animal

328: Superdude

| wonko

Now I tried something, for the first time ever. I planned a NEW model, then folded it in prototype, then adjusted the proportions and now there is a NEW ORIGAMI FIGURE in the world – cool hey:

I must admit to giggling when it just sort of … worked. I then got the class (who had finished and had their papers collected) involved – “look up there in the sky, is it a bird, a plane? No, it’s Superdude“.

I had a clear idea in my mind, rare that it coalesces so perfectly.

This is “Superdude” – like Superman but not yet franchised. He is inspired by “Girl in a dress” by Stephen Weiss and the box pleating work of Neal Elias, but I can find nothing quite like him anywhere but at my place, right here, right now so I will claim copyright.

I was messing around with proportions of an A4 sheet – not having any scissors (I was in an exam supervision and someone carelessly left an un-written on sheet lying around) with out cutting. The basic “S” bend, when combined with a 1/16th pleat provides the frame for this model.

You then tease out the “cape”, splay each ripple a little, box pleat some arms and a head one end, legs the other and you have the base.

Shaping the arms, neck, head and legs gives you a nicely proportioned super being in mid-flight (although someone should tell him that capes are so 90’s – no one wears capes these days)

327: Octopus

| wonko

Now normally, there is a set of directions that I follow to make someones model – we origamists call them diagrams. Sometimes diagrams have yet to be made for a model but some enterprising designer unfolds their creation and traces all the folds as a starting point – we call this a crease pattern:

This delightfully devious and slippery fellow was folded from my first crease pattern – you can see it here: octopusCP. Naturally, folding from a crease pattern is much more challenging as there is NO indication as to what folds are done first.

Sipho Mobona is a masterful paper engineer and is responsible for beautifully naturalistic models but finding diagrams of his models is really hard work, so you sort of have to … improvise.

Had I not done the Hoodie, all those months ago, I would not have had a hope in hell of achieving this model – pre-creasing into 32ths was painful, literally, then crumpling along selected folds was problematic (I originally crumpled it inside out, only to unfold and re-crumple the right way round).

The details here (pity the photos do not really do it justice) are amazing – we have 2 lovely bulbous eyes, a siphon (the thing they jet alone with when in a hurry), 8 beautifully curly tentacles and a pendulous and tasty-looking body. genius from one square of paper, no cuts, no glue, no shortness of swearing.

Very happy with this fold – I learnt a lot along the way but he is soo cute, very octopi-like and I could spend hours just re-positioning the tentacles for lifelike crawley poses – very cute.

You may applaud now, and pass the lemon and cracked pepper – delicious on a bbq’d octopus indeed.

324: Gandalf theWhite

| wonko

“You Shall NOT Pass!!!!” Now if you are a Lord of the Rings fan, you will recognise the significance of that, if not you will cynically decide that is my comment on the coming exam season (no, students, I do not mean it that way – relax):

This lovely White Wizard is designed by Victoria and Vladimir Serov, and was first made by me MONTHS ago and packaged up and sent to York in the UK to a friend as part of a Christmas hamper.

He has been travelling for months and arrived yesterday (our time), Today (their time) so I can finally post it as part of this blog.

I have actually folded this 3 times – let me explain: the instructions are in Russian (no, I do not speak Russian either) and even with the best translation engines available I could not for the life of me work out which way was up. With my tissue foil there is a good side and a back side and first time I folded it I realised near the end that the paper was the wrong way round. So I folded a second one (knowing I wanted to keep one and send the other) and ended up making exactly the same mistake again (stupid me), so UNFOLDED IT, reversed all the creases and re-folded it the right way around. thank goodness for good paper.

The resultant lovely grasps (with fantastic little hands) a gnarled wooden staff, has a fantastically detailed face – frown, curled moustache, beard, and a lovely robe, topped off with a pointy wizard hat.

Extraordinarily fiddly, at times I had to walk away, calm down before returning to it – 2mm pleats are not fun with fat, clumsy fingers.

After months in a box, travelling via seamail, the White Wizard arrives safely in York and now takes pride of place. Very happy with this model, so much character and a suitable “Happy Christmas” inclusion for Mike and Colette.

323: Satoshi’s Smilodon

| wonko

The smilodon is often called the “Saber-toothed Tiger” but is not a tiger at all:

This lovely (extinct) beastie is a Satoshi Kamiya masterpiece, a real exercise in restraint – resisting the urge to set creases early to get nice, rounder shapes later.

