This delightful cat is a David Brill model worth folding – so much character and a smug expression on it’s face:
It is said that dogs are people pets and cats are place pets – this one certainly looks like it owns the place.
Busy afternoon – happy with this first fold, my subsequent attempts will be much more refined – duo colour paper has the head, feet and tummy a different colour to the body – nice.
We live in a fairly quiet suburb and we like (not often enough sadly) to go for walks – as do dog owners who do it as much to get some exercise as to “empty their pet”:
I saw this exercise in box pleating and thought it had promise – starting with a grid of 24ths, you collapse and form a dog with leg cocked.
The tree (as per the instructions) was merely a fan – I thought that a bit boring so added some extra pleating to make a couple of branches and proceeded to add a fork in the trunk and some semi-crumpled foliage. With a little more crumpling the shapes would be nice and soft and gum-tree foliage like which is what I was aiming for.
I left it angular, as homage to the original design and to make it explicit what I had done to modify it – love it or hate it, I am pretty chuffed it worked given how fiddly the dog was. The little wee doggy has nice ears, an open mouth, four nicely formed legs (one lifted against the tree) and a floppy tail – nice.
Now I have been a great fan of “Being Human” – particularly the character that plays the werewolf George:
I found this astonishing model by Kade Chan purely by accident – I was googling the telly show to see if there were more episodes planned and found reference to this neato origami model of a werewolf, complete with staring eyes, pricked up ears, ferocious claws and a lovely tail and I knew I had to try it.
This is such a well designed model – entirely doable with copy paper (I used a square cut from an A3 sheet) – with some precision and patience the body comes together without fatiguing the paper too much and astonishing detail is possible because each part is only a few thicknesses of paper, except the arms with are a little bulky towards the end when shaping the shoulders.
I particularly like the claws – scary things they are, with each finger posable and a snarly opposed thumb.
I could only find a vague photo sequence so had to guess in some stages by looking backwards and forwards towards the finished fold to work out what to do at times. This IS amazing, yes, you are right to be impressed – I am.
I will accept a round of applause, and cash to accompany any orders you have for me to fold you one of these.
There is great beauty in simplicity sometimes:
With relatively few folds, few landmarks, you form the suggestion of character as much by what you leave out as what you fold in – I like this model a lot.
Lovely ears and expressive wings that are posable, lovely fat tummy makes this little model a gem.
Why a bat – did I mention that MARKING makes me batty? Well it does, beyond measure and I have had a hellish few days racing to meet a deadline meaning that I MUST mark on my holidays (doesn’t seem fair, does it) – never mind. I love deadlines, particularly the sound they make as they whoosh by.
I thought I would try something simpler, so found what looked like a mostly harmless little Llama model designed by Jim Adams:
On paper, this model was straight forward – in practice however the thickness of layers at the tail end made this model impossible to fold using copy paper (I tried, breaking one of my own rules, it exploded – well, split and the tail broke off, so I started again) so I used a square of tissue foil – even then the tail was too thick to be elegant, pity – the diagram makes it look crisp and slender. I guess if one used large format foil it might be easier – not sure the overall model proportions warrant that treatment however.
Some interesting applications of sink, crimp and double-rabbit ears – it suggested double rabbit-earing the rear legs – already needle thin, I merely reverse folded them and think that is a better result. Pity they are so thick else I would have added hooves also.
Although it is diagrammed as a Llama, I think it is more like an Alpaca (mostly because I wanted to use “an” in the title and “An Llama” does not seem right – yeah, I know, tissue thin reasoning there but you get that)
Now I was told it was Canada Day on July 1 by Peter and Jen, and they kindly asked me to fold them a moose (after seeing a picture of the finished model on google) … if it was not too much trouble.
Fortunately i had a copy of “Origami Design Secrets” by Robert Lang, which has this as a penultimate box pleating example (typical a mathematician would take the simple art of box pleating to this length), so I thought “why not, can’t be that difficult” – lol.
Now I had some “tissue foil” I had shipped from the origami shop, and was itching to try it out to see how it takes folds. I must admit it is different to what I thought it would be – this is cotton-based, metallic thread impregnated opalescent paper is not a paper and foil sandwich, so will keep looking for a supplier.
Wow, no I mean WOW! – what a difference good paper makes on the fold process – no splits, tears, paper fatigue (except on the folder). I am impressed given the length of this paper torture session and the lengths to which the square was crimped, distorted, pleated, reversed and teased. I began to realise this model was epic after nearly 2 hours of PRE FOLDING was necessary before the first collapse – at one points folding 64ths along one edge – thank goodness for large format paper.
I started this at about 8am – after a bowl of Porridge (with maple syrup – it is CANADA DAY remember) and finished the fold prior to photographing the posed model at 12:45pm!!! 3 cups of tea, 2 panadol and 3 albums of Lawrence English sound art and it is done.
HAPPY CANADA DAY Peter and Jen – thanks for the challenge.
I have a lot of pig models, all have their charms – it is interesting that it is a much-folded animal:
This figurative model is quite a simple fold, a nice change of pace on a busy day
An interesting twist on the waterbomb base, it’s body proportions are ok, it has a good snout that could be further modeled as there is lots of paper there, and a fab curly tail.
Now I have been a customer of Rocking Horse records in Brizvegus for as long as I can remember – they stock an important mix of local releases, electronica, avant-garde, metal, obscure and dance music ephemera that appeals to me.
