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403: Lang’s Organist

| wonko

I was reading the chapter on “box pleating” in Robert Lang’s “Origami Design Secrets – 2nd Ed” (one of my cherished origami books) and came across the chapter “homework” which is this Organist seated at her Wurlitzer:

This model is astonishing for a bunch of reasons. The design is clever – one piece of paper to fashion the player and the instrument, the details of both the player and instrument are well controlled, efficiently use paper and are clearly recognisable.

I upscaled, starting with a 128x32cm piece of brown Kraft paper, used a tape measure to lay in the landmark creases (although I could have folded them, it would have resulted in much more disfiguring creases in the end model so I am glad I did). In retrospect, working much smaller would have been very difficult with my fat, clumsy fingers as some of the pleating becomes very fiddly indeed (32nds and 64ths)

Initially, working with paper on this scale is problematic – simple things like “fold in half” take on epic proportions and introduce inaccuracies which seem slight at the time but compound in such a convoluted model.

There was an “ahh” moment when the box that is the body of the organ swings into place, making the keyboards and footpedals slip into place that was very satisfying.

I enjoyed folding this model, probably will not fold it again, but learned a bit about paper properties and wrangling pleats that will make future folds better I think.

What to do with her? there is the question – the resultant model is quite large (16x14x14cm) and in some places one layer thick (others much more so), but it is stable and surprisingly strong. It even has a music stand atop the organ that even “Barry Morgan” would appreciate. Suggestions?

401: Spike the Echidna

| wonko

Ladies and Gentleffolke, may I introduce to you Ms Thelma Tiggywinkle – Eric Joisel’s Adult Echidna: 20120817-163036.jpg

I had folded Eric Joisel’s “Baby Hedgehog” early last year and noticed as part of the instructions that a scaled up version (9 ranks of quills instead of 5, based on 32ths instead of 16ths) would result in a “mother” and he was right – what a mofo of a fold, honestly!

Starting on Friday evening with a 60cm square of brown Kraft paper, I started pre-creasing – dividing up into 32nds vertically and horizontally, then diagonal creasing to create hex-grids which ended up tiny.

I had long been fascinated with the process of forming the quills – crease-crimp/collapse diamonds and then making a zig-zag trough beside one row to raise the next results in lovely paper geometry both on the outside and the underside,

After over an hour each rank of spines, the resultant paper is box-pleated into legs and the ends inside-reverse folded into toes.

The ranks are then teased out to form tail and face – a lovely fold that is soooo very cute although it is punishingly time-consuming.

Very satisfying – folds ONLY, no cuts, no glue, she needs some “wet folding” shaping but she is already very echidna-like. No idea what we will do with her, but for now she is snuffling around our house. Hope you enjoyed the journey as it played out on facebook.

400: Attack Of The Kraken

| wonko

There are many of what i would term “legendary” folds in the origami community – few more daunting that Brian Chan’s sculptural masterpiece “Attack Of The Kraken”:

I first saw pictures of this model when trolling around the internet looking for paper challenges: one piece of paper, you bend both a masted ship and a sea monster ripping it asunder – impossible surely. Amidst the turmoil there exists tiny details also – one tentacle contains a shard of ship rigging, another grasps the terrified yet defiant Captain – look closer, is that Captain Jack?

Annoyingly there seem to be no instructions on how to fold this thing – there was, however, a crease pattern adapted from a schematic Brian Chan tantalisingly left beside a display copy of his model so I started working on that. I photo-enlarged sections of the crease pattern and repeatedly folded them until I had discovered what to fold, in what order to make that section of the model work Continue reading →

398: Los Hombre

| wonko

I have been exploring the wonderful work of Victor Coeurjoly, in particular his human figure (hombres) work which is very distinctive.

I came upon a crease pattern in his Flickr stream and knew I had to try it. I have been exploring these guides more and more as I find super complex models exist only in this form sometimes – doing the whole instruction/diagram sequence is hard work if you are busy and creative:

I am pretty sure he uses tissue foil (really thin, metallic-backed paper) and methyl cellulose (an “acceptable” paper stiffener and setting agent) to keep the limbs thin and posed but the style is amazing.

