animal

58: Rhino-cocerous

| wonko

I was lent a book (thanks @ackygirl, must remember to return it) that contains some designs I have been meaning to try – the Rhino looked impossible:

The head of this beastie has some 15 layers of paper in it, bending it puts stress on photocopy paper (it began to split up neat the ears) but I like the body formation, it has the cutest little hooves and tail. The body armor looks right (as my feeble memory allows me to remember the last one I saw at Western Plains Zoo).

I was mightily pleased when this model worked first-fold, as there is a bit of guesswork needed to get the proportions right – it looks rhino-y tho so I am happy with the first fold.

57: Grasshopper

| wonko

Now I first found a partially incomplete PDF of this model and thought that it, for the most part made sense:

Little did I realise that the important parts (head, legs, abdomen) were not actually explained so I … improvised. It is an ingenious re-working of the frog base – the same one that I taught my tutor group, with some twisting and tweaking to make extra limbs – nice to remember when next I feel inventive.

Mightily pleased with the result but it is some serious paper torture – A4 page twisted, crimped and bent down to make a model that is barely 5cm long – my reference pad (underneath) is sideways to display the model.

I like it – realistic enough to make my daughter jump (she is afraid of them) so that says something at least.

56: Wise Owl

| wonko

I like this fold, the eyes, winds, body shape all work, not bad for a first fold:

Why an Owl? Well, being surrounded by so many wonderful (and wise) QSITE members past, present and future reminded me of the wisdom we all rely on – to me, wisdom is an owl (tissue thin justification I know but there you go). Also, against all wisdom, QSITE have me on their board again, editor of their Journal – silly fools, surely they have learned better by now?

55: Green Tree Frog

| wonko

Now I like frogs, could not eat a whole one, but they are gentle animals – this model reminds me so much of those lovely soft green ones that we used to get back when the weather worked – you know, they lived under your toilet rim and emerged blinking into the light to feast on moths that fluttered around the flouro tube in the laundry:

I misjudged the scale a bit, sorry – it uses a 2×1 rectangle and initial glimpses at the method seemed to suggest way more crimping than actually was required – he ended up fairly life-size. I like the eyes, and the vestiges of padded feet – must find a more realistic one for my next frog – toes on all 4 feet are not that hard, surely (hahahahaha).

Why a frog? Well, my pastoral care group today (thanks to some superb golf-putting by Josh) won a golf tournament thingy and were presented with a HUGE bag of red frogs – I wisely took them and strategically decided to distribute them evenly AFTER classes finished, else my munchkins would have been bouncing off the walls I reckon with all that sugar and artificially deliciousness.

54: Monkey

| wonko

Now according to the design I was working to, this should look a LOT like a monkey:

Sure it has 4 legs, a tail and a curious pot-belly, but it is monkeyish as a biro is blue-whale-ish.

After what seemed like an age, and some serious paper torture, I am not entirely sure this is not almost completely unlike any monkey I have ever seen (and yes, i have been bitten by one in Kuala Lumpur) … anyways, I tried – they cannot all be gems.

Thanks Harry for the suggestion, have a try for yourselves: monkey

53: A Duck

| wonko

I have lots of designs for birds, but up until now not one that I was happy enough to call a duck – this one is lovely:

It has a nice plump (roastable) body, cute tail, nicely mallard-y head and bill.

You can try it too: duck

52: Rock, Paper, Scissors

| wonko

Now in class we are doing algorithms and programming, and a simple logic exercise we are working on is a visual game of Rock, Paper, Scissors:Rock, Paper, Scissors

With relatively few folds, and small squares of paper (4 cut from an A4 page), I managed to fashion 3 hand gestures indicative of the conventional game gestures.

Hope you like them. I shoulda done Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock though – would have been waaaaay cooler.

51: Quentin Trollip’s Pig

| wonko

A pig is such an interesting (and apparently intelligent) animal, pity it exists for nothing else but food. This model, designed by Quentin Trollip (love that name) is adorable:

From shout to tail, all details are there, including beautifully dainty trotters (with cleft hoof, thank you fingernails) and a plump delicious looking hind-leg.

Why a pig? Well, we are having roast pork for dinner, so it only seemed fit to honour the animal whose murdered bits we shall consume later tonight (with gusto and gravy).

You should try this – it is relatively easy (apart from 3 snarly sinks in the head):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEh5jDf0ViA

49: Caterpillar on Leaf

| wonko

In 9 ICTE we are making a grubby movie using a caterpillar made up of head, body and tail segments, animated to do the whole wiggle thing:

students will then be put into a scene where they devastate someone’s vegie garden – nice, instructive and open ended.

