mammal

475: Timber Wolf

| wonko

Leafing through “Origami Sequence” by Quentin Trollip, I am struck by the quality and quantity of amazing designs packed into that book, and the range of skills his models brings to the table.

There is this house, at work, that has a Timber Wolf as their house mascot, so I have been on the look out for one to fold (I assumed someone would ask me to have a go, that never really happened, so I did it anyway).

This wolf is clearly howling, there is much movement and drama inherent in the pose, and I placed a “moon” within howling distance in some shots because it seemed to need it. Continue reading →

468: I am Pegasus, My Name Means Horse

| wonko

I am old enough to remember when a folk singer named Ross Ryan released a campy song about flying horses, and given that is an ear-worm of a song and it has just turned “Year of the Horse” for Chinese New Year, I thought it was an omen on what next to fold:

This is “Pegasus” by Dong Viet Thien from my newly arrived VOG2 origami book. A lovely use of a square, with some of the largest wings of this style of model I have seen.

Continue reading →

451: Tarsier

| wonko

I had a small but lovely piece of elephant-dung paper – now this is not as gross as it first sounds, the paper is cleaned fiber retrieved from elephant dung – yeah, ok, it does not sound any less grotty – lovely textured irregular and lumpy paper though it was:

I needed a model, Sebastien Limet’s Tarsier seemed most logical (given I had not folded it before and I thought folding it near life-size might be an interesting challenge).

There is much to love about this model – apart from the delicious expressiveness of the face, delicate grip of its primate hands or the prehensile grip of its tail, this is a real charmer.

I like that the face is implied, but I can see lovely big innocent eyes, sensitive ears and all the hallmarks of a delicate but mischievous “bush baby” which makes these little chaps endangered in the wild because rich folk sentence them to long agonizing deaths as pets outside of their native habitats. Continue reading →

450: Montroll’s Hippopotatomus

| wonko

It is a little recognised fact that the animal that has killed the most people in Africa is in fact the Hippopotamus:

I stumbled across this delightful model while leafing through “African Animals in Origami” – a much worn volume when looking for something to try from my invalid chair.

I had a gold (more correctly bronze) foil square and was wanting to fold something “yoshizawa style” – free form hand-held rather than on table or other flat surface – the challenges with this style are accuracy and precision, the payoffs are often more fluid, softer curves and lively asymmetrical poses.

I like this model, although he reflective paper makes discerning details difficult – she has a wry grin, 2 lovely tusks on her bottom jaw, lovely ears and a fine rump after some 3d modelling.

446: Sunny’s Giraffe

| wonko

Sunny’s birthday is coming up and she loves Giraffes:

In browsing for a suitable model, I discovered a Tanteidan containing a Satoshi Kamiya giraffe that I had not folded, so it seems it was meant to be.

I lke this model a lot – it is full of the essential giraffe features, economically uses the sheet and contains some wonderfully complicated folds. Continue reading →