One of many benefits of being a member of Origami USA (OUSA) has been the “Origami Connect” online classes program. For Christmas, members were treated to a free workshop with Riccardo Foschi, who taught his delightful “Sitting Gnome”:

Due to the tyranny of international timezones, their 1pm EST workshop meant I had to join them 15 hours later (for me, 4am the day after). It feels weird to be in their future, but there you go. I set an alarm, made a cup of tea, folded along then attempted to go back to sleep again afterwards (fairly unsuccessfully, annoyingly).

This model is a lovely figurative representation of a gnome – hat, nose, moustache, beard, stubby body and stickey outey legs and feet – a little like the “elf on the shelf” idea – it is a pity he has no hands (I might mess with the design a little as there is LOTS of paper not doing very much that I may be able to encourage some arms from).

Riccardo was a delight, his models have a real cuteness charm, and he is very generous sharing CPs with the community, many of which I have folded, I love his design sense, and the fun his models are to fold – often cartoonish happy things they are.

I folded this gnome (and then re-folded it to prove to myself that the first time was no fluke) along with over 100 others in the Zoom workshop, I used a 30cm square of white/natural Kraft – I may re-fold with some red-white to make him more christmassy.

The model has a few points that let you modify the general morphology, and I must experiment with the detail and proportions as there appears to be a “sweet spot” where it works. I like that he sits nicely on an edge – he would make a wonderful placecard on a xmas table setting… must play more. Thank you OUSA and Riccardo for making this skillshare possible.