animal

264: Stinkbug

| 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

| 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.

Yes, a discrete round of applause would be appropriate.

China Crane

| wonko

Went to lunch with some friends from Uni yesterday, wonderful to catch up.

Teresa gave me a present, it was a “because I saw it and it remined me of you” gift – so wonderful:

A china crane, persistent homage to the 1000 Cranes for Peace project I completed earlier in the year for Hiroshima Day.

The designer has been faithful to the actual origami model – such loving detail, proportions, nice. Love it to bits – many thanks.

Little Red – Revisited

| wonko

Little Red was off to visit Kit:

Oh Jake, what big eyes you have, what big ears you have, what big teeth you have…

These are revisits of Stephen Weiss’ “Girl in a dress” and Kade Chan’s “Werewolf” for Kit and Jake.

Lunch with friends, nice. Lunch with friends and their kids, even nicer 🙂

259: Stag

| wonko

Barbz asked me to make a deer, I decided to look for a stag (antlers etc) and found one by Neal Elias:

I like this model – out of a severe box pleat a fairly graceful body, legs and head with lovely ears and antlers emerges.

This was a tough fold – the thicknesses near the nead are really difficult to fold, but the result is quite satisfying as a forst fold – hope you ike it Barbz.

I have also found a bunch of deer-like animals, will experiment more with the form.

258: Rodin’s Thinker

| wonko

When I think of my mate Mike, I think of Rodin’s “The Thinker”:

There are many reasons, including his stunning good looks, poise but most of all because he is a thinker – he considers everything deeply, his responses are considered, balanced, always truthful and often factual 😛

This is a Neal Elias designed model, interesting use of an off-centre waterbomb base and trademark elias stretches to make the arms, I think it is particularly clever that the pose is fairly accurate, it is self-standing (well, ok, sitting), complete with all the body bits and perched on a pedistal to finish.

This is the second model I have folded from “Neal Elias – Selected Works 1964-1973” compiled by Dave Venables, purchased through the British Origami Society. As a founder in the box-pleating techniques that have been more popular in recent years, the shape is figurative yet evokes the object it was mimicking well I think.

I Think, therefore .. umm … what was the question?

257: Yoshizawa’s Snail

| wonko

Exploring the wealth of designs Akira Yoshizawa left us with, I sumbled across this delightful snail:

Simple yet the very essence of the critter – much modelling potential also, as the shell could be coiled, the foot textured etc.

Sometimes simple is necessary – busy day, lots of other folding going on, you get that.

256: Don’t Taze Me Bro

| wonko

Akira Yoshizawa continues to surprise and delight – his folds are simple, elegant and have much modelling potential:

This is one of a series of person studies, and is a novel use of the frog base.

Busy day, lots to do, much being put off, you get that.

255: Turtoise or Tortle?

| wonko

I have never been able to discern the difference between a tortoise and a turtle:

Sure there are superficial morphological differences but they both are reptiles, both carry their shell around etc.

This is Robert Lang’s turtle and it is a lovely, simple, figurative model that abounds tortoisness. I like the simple curve of the shell, the hint of claws and the expressive neck/head.

I deliberately folded this small scale for two reasons – (1) I used to have a “penny turtle” called, sadly enough, “Myrtle” – I actually found her in a creek near home (I grew up in Maleny); (2) shits and giggles – you get that.

Slow and steady wins the race is where I was going here – hare and tortoise/turtle/whatever – so much to do, so little time, procrastinator set on full and we are away.

254: September 11

| wonko

For me, September 11 2001 was the day the world lost it, in a big way. Senseless acts of violence were met with years of senselessly violent retaliation and witch-hunts, government sanctioned genocide and publicly celebrated religious fanaticism. There were no winners – we as a species did little to justify our position atop the food chain:

A symbol of peace in the origami community is the crane, there is a branch of the craft that looks to incorporate cranes into other models. this intricate and often torturous craft can result in some stunningly complicated folding – this one by Jeremy Shafer is called “The Star of Peace”.

Using a technique termed “isolating squares”, you reserve unfolded squares and crumple all else out of the way and in this care we end up with a 3d star with a ring of 4 cranes flying around the top layer. The container is waterproof (like a fancy waterbomb).

I fold this with mixed emotions – the media has so skewed the events leading up to and after 9/11 that it leaves me with an even stronger resolve against war, military action and religion … you get that. I live in hope that the human spirit continues to emerge from the morass, looking for ways to help, positive actions that build the dignity of people and erase the artificial barriers of race, creed and sect.

Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try
No people below us, above it’s only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do
No need to kill or die for and no religions too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger a brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing for the world

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
Take my hand and join us
And the world will live, will live as one
John Lennon, “Imagine”.

253: Happy 10th Birthday terraMOO

| wonko

On September 9, 2001, a virtual environment called TerraMOO was first launched.