This model is quite intense – one piece of paper, no cuts – unfortunately photocopy paper gave up the fight along the back of the grub, but it is demonstrative of form, critter and nicely sits on a fresh leaf contemplating lunch

… think Eric Carle’s “The very hungry Caterpillar” and you have an idea where I was going. You can have a go yourself: caterpillar_on_leaf

46: Tyrannosaurus Rex

| wonko

…now I was watching a show on SBS2 last night on T-Rex, and there were a bunch of academics arguing whether it was a predator or a scavenger:

It was curious, because they were arguing so passionately about such flimsy incomplete fossil records.

I would like to settle it once and for all: T-Rex was snarly enough to eat WHAT EVER IT WANTED. OK? Scientific communities can now relax, because if the mood takes it it can snap at a passing morsel, but I am sure if it stumbled accross another animals kill no one was going to argue when it pushed to the front of the dinner queue.

I like this model (think Jurassic Park just before the first victim, a lawyer, was taken, angry rexy) – it is fairly simple, but the posture is lovely, and the appendages are in the right place and relatively correct in proportion.You can have a go at it yourself: tyrannosaurus

44: Dippy Dog

| wonko

In my day, on the back window mat of your V8 Kingswood, you had a nodding dog, to complement the fake leopard-skin velour seat covers, the troll hanging from the rear vision mirror and the 8-ball you custom-drilled from a stolen pool table ball on the stick-shift. That was cool, it signalled you were with-it and happening:
I first saw the “dippy dog”, designed by John Smith, in the book “More Origami – the Art of Paper Folding No. 2” by Robert Harbin – a much used, yellow and now crumbling volume. I used to have volume 1 also, but I cannot remember who I loaned it to, but it is gone from my library now (and most likely out of print – good starter books however for a paper ninja in training).

nodding action (povo anim view)

It is a 2 part model, head balances nicely on the fulcrum of the body and nods with gentle breeze – quite cute really. the dog is a little “beagle” like I guess. A simple but effective model that uses thirds and quarters (for the legion of maths teachers trying to keep up).

I could not find an online diagram for this model, but something similar can be found here: http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-dog.html (a simple but fun dog for Mrs M’s 2M “Gems”)

43: An Ant

| wonko

wow, no I mean WOW! This is a design that, on paper at least, looked impossible. Piotr Pluta designed a way of paper torture (involving 4 lots of 8-way accordion sinking) to extract 6 limbs and 3 body segments typical of an insect – quite honestly I was convinced it could not be done.

…so I cheated and gave parts of it a practice try first – sure I screwed it up (on what are unreasonable first-fold rules) but I learnt something about the successful fold. That said, I am mightily pleased with this one:

Photocopy paper does not withstand being bent so much – at the centre of the thorax (middle body segment) you can see the square’s centre point – a much creased and slightly frayed hole forming from bend fatigue, otherwise it held up remarkably well to a very difficult fold.

Underside and Side view detail

You can see the degree to which the paper has been massaged and tucked away to take an A4-cut square and as if my magic make all the requisite parts of the ant, right down to the mandibles and the puffed out abdomen.

You might like to have a go at this – it is not a beginners fold (and indeed there are aspects of it that I have still to master), but the design is ingenious and worth the time it takes to complete :  ant_diagram

42: Frog On A Lily Pad

| wonko

…there are lots of patterns for Frogs, most even look frog-like but this one designed by Colin Weber is charmingly sitting atop a lily pad – made with one square of paper you massage enough paper towards a corner to then form the froggy bits – very clever:Frog on a Lily Pad

Why a frog? Well, it is my Sister-in-Law’s Birthday today, she loves all things French (and would move there to live in a flash), so I thought something a little froggy would be appropriate as a present for her – Happy Birthday Sue! It is also my Nephew Andrew’s Birthday, and he is IN Paris atm, so a double froggy celebration for him as well.

You can have a go at making this model yourself: http://dev.origami.com/images_pdf/frogonlilypad.pdf however I think there are a few mistakes in the diagram, I found flaps where there should not be and no flaps where there should have been, thankfully it was possible to get creative and work around if you keep your eye on the final model.

40: A Catfish

| wonko

This fish, designed by Davor Vinko has the most splendid eyes, and a nice 3D body, most impressed.
Why a fish? Well, it is the School Swimming Carnival today and I am at home being beaten up by a middle ear infection so I thought I would get as close to the spirit of the event whilst staying quiet and dry.

You can have a go at this model yourself, it is actually pretty easy once you get the 1/6ths sorted out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUcp0EiZ2xU