I have been making Mulberry tissue, and wanted a non-trivial model to test the foldability of the untreated sheets. I remember finding @taniiiii_ori ‘s Fractal Crane CP on Twitter ages ago, so decided it was perfect – based on a traditional fold, with a modern complex twist:
I picked the first sheet of tissue I pulled from my vat of freshly beaten kozo pulp – it was imperfect, painfully thin but none the less lovely. I cut the largest square I could from the most solid end and then set to laying in pre-creases for an n=2 fractal.
The CP is easily extended to add new levels, but the folds get impossibly fiddly exponentially – an n=2 was a good compromise I thought.
I was delighted to find that the paper took the pre-creases well, with no visible fatigue as I exposed the sheet to torsion and tension making the fiddly folds in the central gutter. Once creases were in and oriented correctly (mountains or valleys depending on their job) , the collapse began. The small bird-bases collapse and that allows the central gutter to form naturally around them.
One of many issues with long-term storage/display is the nature of the material itself – paper.
Most origami paper is not acid-free, meaning that over time the colours change as oxidation and UV damage take their toll on what is essentially a fragile material. Moisture and humidity conspire to “unfold” folded paper, causing it to want to return to the flat state, unless wet-shaping has been used to change the “memory” of the sheet fiber orientation.
Many models are not self-standing, so stands or other tricks are necessary to allow them to present upright – I have used both plastic clip stands and more permanent wire armature bases.
For the presentation/display model of Sampreet Manna’s beautiful new Peacock, I have used a few techniques to stabilise it in readying it for display (September – December I typically have display cases of my work in Suburban libraries).
This model is top-heavy – although the legs are pretty life-size in terms of the body proportions, they are spindly and the claws are not wide-spread enough for the model to self-support. I took some heavy gauge anodised aluminium armature wire, covered it with paper offcut from the sheet I was working with (“Earth” Tapa Duong Vietnamese fiber paper from @oritube_master ‘s shop) using PVA glue. Covering the wire with paper first makes adherence to the main model much more securely.
Once the wire segments had dried I then buried them deep in the pleats that made up the legs, closing the layers as I did using PVA glue dabs and then clamping it all in place whit it dried. The result is now that the model is help up by the leg wires, allowing me to permanently pose the “knees and ankles” without compromising the model stability.
Additionally, adding small PVA glue dots inside seams stops them from opening back up and greatly contributes to the long-term stability of the pose. I do not think this is as “cheaty” as bathing the model in MC and wet-sculpting it, like many origamists do. I have employed wet hands while shaping as a more gentle (and authentic) wet-folding technique and indeed some of the nice organic smooth curves achieved on this model were done that way. By wetting the paper, positioning it and then letting it dry the more subtle shapes become permanent,
The base this time was a white plastic lid from an empty container that was being recycled. I covered it with hand-made Kozo/cotton/day lily blend paper I made a few years ago – a lovely contrast that was interesting but not too busy as to distract from the already visually striking paper the model is folded from. Selecting a suitable base – be it a round lid or a plinth made from foam core can greatly enhance the stability of the model and give it a “finished” look.
The wires are punched through the top of the lid, bent tightly underneath and held with layers of gaffer tape and self-adhesive foam-core to make it feel “solid” and stable.
I am really happy with this piece, another model I am happy to display.
Currently I am editing a new book by Sampreet Mana, and when I saw his Peacock, I knew I wanted to test-fold it:
As a kid, one of the first models I committed to memory was Adolfo Cerceda’s Peacock, folded from a 2:1 rectangle.
Sampreet’s design starts as a square, and you begin with the head plume, then form the rest of the model around this. I followed one of the suggested paper recommendations (50cm Damul Kraft), but wish I had a better colour (ideally blue/green) – I may source more appropriately coloured paper and re-fold this – we shall see how time works out.
With supercomplex models, my fold philosophy is “fold until you finish or fail” – knowing full well that either way I am learning – every fold teaches you something.
There are LOTS of complex steps, and some really interesting manipulations that isolate the tail, elongate the body and separate wings, lefts etc – I am really impressed with the structure of the model. The resultant model eats paper like crazy, but most of the bulk ends up in the middle of the body, giving it a natural weight and thickness and making final shaping and layer stabilization easier.
