283: Le Coq De Joisel

October 10, 2011October 16, 2011 | wonko

It is a year since Eric Joisel passed away in Paris. The origami community still mourns his passing:

This proud and “cocky” rooster is a Joisel masterpiece, I feel privileged to fold it. I had a sheet of A2 architectural drawing paper so made a square from it (nearly 1m x 1m) and folded the rooster from that – it was a tough fold to be honest as so much paper is gathered into the body. So tough a fold in fact that the paper failed on both legs and neck – I will fold this again with more resilient paper I think.

I see so much potential in this model – given thinner, larger paper I can see you could model wing feathers, eyes and more – as it is it has a lovely tail, beautiful chicken feet (including spurs), a glorious comb and an up-turned beak mid “cock-a-doodle-doo!).

You too can have a go at this model here, and learn a little more about the life and times of Eric Joisel here. Few would argue that Joisel was the greatest character folder the world has yet seen. I hope his family and friends take solace in the fact that he added so much beauty to the world over so many years. RIP Eric Joisel.

281: The Jester

October 8, 2011October 8, 2011 | wonko

Throughout history, people have acted “the fool” for many and varied reasons. In medieval court, Jesters acted the fool in a bid for self-preservation and increased favour:

All too often the jester is actually pretty bright, but uses that intelligence to work out ways of appearing foolish, doing comically silly things and overtly hiding in plain sight. The often painful “notice me” behavior is more of an indication of their own insecurity often than the bravado it exemplifies.

We all know jesters (more correctly, people who “act the fool”) – one can only wonder, when the retrospect finally kicks in (or when someone in the real world finally has had enough and punches them in the face and finally tells them to STFU), how they contemplate the time wasted avoiding behaving like everyone else and realise they actually had to work harder to appear so silly.

This is a wonderful character piece designed by Spanish origamist Fernando Gilgado. A hideous exercise in box pleating, made more so by the use of copy paper, which I struggled to prevent from disintegrating along commonly folded creases. After the initial pre-creasing, nearly no new folds are introduced in this brilliant design. He looks happy, a little silly, and has detailed face, a wonderful pointed hat with bells on. With duo paper, the face, hands and feet end up one colour, the rest (clothes and hat) are the other colour – again, genius in design.

I am very happy with this as a first fold – even if it seem to take an age it was a great way to weather a morning thunderstorm, and I will fold this again.

Because this model is flat, and great on one side (less so on the other), it suits card mounting, like this:

276: Nautilus

October 3, 2011September 24, 2018 | wonko

Tomoko Fuse is undeniably a genius, her work with exacting spiral forms unequalled:

This is her “Nautilus”, a lovely recursive form that, after the pre-creasing, almost folds itself.

Elegant and graceful curve, perfectly planned pleats and a tidy shell end make this model a keeper for sheer geometric beauty alone.

I want to pretend that I go tthis first try – truth is I folded a set of folds wrong way round first go (bloody Japanese instructions), but restarted because I wanted to make the model (so sue me)

Will be folding this again – would love to fold this in large format, will see how I go. really happy with this – who said geometric sequences were not beautiful (it is just mathematicians that wring the joy out of them :P)

275: Moo Cow

October 2, 2011October 2, 2011 | wonko

It is a well known fact that I am a little obsessed with all things Cow. I used to have a plush cow (called Terry the Moo) but I loaned her to a student who cared about her less than I do and now she is lost:

A paper replacement is no real substitute but this little beauty is easily the most lovely paper cow I have seen so far.

Taken from a book by Roman Diaz “Origami for Interpreters”, there is much to admire about the ingenious design – a full set of curled horns, lovely pendulous ears, a fantastic rounded muzzle and face, strong shoulders, cute swishy tail and general cow-ness.

Folded from an A3-cut square, the proportions and fiddlyness is just about right and amazingly it is possible to nurse copy paper through this fold – the head was the most problematic and likely to split asunder, obviated by rounding the central axis rather than attempting to bend all those layers into a sharp crease.

Very happy with this model – it is a keeper and i will fold it again – I can imagine a paddock full of them, all slightly different as the model is poseable as well – bravo Mr Diaz, I am in awe of your design.

274: White Rabbits!

October 1, 2011 | wonko

The beginning of another month, and I am finding it difficult to find rabbits to fold:

This is Stephen O’Hanlon’s rabbit – a simple figurative fold that is suitably rabbitty for the “pinch and punch first day of the month”.

I cannot believe this heralds the last quarter of this project (10th month starting).

271: Pelican

September 28, 2011 | wonko

I have been looking for a nice pelican (yes, I know that is an odd thing to say, but good pelican origami models are hard to find):

This is the best I have found so far, and although it is not free-standing, contains much that is pelicanny.

Lovely bill, nice feet (if a little thin and spindly) and the vestiges of nice wings, I think I will keep looking.

Folded after returning home from a conference (lots of nice people sharing). Busy times, sometimes you get that.

