596: (46/360) Keigo Matsuda’s “Peter Rabbit”

February 15, 2017February 15, 2017 | wonko

Now it seems Beatrix Potter has gone out of favour in the age of political correctness, but there is no denying the charm of her stable of animal characters as they anthropomorphise through their day:

This is “Peter Rabbit” – well, more correctly it is supposed to be the rabbit from “Through the Looking Glass” but the colouring I used is more Peter that White Rabbit in my opinion. I have never really understood the Victorian tradition of partially clothed animals (he is wearing no pants, right?) but that is carried over to cartoon characters also which is a little odd. Continue reading →

576: (26/365) Ornithorhynchus

January 26, 2017December 30, 2023 | wonko

It is a little known fact that people will believe just about anything. Tell them that a furry, egg laying, duck-billed, webbed footed, egg laying, pouch carrying mammal that lives in burrows underwater and protects itself with poisonous spines … and they believe it:

There are few things more distinctly Australian then the Ornithorhynchus (colloquially called a “Platypus”) and it seems in the origami world there are nearly none of them.

Stupid me, I did a poll on Fakebook about what I should fold to commemorate (or mourn, depending on your perspective) Australia day – today’s national holiday. Annoyingly the Platypus won hands down. Continue reading →

569: (19/365) Japanese Macaque

January 19, 2017January 19, 2017 | wonko

Emergent behaviour is fascinating, apparently where these Japanese Macaque monkeys live gets snowy in winter, they have learned that sitting in thermal pools near bathhouses (Onsen) is one way of staving off the cold:

This is Fumiaki Kawahata’s Japanese Macaque – a model I had intended to fold ages ago because it was in a Tanteidan I had shelved. Continue reading →

553: (3/365) Yamaguchi’s Giant Panda

January 3, 2017January 3, 2017 | wonko

Apparently Pandas are endangered – seems they have lost their mojo (or are perhaps shy and do not like being observed so closely by people):

This is Makoto Yamaguchi’s Giant Panda – a lovely 2 part model made for bi-colour origami paper, folded from one of my Tanteidan Magazines. In deciding whether I would attempt another 365, I began looking through my stack of JOAS and BOS magazines and found dozens of un-attempted models – that sort of greenlighted the project to an extent. Continue reading →