Being an active member of an online community has many benefits. Origami communities often share diagrams, and this model was shared this morning on fakebook:
This is Ryosuke Sakurei’s “Dragon Baby”, a gorgeous little flapper that is pretty clever in it’s design. I searched for published sources, but it seems the Fakebook poster must have shared diagrams from a source I cannot identify.
I used one of my old-stock thick Shadow Thai sheets – green/black duo, a 40cm square, and the design allows that quite heavy paper to be folded neatly.
It is often that thickness of paper prevents you from completing models – well designed ones make allowances, and this is an example of one that is well designed.
The subtle use of colour change, the chunky volumetric body and the proportions are just lovely. I am very happy with how this turned out. The sequence is clear, fun and relatively straightforward, but it sucked me in so completely that I did not take any progress pictures, sorry.
Having folded Robert Lang’s masterpiece Cactus, when I saw Daniel Brown had designed a smaller version based on a 31 square grid, I knew I would be folding that sometime:
I have been really into time-consuming surface deformations, corrugations and tessellations lately – whether it is procrastigami or the need for a time-sponge, pushing paper into amazing regular shapes is just fascinating to me.
I threw a 50cm square of glossy duo green/natural Damul Kraft paper from origami-shop.com at this design, but the resultant fold is tiny – few tessellations eat paper like this one. The rows of prickles are raised via overlapping pleats in an astonishing collection of cooperating maneuvers where accuracy and thickness is everything.
My previous fold was rendered from a 90cm square of Kraft that I painted after it was folded. The thickness make point sharpening really challenging. This fold using Damul Kraft made the fold much easier because the paper was thin and tough. The scale of the fold here is also smaller – a real challenge for my nerve-damaged and clumsy fingers.
Grinding through my “must fold” pile, I decided to work on the modular “Taj Mahal” designed by Valentina Minayeva:
I am a member of PAQ (Papermakers and Artists QLD) and this month’s meeting was all about “working with colour” – as I am not really into painting, stitching and similar, the closest I get to colourful “collage” is multi-colour kusudamas, and this is a beauty.
A relatively simple bi-colour unit combines with adjacent units to make some fascinating emergent geometry – we see colour wheel points, and tri-colour cubes emerge from the tangle in fascinating and delicious ways.
Unlike many kusudamas, this one has a relatively simple unit locking mechanism – the tabs positively lock into the pockets – the REAL challenge is colour distribution.
I decided on 5 colours (because it is a 5’s and 3’s type construction (5 units connect to make a swirl of a point, and adjacent modules dock in 3s). So I needed 6 sheets of each of the 5 colours to make a total of 30 units. The first swirl dictated EVERY other placement, as the next unit to add is the colour of the one on the opposite side of the structure. Once I saw that, it was a bit of a 3d jigsaw puzzle from hell, but satisfying.
Digging through my stash, I found a large sheet of yellow Crumpled VOG paper. Remembering I had never done a presentation fold of Brian Chan’s “WALL-E”, I knew I had found the right model for the paper:
The original character – a (Disney) Pixar masterpiece is a lovely little character piece with one of the most expressive robots ever on film. The design is intense, eats paper like nothing else but results in features that are instantly recognisably “WALL-E”.
Squaring up the paper, I managed a 60cm square from the sheet, cleaving wisps of 3 sides and a strip off the bottom. The strip was later used to coat some armature wire to keep him in shape – the model has some lovely deep pleats that allow you to hide structural supports to give the model some longevity.
VOG paper is particularly great for super-complex models because it is really tough, takes creases well and the texture persists, even after extensive working.
When asked to be part of the Papermakers and Artists QLD “On A Roll” Gallery exhibit, my first thoughts of a “scroll-like” object I could make was always going to be something relating to my current passion – Mulberry paper – Kozo.
I had, in previous posts, explored the harvesting and cleaning, beating and use of White Mulberry and Paper Mulberry pulp from twig to finished sheet. A consequence of processing a sheath of White mulberry was a collection of lovely white sticks without their bark. Experimenting what I could do with them, I discovered they accepted soft graphite pencil really well.
A scroll, to me, tells a story. Story telling is something that humans have always done, ever since they evolved the ability to communicate. Lots of cultures evolved oral traditions (spoken word), more developed repeatable symbology that evolved into alphabets and written communications. I was determined to explore ancient and modern story telling, with the idea that “Once upon a time” was a concept that has begun every story, in one form or another.