I had no idea what was what with this model – as my first fold I learnt a lot from this – I found the lower jaw very fiddly and in the end it did not look a lot like a jaw in my opinion, but the head, saber-like front teeth, haunches and rest of body are beautifully proportioned.

This took me an age (well, in truth 3.5 hours) and although the pattern suggested a 25cm square, I went bigger – 38cm square of lithograph paper and that was fiddly enough.

I like this a lot, it is very cat-like but emanates raw power and ferocity (regardless of how cuddly characters like “Diego” in the Iceage franchise was, these guys must have been snarly and fearsome up close and  personal).

322: Fledgling

| wonko

Comes time in the life of all magpie chicks, when pin feathers have moulted and the adult feathers, shiny and new are through, untested. The fledgling inches to the edge of the nest, mindful of the effects of gravity. With encouragement, and a gentle nudge, the fledgling spreads its wings, tenses the flight muscles it has been exercising more recently. In an act of self belief, it launches into the great blue yonder:

This is Jun Maekawa’s Crow (or similar, cannot read the Japanese, sorry) – I like that this bird looks like it needs to grow into it’s feet and wings – much as I imagine a fledgling does.

Why a fledgling? A new batch of year 12s launch itself into the real world today. Their future is entirely in their hands, the potential is all there, they will make of it what they see fit. I hope they look after each other, and themselves, that they make the world a better place to be and never forget that they can make wonderful things happen if they can be bothered.

Happy with this as a first fold, lovely feet, nicely proportioned body, economy of use of paper, great design.

321: Zombeh!!!

| wonko

I love it how you can have a serious and in-depth discussion with students about Zombies:

They are experts – both the “undead” and “infection” zombies could, like, totally happen – yeah, and it is well understood how to dispatch them.

Having not long finished an adaptation of Jane Austin’s classic tale “Pride and Prejudice (and Zombies)” I am in touch with my undead self.

Well, in truth, I am a little undead zombie myself – marking does that to my brain, with perilously close deadlines and waaaaay too much to actually do before it, I neeeeeed braaaaaaiiinnnsss!!!

This is Jun Maekawa’s Zombie – well, I assume that is what it is as the book I got it out of is entirely in Japanese and I cannot read it, so, yeah. I love this posture of this model, the hands reach out sinisterly and there is just enough of a facial expression to know he is gunning for your fresh brain.

Glad I used a scrap of lithography paper for this model – copy paper would not have let me puff out and flatten the face before disintegrating.

320 Kasahara’s Mouse

| wonko

Now I like a good rodent, particularly one that is simple to fold but lovely in proportions – this mouse is such a beastie:

A tough fold in an A4-cut square to be honest, but the tinyness of it is worth the pain and bruised finger tips due to the thicknesses of the folds.

Lovely ears, poseable arms and legs and a splendid tail – from relatively few folds actually, glad I have found this one, I think I will add this to my “can do by heart” collection because of the finished shape.

Busy day, lots going on – lots of it red pen on things that need marking – hate this time of year, you get that sometimes.

I must investigate the animals of Kunihiko Kasahara some more – nice touch with the media, classic style.

319: Performing Seal

| wonko

The crowd gasped and applauded enthusiastically at the task do deftly performed by the seal on display. The seal sighed, feeling that the humans watching it were easily amused and so concentrated on the mathematics of parabolic hyperflexion and existential philosophy to pass the time until the next fish was tossed her way:

This is Fred Rohm’s “Performing Seal” an old-school model that is clever none the less. Perched atop the nose of a reasonably nicely formed seal is a beachball – all ONE piece of paper, some nice bending in this.

This and the “Magic White Rabbit” both make use of a blended waterbomb, should I fold this one again I would ensure it is less square.

Quite ingenious, we use a 3×1 rectangle and tuck most of it away to leave the seal.

I have never understood the justification from animal trainers – the whole “reinforcing natural behaviours” falls flat on it’s face with these sorts of tricks – still, so long as the crowd loves them it cannot be all bad – right?

318: Dromedary

| wonko

On review, I have not folded many camels – I have no idea why this is:

This is John Montroll’s “Dromedary”, a one-humped Arabian camel and there is much to like about the model, if not my first fold of it.

Lovely ears and face, curious sunken hump, legs more or less in the right place.

I might fold this one again, I learned much on the first time through, and it was a mashup of his “camel” instructions to a modified base, so I did not really know what was going to be what until fairly late in the piece (hence the disoriented development pictures).

Busy times, lots to do, spent waaaay too much time on this, you get that.

