animal

101: A Ram

| wonko

I was cruising sites in Polish (no, don’t ask) and came across a rather nifty animated archive of charming animals – this is a ram:

He has a rather splendid set of horns, cute feet, twisty tail and nicely formed muzzle (with a lower jaw you cannot see in the photo.

Happy with this as a first fold, there was some lovely precise rabbit ears (the main technique – odd – rabbit ears for a sheep, but in the end it all tastes like chicken), I do think I would mod it a little on subsequent attempts to round out the body.

You too can have a go: http://dev.origami.art.pl/show.php?id=31&format=SWF&dzial=FLA

100: Elias’s “Last Waltz” for Lindy and Randy’s Wedding

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Lindy and Randy get married today, which is actually yesterday (curse this linear time) and as a MILESTONE fold I thought I would attempt Neal Elias’s “Last Waltz”:Fittingly it is a bride and groom dancing at their wedding. there is much to love about this model – it WORKED first fold, contains 2 figures (joined at the hip) and they have a fairly natural posture, are both dressed formally (him in a suit and her in a meringue) and it is free standing.He has his hands on her shoulder and waist, she is reciprocating and the model withstands viewing from all angles.Made from a 3×1 rectangle cut from white wrapping paper (testing it out for a larger snake project later), when made with 2-sided paper he ends up a different colour to her – very clever indeed.

A joy to fold, another joy to attend Lindy and Randy’s wedding via UStream – hope this is a fitting wedding present.

98: See Saw

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This is a cute action model, counter-balanced so it actually rocks back and forth:

It is supposed to be 2 children, opposite ends of a see-saw – a boy (wearing an Indian costume and feather) and a girl (in a bonnet) – use your imagination or some recreational chemicals and it is as clear as anything.

Designed by Fred Rohm, I folded this from “Secrets of Origami” by Robert Harbin, one of my oldest books – a simple model as I was brain-fried after a punishing term, hope you like it.

97: Joisel’s Rat

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I have been wanting to try this model ever since I saw it:

Eric Joisel designed a lovely, character-filled rodent that was fun to fold. Paws, claws, a stoned/bemused expression on it’s face and lovely ears and tail – what more could a rat want?

You can fold this yourself – Eric, as part of his legacy, publically shared the instructions for this model at http://www.ericjoisel.com/ps_assets/pdfs/rat.pdf

Why a rat? Well, My son turns 23 today – HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTY – he spent the last 2 years or so of his life studying rats in Macadamia plantations as part of his Honours program but I bet the rats he had to deal with are nowhere near as cute as this little fellow.Hopefully he will find it when he wakes up this morning.

96: An Eagle

| wonko

Now I have learned something from folding this model – I do not understand a world of Polish:

All the instructions were in that dialect, and the diagrams were baffling, so I did my best.

I rather like the feet, the wings and head/beak are nicely shaped also but I could not fathom what to do with the tail so … improvised.

94: Double-Dutch

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I remember this model from my childhood, or rather how unsuccessfully I attempted it waaay back them. Let your eyes blur a little and you will see it:

A man and a woman behind a parasol … seeee? He is leaning in for a kiss … seeee?

I like how this model massages the paper around to form figures suggestive of a courting couple, forms her  skirts and the centre of the parasol is the centre of the square. Fairly snarly to flatten this model – harder to photograph as it is not free-standing:

Made out of “Origami 2” by Robert Harbin – I notice in the index the child me crossed this model out as too hard. Is charming right down to the tip of his nose.

93: Lang’s Pillbug

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Now when I was a kid, ferreting around in the underbrush, we used to call these little chaps “Slaters”, as a Biology teacher, I referred to them as “Wood Lice”:

These isopods were made famous by “A Bugs Life” – remember the foreign tumbling critters Tuck and Roll? They are a sort of primitive crustacean and have a myriad of legs, body segments, are rarely bigger than 1cm in length and are usually grey or light brown (depending on how much light they have been exposed to.

Mistakenly I decided to try a “simpler” model than my chosen Joisel model which stated it needed much bigger paper to make it even possible – I cursorily scanned a Lang design and settled on this – it looked simple enough – boy was that a mistake.

This has taken me AGES, and so often I thought it was going to hell in a handbasket. So much paper torture to get to the stage when it said to do 8 3-way accordion crimps (like Hoodie) and I was ready to give up. Instead, I made a cup of tea and persisted.