I began collecting different representations of the concept of “once upon a time”, and included Arabic, Burmese, Cantonese, English, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Maori, Mongolian, Nepali, Persian, Punjab, Sanskrit, Tamil, Thai, Tibetan, Urdu, Yiddish scripts that expressed this concept. Using a soft pencil, I transcribed (as faithfully as I could) these scripts, one per stick onto the twig bundle – interesting some used left to right, others right to left.
If you have been paying attention, you would know i am a member of PAQ – Papermakers and Artists of Queensland. in 2025 we are mounting an exhibition that explores contemporary interpretations of the scroll, entitled “On a Roll”. I decided that I wanted to mount a FOLDED scroll as one of my submissions, and envisaged a massive tessellation:
I needed a theme, and a style. For a theme, I decided to try and “tell” the progression of the first year of the recent Covid-19 pandemic … because I could see a sequence of “blossoming” outbreaks that progressively “break” regular society.
The style choice was more complex – I love the aesthetic of Lacquerware – the Chinese/Japanese technique of covering simple materials in coatings of red lacquer, texture and patterns. I also wanted to have hints of “Kintsugi” – the Japanese technique of fixing broken pottery using lacquer and gold.
I chose red/natural Kraft paper because the red reminded me of the lacquer aesthetic, and the natural grounds the work in a common/everyday material. I selectively also introduced gilded elements into the finished folded work – symbolising the “patching” of the broken world – I went for a really minimal touch here, arguing less is more. Read further….
Multi-unit Kusudama folding is something I enjoy – the emergent geometry and intricate interlocking of units to make a whole is very satisfying. None more than “Conglomerate” designed by Xander Perrott:
When I saw his fold on insta I knew I wanted to fold it – I had not seen anything quite like it, so I reached out to Xander and he shared instructions – how wonderful is the internet?
Let’s break this down – the kusudama is composed of 30 units, each folded from a rectangle in the proportions of 1: sqrt(3). Each unit has a triangle grid imposed on it, with triangular gussets to allow the “facets” of the faces to become 3D.
The geometry of the unit is very pleasing to fold, it all feels really natural, and the tiny collapse of the unit to make it 3D also feels right.
Interlocking the units …. now that seems to have taken me an age – each unit cups around one lobe and inside another lobe, forming a many-layered, staggered icosahedrons – each locked into place at multiple anchor points. It took me a while to master the locking process, then re-learn it as the orientation turned this way and that, but this kusudama needs no glue, and when a unit is fully locked in it is really rigid and strong.
As a once obsessed biology teacher, I am very interested in critters that are distant relatives – in this case the group of “New World Monkeys” contain some astonishing and cute members – few cuter or more critically endangered than the Cotton-top Tamarin:
Origami primates are fairly rare, but the more exotic specimens hardly ever get a representation. It was wonderful to see that in a soon to be published book “Origami Oddities”, by Kunsulu Jilkishiyeva that this Tamarin was designed so thoughtfully by her.
Test folded from a 45cm square of peach/natural matt Damul Kraft paper from origami-shop.com, the sequence is fun, tricky and contains some very satisfying collapses.
There is heaps of opportunity to go nuts with the shaping here, as the head is expressive (yet has no facial features – yet), the hands are fully fingered, the back legs in the original design were points (I rendered them more as paws), the tail is lovely and lively, the “cotton top” is fun.
Primates are a diverse collection of animals that contain us hominids, apes and a variety of “monkey-like” critters. One of the most primitive, obscure and endangered is a type of Lemur, native to Madagascar, called the Aye Aye:
Largely nocturnal, and generally feared because of it’s slightly crazed appearance and creepy long fingers, apparently it uses its fingers to reach into decaying wood to pluck out juicy grubs – yum. I had never seen anything like it rendered in origami until I was proofing a soon to be published book by Kunsulu Jilkishiyeva titled “Origami Oddities”. I knew I had to try it.
Using a 45cm square of Damul Kraft (from Origami-shop) in brown/natural, the pre-creasing was fairly straight forward, the first collapse is complex (an “everything at once” style collapse I love). Isolating the features is pretty straightforward, but this is not a beginners fold, it contains some deliciously complicated maneuvers.
Doom-scrolling on Insta, as you do, I came across an astonishing reel by Kimiro, featuring a new design for a snake resting on a branch.
