animal

845: (295/365) Leaf Katydid

| wonko

Insects seem to be a fascination among origami designers – at the height of “bug wars” when designers were competing for the most intricate designs that were  complex, had lots of legs, were thin and realistic renderings and really pushed the boundaries of existing techniques:

This astonishing model starts as a frog base. Through a torturous set of point isolation and narrowing, we get the impossibly thin legs and a lovely set of antennae. Halve this, now fold that in half, then do a double rabbit ear, now halve that … thank goodness for thiiiiin paper and accurate folding. Continue reading →

840: (290/365) Gaff’s Electric Sheep

| wonko

Origami has featured in cinema in many ways. The Blade Runner franchise uses origami figures to accentuate certain story points and the most recent movie features an elderly “Gaff”, in a retirement home, folding a sheep:

After some research it seems the model was a tweaked Jun Maekawa model. tweaked because the original has curled horns that would make a quick-shot less clear on screen. Continue reading →

839: (289/365) Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport!

| wonko

I am always on the look out for well designed Kangaroos:

Interestingly, the best ones are often designed by people who do not have them around. This delightful 2-part model is designed by Kunihiko Kasahara, from the book “Origami Made Easy”. Continue reading →

838: (288/365) Maine Lobster

| wonko

A 365 Challenge is a mixture of blessing and curse:

The relentless schedule amidst a full time job and part time life is challenging at times. I started this model last weekend but ran out of weekend before it was finished. Continue reading →

837: (287/365) Jackson’s Chameleon

| wonko

Looking for a nice, rich, challenging fold for the day, I knew I needed to try a model from Robert Lang:

This is his model “Jackson’s Chameleon” – a deliciously complicated model with all the chameleonic bits you expect.

Working with a slightly un-square square of light green washi, the pre-folding is fascinating, layer management and seemingly impossible moves abound – there were many times I thought I had screwed up, only to find out that it worked. Continue reading →

836: (286/365) Pteranodon

| wonko

I for one think collectors of fossils need to be really careful piecing together extinct animals from scant remains.

Many a time illogical collections of bones have been cobbled together to bamboozle the public and, at first glance, a Pteranodon seems about illogical as a platypus. Continue reading →

835: (285/365) Coyote

| wonko

It is a full moon, 24 miles south of the OKish Corral, and the local Coyotes are howling:

This rather cute wolf/dog/coyote…thing is a rather nicely structured quadruped that I think is a useful base for modelling other such critters.

It is part of a collection of wolves/howling things I looked out for when a particular house at school decided to use a howling wolf as their mascot this year. Continue reading →

831: (281/365) Swimming Fishie

| wonko

Perusing my copy of Tanteidan Magazine #163, I came across a cute 2-part model that I thought I should try:

Using orange for the fish and blue for the waves seemed to make sense at the time. Continue reading →

828: (278/365) Spaniel

| wonko

Busy week, nearly at the weekend, this lovely little fold is a perfectly adorable spaniel:

Designed by Patricia Kunz Tomic, in DOT1, I like the use of paper, general proportions and general spanielity. Continue reading →

827: (277/365) Metamorphosis

| wonko

Few things can compare to the biological miracle that allows a caterpillar to become a chrysalis, inside of which it’s body chemistry and morphology transitions from grub to soup to butterfly:

Few models try to capture the whole journey. This set, designed by Fernando Gilgado  is an exception. Continue reading →

826: (276/365) Pelican

| wonko

What a wonderful bird is a Pelican, whose beak can hold more than it’s belly can:

We saw lots of pelicans when on holiday up the mid-north coast in the holidays just ended. Majestic gregarious birds that seem to be an odd sum of parts. Continue reading →

824: (274/365) White Rabbits

| wonko

First day of the new month, one superstition seems to be to say “White Rabbits” as the first thing you say that day – not sure why:

This is Fernando Castellanos’ rabbit, taken from DOT2, and it seems, designed to be folded on a MUCH larger sheet of paper than this. Continue reading →

823: (273/365) Owl

| wonko

Cruising through my copy of Drawing Origami (Tome 1), I noticed a bunch of folds from there that I had not yet tried:

This little fellow is a bi-colour owl designed by Juan Hibou. Owls seem popular in origami design and this one cleverly manages layers and colours. Continue reading →