I set about using normal paper, failed miserable because there are 4 places where the creases become so intense that the paper just disintegrated. I tried a chunk of litho paper and it was better (if a bit thick to do the final limb and torso modelling, but demonstrative of form none the less. Continue reading →

397: Never Smile …

| wonko

…at a CROCODILE:

This little beauty started as a crease pattern suggested by Mark Leonard and ended up as this little snapper. The crease pattern suggests folds necessary to form the base, but finishing the model was an interesting challenge.

the feet are really reminiscent of a Joisel fold, and with a nice little tummy-tuck, his body stays round, ridge of roughness along the spine and a lovely head/mouth. Continue reading →

395: Showing Off

| wonko

Our local council library has a large glass display case that usually has things on show for a month. I cautiously asked one of the librarians if she thought some origami would interest patrons and she was very enthusiastic:

There are around 200 models now on show at Holland Park Library for June and I am quite chuffed about that.

Dragging 3 large tidy-tubs of models, most of which I had left over from the 365 Origami Auction, they fill the case rather completely.

You can see models designed by me amongst designs by such luminaries as Kade Chan, Robert Lang, Eric Joisel and many others.

In addition, I was asked to run a workshop in the first week of my school holidays for interested folders (10 years old and up) – see the Holland Park Library website for details and bookings if you are interested.

The only question that begs answer is what the floop I do with these lovelies AFTER the month on show? Suggestions welcome … dear reader?

394: Fagus “Scruffy” Poplar

| wonko

Ladies and gentleffolk, may I introduce to you Master Fagus Poplar, Scruffy to his friends:

this little chap is but 20cm tall, toes to tip of hat and is quite lovely, in the eyes of the folder.

Folded, from memory, trying a new technique for coat, shoulders, hat and arms, I quite like the fact he is waving. My hope is that he will stick around at the Origami exhibition that opens in the Holland Park Library this month. Continue reading →

392: “Snapper” Yew

| wonko

Ladies and Gentleffolk, can I introduce to you Master Bartok Yew, “Snapper” to his closest acquaintances

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“Snapper” is one of the first ever tourist gnomes, traveling far and wide. His memory is probably the third worst ever recorded and so always travels with his camera (hence the nickname which describes his habits of continually happy-snapping

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Young Bartok was folded in Yorkshire, from a square of wrapping paper left over from … Well … Wrapping. He was achieved with no glue or other aid, but I did add a button to keep his jacket closed tidily (dress sense he picked up from Pierre, a distant relative).

The camera is an invention and, given more time and paper would be much more stable. Together he looks like a real tourist

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…and I should know what a tourist looks like, I have been spending 6 weeks being one.

Bartok was last seen mooching around in Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, probably sponging off some unsuspecting family for board and lodging. We hope his well and does not run out o ffilm any time soon.

391: Pierre Mâché en Francais

| wonko

….Puis je vous présenter Monsier Pierre Mâché, my first internationally folded gnome:

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You see, we are currently in Paris, on a vacation that has been in the planning stages for years, and we had an astonishing meal at a local restaurant Les Enfants Perdus, and I noticed they topped their tables with a square of sueded cream colored paper.

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In my best French, I asked pour Le paper sur la table and they gave me a fresh one to fold. The paper was stiff but really strong, so I was able to model this guy a lot more than I usually can, or maybe I am just getting better.

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I like how his posture worked out, he definitely looks French and is gesturing as if to express exasperation that he cannot understand us odd Australians, we get that a lot.

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We will leave him as a gift to our hosts here in Paris, the apartment we have rented from them is wonderful, very well appointed, comfortable and essential to us keeping going each busy day.

Au revoir Paris, our first visit has been magical

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390: Flying wallaby

| wonko

As a travelling Australian, the “flying kangaroo” is something I wish I could afford to travel using, but we are using the the “flying wallaby”:

I decided that trying to memorise a kangaroo fold would be a good idea for an aussie abroad, and what better than the kangaroo by Robert Lang from the book “Origami Zoo”.

On making, then re-making it I am convinced that this model is much more like a wallaby than a roo, but it is a lovely form none the less.

I can now fold this from memory, but it is very dense and requires thin paper else it gets bunchy early. Will practise it and hopefully, leave a stream of them all over Europe.

388: The Lion King

| wonko

…now many of you know I am travelling overseas real soon. Whilst in London, we decided to take our pick of shows playing at London’s West End, and decided on “The Lion King”:

I then got part way through the fold and posed a development shot on Fakebook for people to try and guess what the model would end up as. I am pleased to say that Janet C was the successful guesser.

