Under the weather at the moment, folding while suffering a streaming headcold is not much fun. After 2 model fails, I thought I should go simpler:
I stumbled across an obscure book by Eduardo Clemente called “Papiroflexia”, it is full of historically revolutionary designs I must try. Continue reading
I bought some hand-made paper with inclusions from Daiso and wondered how it would fold, so looked for a punishing model to test it out:
This is Jason Ku’s Lizard – a lovely little critter with toes, an elegant tail and a funky face with gaping mouth and bulby eyes. Continue reading
Trolling around in the members area of Origami USA, I found a model that looks like it is made of 2 separate pieces of paper and decided to give it a try:
This is Diego Fernando Becerra Ramirez’s “Spider On Leaf”, a clever use of paper that fashions, via a bird base, a spider and leaf, managing a colour change in the process. Continue reading
I must admit to not having folded many butterflies – not sure why, hopefully this year I will remedy this situation:
This is Robert Lang’s Minamimachi Butterfly – I know it looks simple but there are some wonderfully complex techniques in it’s fabrication. Continue reading
In exploring the “Tiny Snek” interwebs phenomenon, I stumbled across a money fold that resulted in a simple cobra:
This is a variation on Vu Dung’s Cobra, folded from a 2×1 rectangle. Although relatively simple it was made more difficult by the size of the fold – this is tiny but still has a recognisable hood and lovely mouth/set of fangs. Continue reading
…so apparently, like, on the internets and stuff, Tiny Sneks are a thing, right:
This is Gen Hagiwara’s cartoon snake, a cute little model with lovely googly eyes and a smile.
I made it tiny… because. Continue reading
I often fold for relaxation and therapy, this design “Gargoyle” by Alessandro Beber is a fold I took up to keep my mind busy during some tough times near Easter:
I find folding calming, and I started this to keep mentally busy as my Dad got sicker and sicker in hospital. He passed before I completed it and for weeks I put the paper aside, the model became associated with that event. Continue reading
Flipping through the book “Origami Masters – Bugs – How the Bug Wars Changed the Art Of Origami”, you cannot help but be frightened by this model:
Robert Lang, mathematician, engineer and origami design genius in this model pushes the envelope of what is possible with paper on a number of levels. The book gives general hints about a truly terrifying paper manipulation which I think, largely ignores the fact that paper will be used in the fabrication. Continue reading
As part of my JOAS membership, I get sent magazines with models to try – a really excellent collection of complex models from the worlds best designers. When I saw Satoshi Kamiya’s Dragonfly, I was really scared of it.
The level of pleat management and re-arrangement of flaps and layers is truly terrifying when viewed as a whole.
As a “treat”, to reward my marking progress (I am a teacher, I set assessment but hate marking it) I allowed myself to complete a couple of steps each sitting. This fold has taken place over the period of 3 weeks, a little at a time. the advantage of this method is that I did not get freaked out by what was to come, just concentrating on the couple of steps I was allowed to complete. Continue reading
I was itching to do a technical fold, and realised I had folded few from the “Bugwars” book I bought for Xmas, so thought “why not”:
This fold has taken an age. I must admit that initially I had passed this over because it looked too fiddly, the CP alone was terrifying. Continue reading
People keep giving me foreign and local paper currency. A work colleague gave me a pair of battered US1 dollar notes and asked if I could do anything with them. I had heard (old wives tale perhaps) that it was unlucky to kill a money spider. These little critters apparently bring financial good luck.
I figured MAKING a money spider should be lucky, so set about to find one. Won Park, in his book “Extreme Origami” has a rather lovely spider fold that requires 2xUSD$1 notes, so I thought I would give it a try. Continue reading
Having ordered the book “Origami Masters Bugs – how the bug wars changed the art of origami” I was itching to fold a bug:
Robert Lang is a master paper engineer, I have a few of his books – this is from Origami Insects Volume II and I decided to give it a try – it was way outside my skill ability so I sort of resolved to keep folding until … I couldn’t work out what to do next, if that makes sense. In the end I managed all of the detailing (although some not very elegantly).
The resultant bug is astonishing – the legs are jointed and end in claspers, the head, cephalothorax jointed, it has antennae, horns and is really bug like. Continue reading
Originally I was approached by a blog reader who wanted to know how a particular part of this model worked. Given I had never folded it before I had to admit I did not know, but would love to find out:
This is a torturous model by Robert Lang from his book “Insects and their Kin” – torturous because most of the detail originates in the MIDDLE of the sheet, via some astonishingly complicated manipulations. We tease 6 legs, abdomen, 2 antennae from the middle of the page, leaving large expanses of largely un-folded paper for the 2 pairs of wings.
I have wrestled with this for an age – not sure the instructions are very clear (particularly layer management late int he piece) and certainly are not noob friendly.
As a first fold I am very happy with the result – not sure I wold fold it again, I do not really like the way the body sits and the clumsy layering at the wing junctions but it was a fascinating exercise in accuracy none the less. I say clumsy but I know of the design genius to engineer such a shape, so please Mr Lang do not rake this as a criticism, I remain in awe of your paper prowess. Continue reading
The link between a boy and his pet is a special one, even if the pet is a hermit crab named “Smee”
When I heard Sam had suffered the loss of Smee I remembered the pets I had also said goodbye to, tough gig indeed.
I remembered I had folded, as part of the 365 project, a hermit crab – never quite mastering the fold so was determined to re-attempt it (with a few more years skill under my belt) Continue reading
I was exploring a corrugation technique I last used with Eric Joisel’s Bandoneon and stumbled across a sort of plan to fold Joisel’s Snail:
You start with an extraordinarily long (my estimate – 3.25m) and narrow (in my model 9cm) strip of paper, then start folding slanted lines (using a 3:1 gradient) in both directions