They are in trouble – difficult to compete with torrents and copyright theft (I know many young people who have never purchased music ever, but have iPods full of the stuff). I decided to visit today, purchase a bit but sadly everything is on sale – not a good sign. Today’s model is a rocking horse:
This little model actually rocks also, very tidy (if torture to get all the paper inside the body and leave the rockers largely fold free so they, well, rock…
I like the body proportions – very horsey – and the weight distribution is also good – very well designed model by Ronald Koh (the same guy who designed the King Cobra)
Precision was important here, and a little luck – many of the folds were judgment calls, no landmarks are trickey if you have not folded a model before and do not know what ends up where.
Happy with my first fold, fingers crossed that a good record store can survive – brissie would not be the same with out it.
Manuel emphatically suggests “Is no rat, is “Siberian Hampster, man is shop tell me” he insists – it cracks me up every time:
Fawlty Towers is not a show I can watch anymore, but a beloved memory is Manuel’s pet, “Basil” the rat, so I made one.
Curious and torturous fold this one – I stopped understanding the instructiosn and sort of winged it in all honesty – the Spanish with poorly drawn diagrams did my head in a bit, but I think I rescued a rat-like object from the chaos.
A deliciously complicated collapse does most of the work here, then it is mostly shaping – I made the mistake of using a 2×1 rectangle from an A4 page – it needed to be much larger, but you live and learn. When I fold this again I will be armed with the knowledge of what ends up where.
I can see much potential in this model – lots of paper for a nice tail, lovely head and ears, plenty of paper for legs – this base is a keeper.
So I am setting and supervising exams at the moment – hate it almost as much as the marking – cannot help but feel sometimes like leading lambs to the slaughter:
A simple but flawed fold I think – hand-drawn diagrams with few landmarks and an oddity about the head formation that I would re-make if I was to re-fold it. There are ears there, and plenty of paper to improve them them but the photo does not do this model justice. 
I like the legs, and the body-head proportions are good, I can see myself messing with this model to improve the sheepishness of it. Still – they cannot all be gems.
Hyenas get a bum rap by the general public, They are seen as garbage collectors and, whilst it is true that they will eat stuff already dead, they prefer to hunt.
This is a difficult model to get the posture right – I like the base however and can see a rande of quadrupeds that could spring from it.
A “jackall” I think, and a dog are closely related. Hope you like it.
Miguel the Matador struts confidently into the arena, the crowd erupts, enraptured. El Toro stampedes into the arena, head held high, the crowd roars entusiastically:
Proudly El Toro circles the matador, alert yet regal the matador watches his worthy opponet, a balletic interplay continues, each proud adversary taunting the other until…
they both live happy ever after, El Toro got put out to pasture and the Matador, a champion for animal rights forms PETA and abolished the barbaric … yeah, I know, I got nothing.
Interesting figurative model – each suggestive of form without being nit-pickingly detailed – I like them, except for the sport they personify. I was looking for “Llopio’s moment of truth” by Neal Elias but could not find a licensed diagram, so I bought the book that it is in – it is being shipped from the British Origami Society as we speak, so settled on a much simpler but none the less effective model by Robert Neale.
I had to cheat – you can just see the splayed paper clip and blob of bluetac holding up the matador (his ankles are too weak and the balance is all wrong for him to stand unaided, sadly.
Why a bullfight? Well, we have been invited to a Spanish-inspired lunch by some old friends “The Goodies” so I thought getting in the mood was a good plan.
Going batty here trying to decide what to fold, late after a QSITE meeting … so:
I folded a Bat – quite a tidy model, plump little body and nice wing span
Unusually made from an equilateral triangle, relatively few folds actually for a well proportioned bat
When we were growing up, we had Basset hounds – lovely droopy, pendulous eared dogs. Mum had one called Rebecka, my sister had one called Cleo. Now I am not a “dog person” but these old ladies were different, they were family:
It is Mum’s Birthday ***HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM*** She is on the other side of the planet right now (in Cornwall) so a few weeks back I folded her a basset with similar colouring to Rebecka (bought a brindle cow print from a closing down craft shop nearby):
Hoping the post gets it to her on time, this model fills me with fond memories, companionship, childhood, feelings of home. Anyone who has had a Basset knows they are just like people.
I would like to say the cow-print paper was easy to fold but it wasn’t, tough work, my hands ached afterward, but it folded flat so it could be enveloped and sent off in the post amidst a card.
You can try this one for yourself – relatively straight forward, being tidy at the beginning makes for a better model later on.
June is a busy month for birthdays – must be something in the water around this time of year (or rather 9 months earlier :P)
About a month ago I bought a huge sheet of tracing paper. Well, I call it paper but it is actually a type of opaque plastic called “vellum”. For my birthday fold I decided to see what vellum could do:
The paper was 42cm square (cut from a 42x60cm rectangle) and straight away I knew it would be tough – vellum does not like to be folded but once it is, hates being unfolded.
This INSANE design sculpts 3 wise monkeys Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru and places them under a palm tree via some miraculous paper torture. See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil is a pretty good life philosophy but there were evil words muttered whilst this fold was wrestled into place.
Getting the monkeys to look monkey-like with the density the body ends up being is a real challenge. facial expressions, such that they are, and arm postures alike were tough fought, but I am pretty happy with the end result.
I have learnt a lot from this exercise – vellum can be folded, but fatigue shows itself as splits, particulalry at the pointy ends. It hates being re-folded in the opposite direction on a fold (reversed), is VERY strong, once folded it stays there – consequentially, this model is rigid and is not trying to unfurl (much as I imagine tissue-foil behaves).
Will I use it again? not sure – when my tissue-foil arrives along with my Satoshi book I now have a point of comparison, I am honestly surprised the model worked at all, but will accept congratulatory applause now.
You too can have a go here – be warned, this is NOT an introductory exercise.
Happy Birthday to me 🙂