An intersting date given a couple of days later the WORLD changed forever. terraMOO is an Encore-based MOO, it has run continuously for the past 10 years, even though boys have constantly tried to break it – name another technology that can come close?

As a learning environment I believe it is unequaled, providing chat rooms, object-oriented programming, web publishing, online interactive assessment and smart objects there is nothing that comes close.

Yes, I have played and developed in 3d worlds, yes I understand their potential also, but a MOO is unique – long may she run.

This cow I have been saving, the folding was intense but the end cow-shape is most pleasing – lovely ears, horns and a serene facial expression, good body proportions and a lovely swishy tail.

250: Child Protection Week

| wonko

This week is designated “Child Protection Week” so I looked for a model that was for me the essence of the message:

Education is where I went – kids educated by older people is one of the best forms of protection around and this group of figures shows the careing and respectful relationship betwixt teacher and student to me.

I like how the elder teacher is balding (but in denial as he has comb-over side tusts of hair on an otherwise bald head), the student looks up hopeful from a book for guidance – just wonderful.

Folded based on a David Brill pair “Gippetto and Pinocchio”  from the aptly named “Brillian Origami” book, I like this grouping and hope you do to. The teacher is folded from a 2×1 and the student from a 2×1 that is 3/4 the size of the teacher. The book is a Brill book also (a spelling book, that only has 3 pages between a lovely bound cover), adding to the scene I think – the student’s hands looked empty without it.

Some lovely figurative folding, suggesting detail without folding every last nose-hair of it; the teacher’s head is a staggeringly complex box pleating trick and the student features a torturous collapse, but overall I can see the models are related, their bases were similar and the folding style of one compliments the other nicely I think.

249: Vinco’s Fish

| wonko

Davor Vinco has made many elegant models, most with simple lines – I particularly like his fish:

The beautiful eyes have featured on an earlier model but I like the body shape of this fish, the way the fins lock and gill line makes the nead a different colour to the body (if using duo colour paper)

A fairly simple fold to give my tired hands a rest from yesterday, nice none the less – 3d enough to consider filleting.

It is child protection week so I must chase some design for that.

248: Centipede

| wonko

Now yes, I will be the first to admit this is NUTS!:

But you only know half of it – this is my SECOND centipede folded today – you see I learned a general principle: how to tease legs out of a straight edge, and I got … a little … carried away. I should have been taken away for doing this twice in one day – 2 HOURS each creepy crawley, and some sore hands to finish with but it was so totally worth it – hahahaha.

This model is based on Peter Engel’s Centipede, although I found many of the steps incomprehensible so sort of “improvised” and I think it is rather special – ONE piece of paper, 32 (yes, that is right THIRTY TWO!!!) legs, a rather splendid mandible and antennae and some of them stickey-outey-tail-things they have.

Folding on this scale is crazy (thank goodness for fingernails) – the problem is finding a piece of paper LARGE enough to make this model not torture (both times I failed, cutting the largest 4×1 I could out of an A3 sheet). At this scale the feet are very difficult to fold with fat clumsy fingers, and it was a days work just to stop the paper tearing. Just for the record, NEITHER centipede suffered paper fatigue, splits or tears – that in itself is a miracle.

The technique is extensible, and, given longer pieces of paper I can make more legs – very nifty trick that I will remember as any straight edge now is a candidate for a row of stickey outey things.

247: Alix’s Giraffe

| wonko

Now I have been on a mission to find and fold Alix a giraffe for her birthday (Happy Birthday Alix!) and the model had some criteria:

  • * it needed to look “giraffey” – so many do not
  • * it needed to be achievable with  square of cardstock I found in a Landsborough scrapbooking shop (don’t ask) – the giraffe hide was tough to fold, so the model had to be simpler- No margin for error, you cannot re-fold this stuff as the design is only screen printed on so cracks when you fold it
  • * it needs to stand freely

Voila! We have a Giraffe – I found these instructions on the interweb but no credit was given to the designer – can anyone help me here?

I rejected models by Peter Engel, Robert Lang, John Montrol for one or all 3 reasons above having folded them and barely achieving an acceptable model using plain copy paper (which is much more forgiving that the giraffe print I had).

It was an interesting investigation – there will be more giraffes to come – the challenge is to adequately represent the “spirit” of the animal rather than necessarily be accurate with the morphology as they are such an odd collection of animal bits really (almost as odd as a platypus). No model I found had the lovely long knobbly kneed legs and the vaguely trapezoidal body for instance but various models had aspects that looked correct.

To get the long neck and distant body when using a square so much paper has to be tucked away that it gets really dense, but it ends up with lovely ears, and vestigial “horns” which I have never worked out what they do.

Hope Alix likes it;

Happy Fathers Day also to all those Dads out there, hope you also have a good day.