It has 14 individual legs, a pair of antennae, 10 body segments and I think it is just plain awesome that it worked, first fold.

You may applaud now.

It amazes me that this pattern was generated MATHEMATICALLY first – Mr Lang, you are a genius – everything in its place based on some seriously wonky geometry constructed by exhausting pre-creasing. Very happy the paper survived and it looks like it should.

This model elevates me to Paper Ninja status (and reminds me to consider MORE carefully before launching into a model).

89: Koala

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Not to be beaten, I returned to my Japanese Origami book (all instructions and nomenclature are in Jap) to try to learn conventions and symbology on a simpler model, given how the centaur yesterday turned out I figured I should start simpler:

I like this model – a Japanese figurative Koala (probably folded from an idea, not by someone who has ever seen one) – the tummy is full, it has a “stoned” expression on it’s face and it’s posture is satisfying.

I had never seen koalas in the wild (except for far off blobs someone else tried to convince me was actually a koala and not a dead branch) until Jo and I traveled to Cape Otway in January 2011 – to see them in such great numbers, clambering skillfully in trees, close enough to touch was a rare privilege (and a secret safe because no one is following this blog:P )

88: Centaur

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Fools rush in when angels fear to tread:

This looked simple, and the instructions made sense (up to a point, they were in Japanese and some odd symbols I had not encountered before) but I should have looked ahead … this size and type of paper (and my noobishness in this fold) resulted in a poor first fold – but I learned something in the process. I was rushed, stressed and interrupted but meh.

The hind-quarters are sort of right, interestingly the hands have 5 fingers each, the head/shoulders malformed and the arms out of proportion. Were I to fold this again I am confident it would be better. The SCALE was the main issue.

They cannot all be gems I suppose

87: Grim Reaper

| wonko

Thanks for the suggestion Simon, this little “Reaper” does not look so grim:

A relatively simple fold, few features, suggestive of form, I like it. Looks a little like a Dementor from Harry Potter’s world (except it is carrying a worrying scythe).

Why a Grim Reaper? One computer dies, another is built to replace it, the process is not always painless – you get that.

85: House Gecko

| wonko

Recently I have noticed a proliferation of geckos around our house – after research it seems it is not a native but an introduced species. The “Asian Hose Gecko” apparently came over amongst ship cargo and now is over-competing with our native species:

I like these little fellows, even though they are illegal aliens – they eat bugs (we have not seen a roach or many moths for ages) but they get everywhere, crap inelegantly on everything and make a loud but cute “clucking” sound when they are randy – unfortunately this is usually in the middle of the night when all else is quiet and asleep.

This model was torture, and a result of poor planning on my behalf – I cut the largest 4×1 rectangle possible from an A4 page to begin this model and then realised that this was TINY (well, in fact, the model turned out LIFESIZE), given how much torsion the paper would need. The tail is lovely but was hard work, the pattern malformed the head (I dug some paper back out of the body to fix that) and the legs are clumsy (because my fat fingers could not detail stickey-outey bits that small and thick with any great precision (thank goodness for fingernails).

Taken from “Origami 4” by Robert Harbin, designed by Max Hulme, it is a little beauty nonetheless, quite chuffed it worked first-fold when in reality it looked like it was going to hell at a number of junctures. I must try this one bigger.

82: Scottie Dog

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Looking for something that was quick, as I was out for most of the day, I came across a rather charming Scottie Dog:

This model by Neil Elias looks more like a pug puppy, but it could have been how I folded it – cute as a puppy, sitting, in profile however.

81: Pelican

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

This elegant model by Ligia Montoya comes from “Secrets of Origami” by Robert Harbin. Relatively few folds, indicitave of form, nice and simple.

80: Knut in Memoriam

| wonko

To be honest I am not a great fan of Zoos, but in the case of Knut, a little Polar Bear cub rejected by it’s mother at birth, he would not have had 4 years of life in relative captive comfort.

I have been wanting to try Robert Lang’s Bear, from the book “Origami Zoo” for ages, this seemed appropriate, given the unexpected death of Knut yesterday (News Article). After you get past the odd proportioned rectangle (25cm x 15cm, cut from an A4 page), the actual design is fairly easy.

I really like the head, lovely ears and muzzle, powerful neck and suitably powerful legs (I even sneaked some bear claws in there – Mr Lang, there was paper, why not hey?). Although actually a brown bear, in white he looks suitably polar.

Happy with this model, as a first fold it could not have gone better.