1044: Geisha

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I attended the 2021 April OUSA Foldfest – a 25 hour online marathon of folding tutorials, lectures and virtual meet nd greet:

Sipho Mabona's Geisha

One of 2 deciding reasons to attend was the opportunity to be taught a model by Sipho Mabona – his “Geisha”.

At 3am, I awoke, made tea, cut some paper ready for the workshop (international time is cruel), and, thankfully followed alone a complex but beautiful sequence.

By pure coincidence, my paper looked like Sipho’s, and my final model is really close (amazing for a first fold, testament to the sequence and expert tutelage).

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1043: Lee Jae Gu’s “Basset Hound”

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Mum had Basset hounds when we were kids – wondrously preposterous dogs with twice as much skin as any dog needs, rediculously long ears and a bark straight from the bowels of hell. We loved the “girls”; they were very intelligent, active and protective (and seemed to delight in sneaking up behind us and barking deeply once, for the effect – I am sure it amused them):

Lee Jae Gu's "Basset Hound"

This model is as close to the actual basset hound shape as I have found folded from paper, and the colour changes make this model actually closely resemble one of our bassetts named “Cleo” – lovely dog. The stance is really typical and the placement/proportion of the ears and head are spot on.

Lee Jae Gu's "Basset Hound" views

Folded from white/natural duo Ikea Kraft, it is a challenging model because of a number of judgement fold steps and some tricky shaping, but i am happy with the result (and hope mum likes it, a gift for her).

le Coq

| wonko

I try not to let folds beat me, but honestly, until now this one has. I have attempted Eric Joisel’s ‘Le Coq” more that 6 times, this is really the only fold of it I am happy with:

Joisel's Le Coq variation

Continuing to fold models that are part of a competition I was eliminated from is part of the motivation, but a “hidden” technique, published obscurely (not in my library) surfaced that allowed for a layered/ruffled breast and clarified the eye/comb and “bingo!”, I finally get it.

Giverny meets Vernon - Joisel's Le Coq variation

This model is folded from a 1m square of Officeworks Kraft paper, measures 20cm toe to comb, and is all attitude. One of our fondest memories of France was the bicycle tour to Giverny (Monet’s house) via Vernon. While in Vernon, looking for baguette and cider, we stumbled across a bric-a-brac store that had resin chooks – we fell in love with a rooster we subsequently bought, naming him “Vernon”.

Joisel's Le Coq variation views
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1042: Starsea Kusudama

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Keeping my fingers buys, I had it suggested (on Redit) that I should try Tomoko Fuse’s ‘Starsea Kusudama”:

Tomoko Fuse's Starsea Kusudama

I had not seen this before, the unit is complex and folding it on a 1/4 6″ square was, in retrospect, probably a mistake but I like a challenge.

30 modules later, the construction was fiddly but the locked shape is really sturdy and there is no need for glue – tabs are buried deep in pockets. The last few units are really hard to seat (I needed tweezers to ease them into place) but paper tension causes the ball to become regular.

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1041: Anniversary

| wonko

38 years ago, the love of my life said “I do”, wearing antique white lace, in Wanganui Gardens, on the bank of the Brisbane River, among family and friends in glorious sunshine. She did this despite the fact that I was wearing a brown suit, ruffled beige bodyshirt and brown boots – must have been either love, or certifiable lunacy.

Maria Sinayskaya's Little Roses Kusudama (squares variant)

Happy Anniversary Jo, love and hugs always.

This is Maria Sinayskaya’s Little Roses Kusudama (squares variant), 30 units – lovely thing indeed.

1040: A Little Crabby

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As a teacher, ends of term are a plague of marking, and that tends to make me crabby:

Daniel Brown's Crab

My procrastination engine keeps kicking. I found a photo sequence on an Origami Discord, designed by Daniel Brown, and knew I needed to try it.

Lovely challenging sequence, figurative representation of a crab, love this little model, must fold it again.

1039: Jang Yong Ik’s “Smilodon”

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Whilst being eliminated from the Origami Tournament, I am still interested in the models being folded by surviving contestants. This week’s challenge was Jang Yong Ik’s :Smilodon” – a “sabre tooth tiger” like critter from time gone past:

Jang Yong Ik's "Smilodon"

The fold sequence is intense – this model ate up a 70cm square of black/natural duo Kraft paper like few other models. The body is thick and heavy, some sections had dozens of layers.

Jang Yong Ik's "Smilodon" view

I took my time, considered as I went, determined to succeed on my first fold. In retrospect, using thinner paper would have an advantage in that the layer management would be easier, but the legs would be flimsy and require wire supports – tough for a designer to distribute paper structurally.

Jang Yong Ik's "Smilodon" scale

In the end, we have a crouching toothy fossil, it was an interesting exercise and entrants did some good shaping to personalise their folds. I enjoyed exploring the sequence.

1038: Eastern Dragon

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Francesco Massimo shared his design for a cutie little “Eastern Dragon” on social media, and I knew I had to try it:

Massimo's Eastern Dragon

Folded from a 35cm square of Daiso green Washi, this little critter comes in at about 17cm nose to tail tip – a very efficient design.

