With so much going on, sometimes I need a fold I can lose myself in. One of many origami designers in my “GOAT” list was Eric Joisel. I have folded lots of his models, and often return to them – deceptively simple, terrifyingly technical, breathtakingly artistic.

As a sculptor turned Origami enthusiastic, his designs were “breathed into life” by the hands of a master – I would love to have even a fraction of his creative genius.

I have folded Joisel’s snail a few times before. Indeed, immediately prior to this version I folded a version of the fold, but hated the proportions, lack of head and impossible to balance fall-apart shell.

Re-thinking my approach, I attacked a 3.8×0.15m strip of 60gsm Kraft paper differently. I allocated space for the head – top and bottom separated by box-pleated feelers/eyes, leaving enough for a tail. The previous attempt started with the shell and that created issues as I had insufficient paper to properly form a head.

I also started thinking about longer-term life of this model. I had only ever, previously, stacked the spiral shell on top of the body – this precarious stack falls over at the slightest vibration of breeze. I figured I could craft a wire-based armature, with a leading edge reinforced with a segmented tube lining to support the outer coil (load bearing edge) of the shell. I mounted the armature on a foam-core insert that sits wholly inside the snail’s body, providing support for the shell and a weighted flat surface for it to sit.

I added an internal “d” hook near the top of the head so I can hand the snail on the wall, from a standard wall hook (or nail). To finish the model off, I dug around in my poured Kozo stash and found a long “splash” sheet I poured at the time I made my stick-infused “Storylines” scroll, that would be perfect as the snail-trail. I figured a paper snail would leave a paper snail-trail. That makes sense, right?

I found a way to bind the shell with string, then apply strategic (but largely invisible) pva glue dots to keep the layers of the snail shell together. Removing the string after an overnight cure sees it as a rigid spiral I can now pose by adjusting the angle of the wire that extends about half the way round the widest part.

By forming the snail’s body around the flat foam core base, I now have a stable, upright model that is also tidy and shelf-stable. This pleases me as I think there is great charm in displaying larger works like this (given my penchant for plain brown paper also, it feeds my artistic soul).

I am now ready to attack something else – Joisel models are fabulous at re-charging my paper-folding hunger. I have a few models half-finished but will start something new I think also. The world was blessed to have someone like Eric Joisel in it, and is poorer for his passing. His body of work – largely un-diagrammed and partially documented remains a wellspring of inspiration and paper-based aspiration.