269: Brill’s Dolphin

September 26, 2011 | wonko

Now I am going visiting to the Sunshine Coast today, so thought something marine would be appropriate:

This lovely dolphin reminds me of “flipper” who appeared to frolic in the sea. The sad truth about captive dolphins however is that they lead miserable, confused lives and have a really short lifespan due to stress and noise in their tanks. There is increasing and justified pressure to release dolphins and orcas from captivity as it is inhumane.

The design for this model is ingenius, the body is triangular in cross-section, lovely tail flukes, sharp dorsal and pectoral fins and a beak, with open mouth.

It was difficult to photograph this model, so I perched it (via a blob of blutac) atop a mangled paperclip. Well dome Mr Brill

268: Hermit Crab

September 25, 2011 | wonko

When I first saw this design I put it in the “yeah, prolly not” because it looked hard:

A twisted shell, claws, legs, eyes on stalks and a seemingly impossible series of paper torture instructions. Previewing instructions, many of them made no sense until you were in the moment – the impossible collapse to get the legs and claws together was so poorly described I just sort of improvised, symmetrically, and it turns out what I did was what I was supposed to – psyche!

I am really chuffed that this model worked – a real challenge to manage the paper fatigue as some of the major axes are bent, swiveled and stretched to the point of splitting, fortunately I was able to shepherd the paper through to the end.

A trecherous fold really as, just when you think you are on top of it, the instructions require you to fold it inside out – arrrgghhh! It makes sense, the critter needs to be inside the shell but I wish there was another method to get there as I nearly tore it asunder in an attempt to turn it inside out without losing the already folded body – ended up unfolding it nearly completely and then re-forming as best as I could inside.

Quite happy with the result, it does look hermit-crabby, although it looks like he is ready to trade up to a larger shell.

267: Nollentonk

September 24, 2011 | wonko

When my sister was little, she used to call elephants “Nollentonks“:

No idea why, the name just stuck. My daughter also likes elephants so i am on the search for a good one. This little beauty measures in at 8cm trunk to tail.

This is John Montroll’s African Elephant. A lovely model that I now regret folding at this scale (I am running short of A3-cut squares, so used an A4 instead). Getting the elephantine proportions and general shape were tough work at this scale, but the model is a good one and the inner nollentonk shone through in the end,

Lovely ears and tusks, waggly tail and nice solid body make this model a winner, one I will fold again.

266: Master Yoda

September 23, 2011 | wonko

Now I know I have, early on in this project, folded a figurative yoda but I thought it about time I did real justice to this loveable muppet (well, before he became pure CGI in the prequel abominations):

This lovely model is by Fumiaki Kawahata and is deliciously detailed.

I like that he has a 3 fingered hand, walking stick, lovely facial expression replete with crinkled brow and flowing robe. He also free-stands which is a bonus.

I am very pleased with this as a first fold – the diagramming was a bit of a mystery at many junctures so I found I had to improvise, but the model did not suffer for it I think.

The force is strong with this one, could do with a dose of the force actually to propel me over the 365 finish line, it has been a long haul so far.

265: You Dirty Rat

September 22, 2011 | wonko

The Spanish Origami Society (ASOCIACIÓN ESPAÑOLA DE PAPIROFLEXIA) feature a number of folders with unique approaches to model design, this is a cute rat:

A fairly compact model, suggestive of features rather than folding every detail.

I think it captures the spirit of a rat quite well, well a nice playful one rather than a plague-infested nasty.

Nice ears, face and tail, and a plump little 3d body combine to make a neat model for today.

264: Stinkbug

September 21, 2011 | wonko

I mowed yesterday, and noticed my citrus trees were once again infested with stinkbugs:

I would dearly love a solution to this annual pest – not only do they smell, they damage the new growth of the tree and mark the fruit. Worse, I am allergic to the stuff they spray in defense when disturbed – I come up in horrible blistery sores that take ages to heal.

The trees are quite large, individually picking off the bugs is impractical, I am open to suggestions.

This little bug was very badly diagrammed (sorry whever did it), I had to improvise at many junctures and would fold it differently if I were to fold this again – you live and learn however.

Morphologically, this is a fairly good stink bug actually, just a pain to fold at this scale.

261: Satoshi’s Pegasus

September 18, 2011 | wonko

“I am Pegasus, my name means horse…” – I am old enough to remember a folksey song by Ross Ryan about a mythological winged horse:

I had some time, amidst trips and other things today so thought I would give Satoshi Kamiya’s Pegasus a go – it has been taunting me from the pages of his book.

This delightful horse is remarkably horse-like (which I guess is a bonus) but also has the most lovely wings, I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Dainty little ears, lovely head, nifty legs – one bent as if about to take flight, with hooves, a flowing tail, just a masterpiece of design that takes such a big sheet of paper (over 30cm square of tissue foil) and reduces it to a lovely little 8-10 cm model).

There were many instances where i had to just get up and leave this model for a while – tricky, precise and the layers get so thick – I cannot imagine attempting this with regular paper. Keeping the legs sharp and shaping the body through all those layers was tough work – very happy with this as a first fold however.