317: Fiery Dragon

| wonko

As a DnD fanatacist, I am always on the look out for a good Dragon – Kade Chan’s Fiery Dragon is one such beastie:

Having loved folding Chan’s “Werewolf” I have had this model in the “must do” pile for months.

WOW – to take an A3-cut square and twist it to this degree and get such a lovely result with no paper fatigue demonstrates the brilliant design here – the body is so thick, wings so tortured, tail so tight, head so detailed that any of these features could have meant the paper split asunder but no.

Coaxing copy paper through tricksey folds is beginning to be an obsession of mine – I have no doubt that many of these folds would be easier with more robust paper but … well … where is the challenge, right?

From all angles, this little beauty is 100% dragon and I will fold this again. If you look carefully he even has eyes. Potter fans will probably label this a “Horntail” or “Ridgeback” dragon, because we are knowledgeable about such things also 😛

Mastery of the square is something Kade Chan is known for, economy of fold and attention to media are the hallmarks of a talented designer. I feel honoured to have folded this one.

316: Wasp!

| wonko

Now I started this model assuming I would keep folding until the paper failed – I could tell from the instructions that copy paper would not be ideal, but for shits and giggles I kept bending:

To my amazement, with some gentle coaxing and no little pressure on tough folds (15+ layers for body/wing bend) a delightful and menacing wasp emerged from the crumpled and teased paper.

This is Annibal Voyer’s “wasp” and she is a beauty – lovely textured 3d abdomen, shapely wings, intricate head and the requisite 6 legs, all from an A3 copy square – wow.

There is much to admire about this design – although forming the body was tough with such thick brittle paper, at no time did I see a step I could not attempt (even with some inaccuracies like the paper being not quite square it still worked).

This is very clever design and I will fold this model again. Busy day again so I needed to get this out of the way, really glad I chose this model tho as the result, as a first fold, is astonishing.

314: Snail on a Leaf

| wonko

Slow and steady wins the race, in theory at least:

This is Nicholas Terry’s “Snail on a Leaf”, a lovely model that from one sheet rends a quite shapely snail, foot, shell and feelers, and a veined leaf – neat.

Busy day, bit of a rush, you get that sometimes. I like this as a first fold, learnt something about the model along the way so if I should fold it again, the result would be smoother and a little neater I think.

313: Monkey with Symbols

| wonko

Action models that work and look reasonable are few and far between, this is an exception:

Diagrammed (yet not credited to any particular designer) in Origami USA collection, this delightful model is a monkey holding a small set of symbols.

By tweaking the handle up and down, whilst holding the body, the arms flail and clap the symbols together – very cute indeed.

This is a compound figure – that is it is comprised of two pieces of paper folded separately and then locked together at the end – clever design really.

Why a symbol monkey? Why not!

312: Gerboa

| wonko

Now in arid areas of Australia life is hard. Some animals never drink, some come out an night, some live underground – the gerboa does all these things and more:

Sometimes called the “Kangaroo rat” because of its rather splendid tail and hoppy back legs, it has always fascinated me.

When I saw this model I knew I would have to try it – copy paper, to be honest, is a terrible media for this but I soldiered on and am actually very happy with this as a first fold.

An ingenious use of the bird base, I will fold this again – it is poseable, has lots of character and the most lovely feet and tail – very clever design.

310: Tutankhamum

| wonko

On the 4th of November 1922, almost by accident, a water carrier for Howard Carter stumbled across what looked like a step. They had all but given up hope of finding the legendary tomb of Tutankhamun but, on digging they discovered another, and another. By the 6th of November they had uncovered a sealed entrance to a tomb that bore the elusive cartouche of the boy king and so began one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of our time.

I admire an explorer that showed such great restraint – rather than rush is, as he was being urged to do, he covered up the entrance and went away, re-mounted an exploration mission 26 days later to actually open the tomb and painstakingly uncover and catalogue in-situ such wonderful things that belie imagination.

Having made a mask yesterday, I thought I would try another, and what better than a figurative representation of that famed gold and precious stone-inlayed death mask for the boy-king. I have seen this mask when it toured our city museum – it is breathtaking.

Scale was an issue here – it could have been made from an A4-cut square, but I could not tell how much was tucked away so made it from A3. I like that it hints at a snake in the headdress, the beard and overall proportions are nice. With time and a little patience I dare say you could fashion facial features – there is certainly enough paper there to do so.

Happy with this as a first fold – I could do a month of masks, there are lots of designs and a plethora of approaches to origami mask making – maybe that is for another day.