mammal

440: Satoshi Kamiya’s Lion

| wonko

I had one last piece of Nicholas terry’s “Tissue Foil” and a little time on my hands so decided to try and nut out Satoshi’s Lion:

This lovely little model is a right pain to fold – some astonishingly complicated twists and turns that are not really well explained in places – some of the odd sinks and manipulations to encourage the body shape were very challenging to understand.

After nearly completing it, I then decided to repeat the process with a piece of mid-tan Tant (newly purchased and arrived) and that also was a challenge – not because I was now unfamiliar with what needed to be done but rather that the paper was so thick that it became very difficult to complete folds.

I amazed myself by completing both – fairly happy with them – I learned lots along the way and, should I fold them again (and yes, I am not against the idea)  I think I can do a lot better, now that I know what goes where. Continue reading →

434: Sipho Mabona’s African Elephant

| wonko

When I first saw this model, folded with elegance, playfulness (in outrageous colours) and joy by Sipho Mabona, I wanted to try it myself:

Designed recently and soon I hope to be included in a book so I can purchase the diagrams, I stumbled across a video tutorial and had to have a go. Used as WTF#6, I first folded it in white, then decided to give my newly purchased VOG paper a go.

I had a huge piece of burgundy/purple paper, rough texture on both sides and decided to use it for this model – so glad I did. The texture looks a little like craggy elephant skin, the paper holds it’s form and was a delight to fold.

Continue reading →

432: Giraffe

| wonko

I have been on the lookout for a nice giraffe for a number of reasons, but stumbled across Hideo Komatsu’s in a JOAS Tanteidan:

This was a fun model to fold – it twists and turns and for most of the journey looks NOTHING like a giraffe.

Continue reading →

424: Rudolph the Roosevelt Elk

| wonko

Looking for something festive, inspired by “Robbie the Reindeer” on the telly, I decided to fold this challenging model by Robert Lang:

Masterpiece of design, I had to measure 13 landmarks (by scaling measurements based on 70ths) and then I folded triangles subdividing the surface, using those landmarks as vertices. Then you bisect every angle in each triangle and that gives you the folds for the base.

After a collapse from hell, and some clever manipulation. accordion folds and sinks to raise the points on the antlers, some shaping and a good measure of swearing, you end up with this magnificent beast.

I love Lang models for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is that you can “feel” the mathematics in many of his folds. This one was certainly designed using his computer program “treemaker”, and is embodied proof that with a little care it is possible to imagine and design anything of arbitrary complexity in origami.

A glass headed pin to complete the nose and we have Rudolph, then not so much a reindeer as an elk (apparently they are touchy about this – who knew?)

This beautiful model completed my tree setting, bringing in the festive cheer for the family gathering – I hope it found you with similar good will to all mankind.

423: A Diskworld

| wonko

Sir Terry Pratchett, one of my favourite authors, imagined a world like no other, a “disk” world, held aloft on the back of 4 gigantic elephants, standing on the back of a giant star turtle called “Great A’ Tuin”:

The breadth of imagination, depth of character, intricacy of story arc and obvious love he lavishes on his books are an amazing legacy. Everyone who is a fan starts somewhere – for me, it was the book “Mort” but there are dozens, each clever, funny and beautifully written.

When presented with such a lovely TURTLE it seemed only natural to attepmt to pay homage to a literary favourite of mine, so set about assembling the component bits. It was as if the stars had aligned, having just folded ELEPHANTS I set about making 4 of them, only to realise they were too big and so made 4 smaller ones.

The disk was paper craft – a circle of cardboard, MAP of Diskworld on top, covered with paper, toilet roll holder cut to be support and bracket that elephants could rest on and a balance for the pitched back of the turtle – voila.

I am quite chuffed with the end result – partly because it matches the image I had in my head, partly because it works as a whole, and is able to be dismantled to boggle and the component parts as well.

I posted photos on terry Pratchett’s Facebook page, I hope he sees them – I hope the model brings his even a small amount of the joy his writings have brought me.