I was determined to fold some version of this design, but knew I did not have the paper (large enough) or the patience for a 128 grid (with partial 256ths) grid-based scaled-shaped model. So I scaled down – working out the minimum size scale I could reasonably shape consistently, then working out how much of a 70cm square duo sheet of Kraft would be the snake.
The design is ingenious – an 8-grid strip down the diagonal of a square becomes the snake, the rest of the paper becomes the colour-changed branch. One consequence of re-scaling the snake was that the paper allocated to the branch diminished to barely protruding from the snake’s body – so I thought “fuck it” and tucked it inside (like the layers of waste paper in a Ryujin) to give the body bulk, allowing me to fashion a lower jaw and forked tongue.
Another consequence of re-factoring the snek was that it’s overall length is diminished to almost comic proportions. This little guy is a grower, not a shower, indeed.
Accepting that the project was cursed from the beginning (by my lack of commitment 😛 ) I decided to just go for it, treating the fold as an exercise in precision. Pre-creasing took an age, then scale collapse went smoothly. I then pre-creased all the scale-shaping also took an age, not nearly as long as the actual scale-shaping however. My Ryu Jin 3.5 PTSD returned at times, causing me to walk away from the project a few times.
I was cleaning some cooked Paper Mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) bark, scraping the outer layers that was outer bark and the remnants of the dried up fleshy parts of the plant, and a thought occurred to me. The residue was really fibrous – what would paper even look like made from this waste?
Given I had the time, equipment and curiosity to fuck around and find out, I hand-beat the residue, rinsed the pulpy mess until it was clean, and then divided the ball into 3, figuring (via guestimation) that 1/3 of the blob was enough to make an A3 sheet.
I took 1/3, added it to a bucket of water and agitated it vigorously to breakup and disperse the fiber uniformly through the water. Then, using a rectangular chinese food container, I gently ladled the really watery pulp onto my new A3 Mold and Deckle, in the lid of my new vat. Taking the time to distribute the fibre evenly and thinly. When all the fiber was gone, I couched the resultant sheet onto glass, then added some smooth poly-cotton sheeting material as a layer to isolate the sheet, then added a flanellette layer, another poly-cotton sheet material layer and then repeated the sheet formation process another 2 times.
Topped off the “post” with another layer of flannelette, and a top sheet of glass. Putting this sandwich on an angle to encourage the drips onto the floor drain, I then added a besser block to add firm squishing pressure, and left it to drip overnight. I must engineer a paper press that is more consistent.
Those following my socials will have seen that i was quite excited with an idea and it’s execution – a rare 1-2 whammy with me:
Having made Mulberry Washi, I was trying to decide what i wanted to do with it. I think the larger sheets are currently sheet pulp storage I will re-beat and incorporate into other sheets, but sheets 1 and 2 (names WM01 and WM02 – my nomenclature) I wanted to keep…because.
WM01 is barely there mulberry tissue – I will not fold it, but it is fascinatingly strong. WM02 on the other hand is almost a sheet of paper – thin, lovely deckle edges and loads of character.
I had this idea, based in part on my extensive folding from one of the oldest origami books there is – Senbaruzu Orikata. The idea of a traditional Tsuru (crane – the one everyone including me learns first) still connected by a wing-tip to the surrounding paper began to eat away at me (originally the idea woke me up).
Folding connected cranes is all about the prep, so as not to put too much strain on the part that joins – a single point of failure. Exploring the sheet, I searched my origami squares collection and found that an 11.7cm square could be placed, avoiding the holes and weirder bits, so decided on that size arbitrarily. I also liked how much of the sheet would be untouched, and reasoned I would need it to attach to a backboard if it were to be framed… but I am getting ahead of myself – I had no idea if I could fold or work the sheet at all.
In pencil, I traced the square as accurately as I could, then carefully with a scalpel liberated all 4 edges nearly to each corner so I could see the square border, then gingerly began laying in the pre-creases of a “bird base”. To my absolute delight the paper took sharp creases with NO fatigue. Knowing how the bird base was going to collapse it allowed me to place the necessary pre-creases ONCE, and in the right orientation (mountain or valley).
Once the pre-creasing was done, I then went and liberated 3 of the 4 corners (no turning back now) and collapsed and shaped the Tsuru with no real drama – just being careful of the single remaining attached corner.
