amphibian

426: Satoshi’s Tree Frog

| wonko

The Weekly WTF#1 (what’s that fold) had to be a Satoshi model, and I had been itching to make this little beauty ever since I was aware he had designed one:

Initially, I folded this with a odd end of a kraft roll, starting with a nearly 40cm square (nearly in that I discovered it was not quite square), but found it very small for my fat clumsy fingers.

I resolved to fold it neater, so went larger – second fold (the one pictured) is a 60cm square of brown Kraft paper (no, it is not green, and I know of no easy way to make it so).

There is a LOT to like about this model, and some concerns – some of the steps are fairly poorly explained (given the nature of some of the manoeuvres I can not imagine how that would be improved) and some of the folding is through so many layers that without help this model does NOT stay as folded.

I decided to do wet-folding, with a little MC (methyl cellulose) to fold, mould and let it dry before moving on – this lengthened the time to make the model, but in the end made it most beautiful. Some of the subtle shaping would ONLY be achievable with foil-core paper or via wet MC folding.

In the end, this is the most frog-like thing I have encountered that was not actually a frog. the details are astonishing even to me (and I wrangled them out of a flat, uncut square).

“Can I go for a swim Mum?”.
“No, you just ate that fly, wait a half an hour
or you will get stomach cramps junior!” .
“Aww mum, that is an old toad’s tale.”

I ended up with 2 – my first fold, whilst smaller is different to the larger one, they both have interesting postures and attitudes and I am torn as to which one I prefer.

I am sure I will fold this one again – he is so cute, but I think I will wait until I have suitable thin green paper – the model is so well designed that it’s tummy is one colour, rest of the body is the other – so I will be hunting paper that is 2 shades of green front to back (or perhaps making a bit of double tissue – we shall see).

395: Showing Off

| wonko

Our local council library has a large glass display case that usually has things on show for a month. I cautiously asked one of the librarians if she thought some origami would interest patrons and she was very enthusiastic:

There are around 200 models now on show at Holland Park Library for June and I am quite chuffed about that.

Dragging 3 large tidy-tubs of models, most of which I had left over from the 365 Origami Auction, they fill the case rather completely.

You can see models designed by me amongst designs by such luminaries as Kade Chan, Robert Lang, Eric Joisel and many others.

In addition, I was asked to run a workshop in the first week of my school holidays for interested folders (10 years old and up) – see the Holland Park Library website for details and bookings if you are interested.

The only question that begs answer is what the floop I do with these lovelies AFTER the month on show? Suggestions welcome … dear reader?

380: Project Davros

| wonko

I had this idea in my head that is should be possible to fold a DALEK (you know, that improbable plunger-wielding arch nemesis of Dr Who) from a single sheet of paper:

I began over a two week period to explore the morphology of a Dalek, to come to the conclusion that it is most certainly possible, and that this attempt is very nearly it.

I decided to start with an A2 sheet, figuring that it would be bent in half eventually and curved to make the recognisable armature and leaving paper for eye, manipulators and a nice domed head. Numerous trial scraps of paper were mangled to test various collapse/crinkle ideas that in the end informed the final shaping. The odd shape, the necessary texturing (bumps are essential, apparently, to Daleks), the position of the eye stalk in relation to the plunger/laser hand thingies proved very troublesome with this shape paper and, in retrospect, it would have been better to start with a square – live and learn I guess.

I learnt a lot about myself in this fold – resisting the urge to set a crease is HARD, regretting a misplaced crease later is worse. I found I could, in my head, envisage something and then create it within the limitations of paper fairly faithfully. A LOT of maths-type thinking went in to the original sheet division and that both helped and hindered in the final model as I found taking the highly geometric shapes and making them more organically round was very challenging.

In the end this is NOT a great dalek, it is however a fantastic start. Should I attempt this again I now know more about the final shape to plan better for it – I assumed, you see, that it would sort of just “sort itself out” – this was far from true – much time was spent looking at the mess I had made and working out how to make it less messy (or just hide it and deny it was there).

The final model is not pure origami – given the time and paper torsion, I had to help some parts stay together with little buts of stickey tape on the inside – some of those fine pesky pleats splay over time I found. With different paper (tissue foil for instance) the folds would stay folded a lot better I would guess.

Given this is my FIRST FOLD of this design, and I was working to designs in my head, it was very satisfying. Should I attempt it again I would do it slightly differently, arrange things on the sheet with the final shaping in mind a little better. I think Davros would be proud of my efforts at resurrecting the master race however. Good work if you bothered to read this far, say HI to your mum for me.

225: Lang’s Green Tree Frog

| wonko

When I first saw this model, in “Origami Design Secrets” I knew I wanted to try it:

Such a torturous but interesting fold, initial pleating followed by some amazing swivel and sink folds to get the body differentiated from the legs, this is my pose for this model – I like that it looks like ti is crawling and I thought much more interesting that being symmetrical.

there is much to be in awe of with this model – I am and I managed to fold it; the toes, the eyes and the overall accuracy of the morphology are simply amazing – more proof that Robert lang is a maestro mathematician and true artist in his designs.

This model took ages as I was fastidious with my folding, accuracy mattered but wow, no I mean WOW! What a difference good paper makes – I did not attempt this with copy paper – there is a spread/sink/swivel move that would shred the paper early on so I used a sheet of tissue foil and am glad I did.

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.