:

This is a traditional jumping from – well, at least one version of it. The mechanism is simple and relies on paper thickness to provide a spring on the back legs. You gently press between the back legs and as the paper flips out from under your finger, the frog hops – ingenious. Continue reading

855: (305/365) White Rabbits!

As is customary on the first day of a new month, we say “white rabbits!”:

This is an old design, and I am not sure i have the shaping quite right yet. Akira Yoshizawa is credited as founding modern Origami and this is one of his designs. Continue reading

853: (303/365) Genie in a Lamp

…so if you found a magic lamp, rubbed it and a Genie appeared, granting you 3 wishes, what would you wish for?:

It is an interesting, vaguely existential question that is remarkably difficult to answer with any certainty. Continue reading

852: (302/365) Magic Carpet Ride

Go on, admit it. Ever since you saw the “Aladdin” movie you have secretly thought how cool it would be to ride on a magic carpet:

This clever model, inexpertly folded, is an exercise in colour management- had I used bi-colour paper, the rider and carpet would be different colours – pretty neat. Continue reading

850: (300/365) …and now the Penguin on your television set will explode.

…how’d he know that then?

Being a fan of Monty Python, I find quotes emerge everywhere. What better to celebrate 300 models than a lovely little penguin:

Designed by Jun Maekawa, I am amazed I have never folded this little cutie before, such a nice shape and, with presentation paper it would be a great display piece. Continue reading

849: (299/365) Squirrel!

It is well known that dogs and middle school – squirrel! – children are easily distracted – Squirrel!:

I am reminded of Doug the dog from the movie “UP” every time I see my students trying to focus but being unable to notice everything else around them but what they are asked to notice. Continue reading

847: (297/365) Tigger

Perusing my copy of Drawing Origami – Tome 2, I noticed a lovely little tiger designed by Oriol Esteve:

This teensy weensy tiger is very cute, has resplendent stripes and terrific proportions from paws to tail. Continue reading

846: (296/365) Peacock 1

I gotta learn to be more careful, the previous post (which I removed the number from) turned out to be a refold from my first 365 (years ago) that I had forgotten about (I got the fold sequence from somewhere else and did not twig to the duplication … so sue me 😛 ) Fortunately a follower pointed this out:

This is Jun Maewawa’s “Peacock 1” – a lovely exercise in Miura Ori corrugation folding for the tail and some interesting layer management to form legs and head among it. Continue reading

Triceratops

EDIT: as a kind reader pointed out, I have already folded this model, so it cannot count as one of the current 365. It is a relief on 2 fronts (1) Someone is reading and (2) This fold of this model is vastly superior to the original

Some call me a dinosaur, they may be justified but if I am even half as cool as this Triceratops, then it is all good:

Designed by Jun Maekawa, this delightful little dinosaur is one of my +favs so far in that it has all the triceratopsy features (3 horns, flat plate head, stocky body, lovely proportions) and still remains simple enough to achieve easily with a 40cm square (prolly smaller with more nimble fingers)
Continue reading