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 🙂
…so I am marking Drafts, dozens of the things – life goes on hold for a while and I feel like a bit of a work-horse:
This is supposed to be a donkey reading a paper – I sort of get it, hope you do to. ears and head are nice, I like how the paper is held also but would remodel the “hands” to hoofs if I were to fold this again
I like this model – a rabbit sitting atop a dice (white spots on the white die – totally Zen)
Made with a 2×1 rectangle, containing a waterbomb and crafting the rabbit from what was left is neat
I like the ears, nose and posture of the rabbit, and the fact that the waterbomb base is neat (oft times I make them lop-sided) and am happy with this “white rabbits” for the first day of the month
Folded from my oldest Origami book “Secrets of Origami” by Robert Harbin, the model is actually designed by Fred Rhom.
So tonight I went to see the School Musical with All Hallow’s School and St. Joes “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown”:
The show was wonderful, congratulations to all involved on such a slick production. It reminded me of how charming the characters Charles M Schultz created all those years ago and how relevant their observations of the world still are.
I looked for a Snoopy on his doghouse, but could not find a diagram, so settled on a Robert Lang model I had wanted to try – and I think this looks a little like Snoopy. Folded from “Origami Zoo”, a master work.
I like the posture and proportions of this model, expression in the dog and the fact that when I folded it, he looks like a naughty puppy banished to the doghouse.
Now I saw this “donkey” model and had a go – I think the diagrams are a little inaccurate because my first fold ended up looking a lot like Bambi
Beautiful head, strong forequarters that could withstand some more modelling but the back quarters and weedy tail are in need of work – they cannot all be gems
Curiously, a female fox is called a “vixen”. this delightful model is Roman Diaz’s fox:
I must say I really enjoyed folding this one – there are some fantastically complicated steps, astonishing collapses, intricate sinks and some nice fine work – thank goodness I used a square cut from A3 – the facial expression particularly is just fabulous and such a lovely tail.
This took me about an hour, I had seen the diagrams but having Sara Adams talk me through the steps (via a video tutorial) made it so much easier (as some of the diagrammed maneuvers were baffling). With 2 colour paper there are white highlights in all the right places – brilliant design
You should try this too here
Given my (perfectly reasonable) obsession with cows, it is surprising that this is one of only a few so far:
A rather cute water buffalo bull, head down, beautiful horns, bum up
A simple, figurative fold after a huge and exhausting day.
This lovely baby elephant approaches the form from an A4 sheet, uncut:
I like this model a lot, the shape, position of trunk, tail and ears remind me of a young elephant and there is lots of paper so the potential to massage in detail and character are rich – very clever.
Why a baby elephant? We helped daughter daughter and her fiancée move into their first unit last night – she has always loved and collected elephants and so it seemed right to send her off with one. The house will be quieter and less interesting without her around. Love you Liz xoxo
You should try this one for yourself – be careful, the instructions are in Danish – I love the google translation engine – littoral translations are often hysterical – my favorite “45: Inner Crack rump and tail.” which means “reverse fold the tail” but it works for me on a bunch of levels.
“White Rabbits” for this month is provided by Robert Lang:
This beautiful rabbit is my favorite so far because of the shape and detail. This is the Year of the Rabbit also, a happy coincidence.
As a first-fold, I found It torturous to fold – Mr Lang, your instructions 21-24 were baffling, and three times I put the model down, contemplating abandoning it – the left side suffered so much paper fatigue by the time I finally understood where the fold ended up that it was fraying and beginning to give on a major crease (you can see the resultant stress in the middle photo of the dev series below) – luckily in the final model you cannot see this but … gee wiz it was nasty! In retrospect, however, I understand how difficult it would be to diagram and explain, the paper inside the gusset goes to hell and you sort of have to sink-crush-twist to let it sit flat.
I wish I had chosen a larger bit of paper for my first fold – an A4-cut square made this very fiddly and it was a challenge to keep points sharp and creases crisp – especially in the final halving of the model prior to body shaping (I did this very carefully as it looked like it would split along the back (danged copy paper again is an issue).
Very happy with this as a first fold – learnt lots (including a confirmation of the genius that is Robert Lang). Folded from “Origami Zoo”, I will be folding this one again I think as it is a keeper.
Now I for one am celebrating “World Tapir Day“:
I had to google it, I am sure I have seen them in zoos, but they seem to be an odd combination of pig-elephant-anteater-thing (an odd evolutionary concoction more real than a man-bear-pig), with a lovely temperament apparently (but I am not sure if they taste like chicken though)
An interesting base, tough in the final stages due to all the paper in the middle, but the overall shape in pleasing – this is a Malay Tapir (they vary continent to continent, region to region) designed by Jun Maekawa and is a fitting tribute.
Tuesday evenings I watch telly and be silly with a mate. An occasional visitor is the neighbors cat called Neelix:
He is siamese, breezes in looking for whatever he want at that moment (cats are like that) – food, a lap, a scratch; then he disappears just as silently as he arrived.
A nice, simple model (for a change) that is figurative of the aloofness that cats carry themselves with.
It is said that dogs have masters and cats have servants – this is certainly true of Neelix – he has us well trained.
You can have a go at this one yourself: http://www.scribd.com/doc/21751431/Intermediate-a-15cm-6-Inch-Square-Makes-a-7-5cm-3
21 years ago, my adorable squealing little girl was born. As soon as she could recognize an elephant, she was fascinated by them – Happy Birthday Liz:
So I decided it was appropriate to make Liz an Elephant for her 21st Birthday – they say an Elephant never forgets (not sure why, I am sure they have just as faulty memories as the rest of us).
First fold was small and it was difficult to get the pose right without stiffness in the paper, second fold (the birthday present) was folded from light card (reminiscent of elephant hide I thought) and seemed to work better, or maybe it was because I knew what I was doing second time through.
Lovely model, cute expression on it’s face, beautiful trunk and ears, nice stocky, elephantine body.
You can have a go at this yourself, only the side sinks are difficult, everything else is fairly easy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKbQR4mnim8
News.com carried a story yesterday about the birth of a baby Rhino at Australia Zoo. Naturally I thought it appropriate to celebrate this with a model:
I have a few Rhino designs – some very detailed, some figurative like this one – I like this one however for a bunch of reasons – the proportions seem right, it hints at a tough hide and stocky body, lovely mouth, has simle horns and ears and abounds in rhinocity.
Used my “bone folder” for the first time on this model, lovely creases