Massimo's Eastern Dragon Views

Fairly simple folding, lots of half fish bases and some accordion sinks to hide away most off the paper while still leaving flaps for legs, horns and head – clever designing.

Massimo's Dragon - scale

This was a welcome distraction from marking and I will probably re-fold him using duo paper as there are clever colour changes exposing the belly and other details.

1037: Beth Johnson’s Horse

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Madly, I agreed to participate in an international tournament, at the Intermediate level:

Beth Johnson's Horse

Intermediate meant you got a diagram and 72 hours to fold a rendition of it. I decided the “advanced” category was beyond my available time as you only got a CP and presumably relied on the power of prayer.

I gave it a whirl, went for crisp and accurate, but played a little with the flowing style of mane. It was loved by nearly noone who voted – fair enough. Other, less well folded versions (in my opinion) got more “likes” – social media is like that. Useful punch in the face, thanks.

Round 1 of the tournament done … and I am eliminated. Time to focus on more important things.

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1036: From little things, big things grow

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Each year, as an ice-breaker/getting to know you activity with my pastoral care group at the beginning of a school year I try to involve them in a collaborative origami megastructure:

90 unit sonobe spikey ball in construction

Many hands made light work of the 90 sonobe modules, folded from Terracey colours (red, black, white). From little things, big things grow, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts (roll out the well trodden metaphors).

90 sonobe unit spikey ball finished

The construction has taken an age – 5 false starts until I discovered the module grouping – in the end it turned out to be alternating 5s and 6s on each vertex of each 6. Each sonobe module contributes 1/3 of a pair of adjacent points – and with careful colour planning no 2 colours are beside each other (well, that is nearly the case – in 2 places I was forced to break this rule, but you really have to look to find them).

spikey ball scale

90 modules take time, and most of the kids in the pastoral care group folded at least one – a true collaboration that results in a lovely spikey ball that will join the other treasures from previous years.

1035: Hand and Boat

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It is the days you do not look in your mailbox that mail arrives – I arrived home from work to find an astonishing collection of paper from Pham Hoang Tuan’s origami shop, and a couple of his diagrams, all screaming “fold me!”, so I started that journey:

"Hand and Boat" by Pham Hoang Tuan

I had only ever seen this model complete and in CP form, failed at solving that CP 2 times and had given up folding it for now, then it arrived in diagram form to my delight.

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1034: Eric Joisel’s “Harlequin”

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A few months back, in the relative calm of my summer holidays, I began to re-fold “Harlequin” designed by Eric Joisel, after failing to successfully fold it during the “Tribute of Eric Joisel” competition I was part of late last year:

"Harlequin" designed by Eric Joisel

I took my time, learned lots from initially failing, made sectional maquettes to check techniques and really enjoyed the process of folding.

"Harlequin" designed by Eric Joisel in the round
http://www.wonko.info/365origami/wp-content/uploads/1034HarlequinViews-scaled.jpg

This model is such a synergy of techniques – I can see influences from so many of Joisel’s other creations (many of which I have folded before). The initial collapse is vaguely humanoid, but the shaping is the making of model. So many details to control. The face and hat are tricksy but I an really happy with the level of detail I managed here – he has a playful but chilled character, smug smile and refined face – the mask is jauntily sitting on his nose also.

The fabric effects to the sleeved and pantaloons are a nightmare – to make them seem to “drape” is really hard I found, but eventually it came together. I pre-creased some quilted effect on the bodice and skirt which I am really happy with, and the collar took me ages to nut out. He is in full stockings (diamond pattern), has goofy shoes, a fly-away in-action wavey cape and open hands – so many bits were there waiting to be shaped. One can only marvel at the genius of the design.

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1033: Ducks in a row

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Ducks and Drakes usually are different – apart from gender, the drake is usually the pretty one, a quite common convention in the bird world:

Shiri Daniel's Ducks

Each model is folded from a sheet of the same paper, one the reverse of the other to create the different plumage patterns.

Shiri Daniel's Ducks view

A lovely fold sequence is really efficient, so entirely achievable using 15cm origami paper (I have so much of this, and rarely use it). I decided on some teal-ish Yuzen, and the results are lovely.

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Empty

| wonko

Friends are precious, real friendship takes work. The loss of a friend hurts and leaves a yawning void.

Rest now Michael Brent (Winston O'Boogie) O'Donnell

Rest now, my dear friend Michael Brent (Dr Winston O’Boogie) O’Donnell 05/01/1954 – 25/01/2021.

1032: Endless Garden

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Cruising Fakebook, as one does, I came across a fascinating origami geometric mindf*ck:

Edu Solano Lumreras' "Endless Garden"

Edu Solano Lumbreras kindly shared instructions for his design, having adapted the techniques used in Thoki Yenn’s “Umulus Rectangulum” corners, to make this tesseract like cubic möbius strip.

Comprised of 6 modules, with some exacting pre-creasing that lends itself to template work, you fold bent square tubes with 3 corners – the shortest corner makes the “tab”, the opposite end becomes the “pocket”.

A4 rendering

Folding in a4, the geometry is just as elegant, if exacting.

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