This model is lovely – a real mask, folded with a larger bit of paper it would be a person-sized thingy, neato with design details. Designed by Victoria Serova (with instructions in Russian which made it an interesting challenge), it has a lovely 3D muzzle, sleepy feline eyes and potential for modelling a lovely mane.

Next time I fold this I think I will rough up the mane a little, still, very happy with this as a first fold.

384: Squiffy “Woombye” Larch

| wonko

Ladies and Gentlefolk, may I introduce young Squiffy Larch, “Woombye” to his friends:

During a mad weekend, we visited Woombye Pub for a fantastic lunch and I noticed they put on their square tables, a beautiful big square of brown paper.

Naturally I put 2 and 2 together and got 7, and decided it needed to be folded into a gnome, and Squiffy was born.

The paper is amazing, takes folds well, is tough and the resultant gnome is the largest I have folded so far.

Quite happy with the face, he has a lovely grin amongst a full beard, noble nose and a quaint, slightly sozzled look in his eyes. His hands were crying out for something drink-related so I invented a beer stein and all was good.

Will organise to send Squiffy to Woombye – he belongs in a bar. He is very happy (that will be the pint he is working on) to be joining the ranks of the “other” seven dwarfs.

382: Self Made Man – Revisited

| wonko

I was determined to test whether my first fold of this nightmarish, but charming, fold was merely a fluke or not, so I set about folding it from a 3×5 cut from an A1 sheet.

The geometry for this model is amazing, and the challenge is to only put in the folds that are necessary to achieve the collapse – an interesting challenge indeed as construction lines, preliminary constructions and fold-flow ons are difficult to control with such large format paper.

I love the result, given this paper was thinner than the original #365 fold, the features and structure are much more considered and I think he has a lot more character in his face and pose.

This is one of my favourite folds from last year, and now I know it was not a fluke, I can fold it with confidence when I need to.

He is now on proud (temporary) display in the Library, with a suitable verse before him.

381: Rodin’s Reader

| wonko

It is little known (partially because it is blatantly not true) that Rodin, prior to sculpting his masterpiece “The Thinker” had an altogether different idea:

Our school library is celebrating the National Year of reading by exploring a different theme each month – March is “think” so I put 2 and 2 together and got 17.3.

Based on Neal Elias’s box pleat, this little model is cute with a Brill “Spelling Book” on his lap.

Will not be around for the next couple of themes so this will have to do for a little while

380: Project Davros

| wonko

I had this idea in my head that is should be possible to fold a DALEK (you know, that improbable plunger-wielding arch nemesis of Dr Who) from a single sheet of paper:

I began over a two week period to explore the morphology of a Dalek, to come to the conclusion that it is most certainly possible, and that this attempt is very nearly it.

I decided to start with an A2 sheet, figuring that it would be bent in half eventually and curved to make the recognisable armature and leaving paper for eye, manipulators and a nice domed head. Numerous trial scraps of paper were mangled to test various collapse/crinkle ideas that in the end informed the final shaping. The odd shape, the necessary texturing (bumps are essential, apparently, to Daleks), the position of the eye stalk in relation to the plunger/laser hand thingies proved very troublesome with this shape paper and, in retrospect, it would have been better to start with a square – live and learn I guess.

I learnt a lot about myself in this fold – resisting the urge to set a crease is HARD, regretting a misplaced crease later is worse. I found I could, in my head, envisage something and then create it within the limitations of paper fairly faithfully. A LOT of maths-type thinking went in to the original sheet division and that both helped and hindered in the final model as I found taking the highly geometric shapes and making them more organically round was very challenging.

In the end this is NOT a great dalek, it is however a fantastic start. Should I attempt this again I now know more about the final shape to plan better for it – I assumed, you see, that it would sort of just “sort itself out” – this was far from true – much time was spent looking at the mess I had made and working out how to make it less messy (or just hide it and deny it was there).

The final model is not pure origami – given the time and paper torsion, I had to help some parts stay together with little buts of stickey tape on the inside – some of those fine pesky pleats splay over time I found. With different paper (tissue foil for instance) the folds would stay folded a lot better I would guess.

Given this is my FIRST FOLD of this design, and I was working to designs in my head, it was very satisfying. Should I attempt it again I would do it slightly differently, arrange things on the sheet with the final shaping in mind a little better. I think Davros would be proud of my efforts at resurrecting the master race however. Good work if you bothered to read this far, say HI to your mum for me.