828: (278/365) Spaniel

Busy week, nearly at the weekend, this lovely little fold is a perfectly adorable spaniel:

Designed by Patricia Kunz Tomic, in DOT1, I like the use of paper, general proportions and general spanielity. Continue reading →

827: (277/365) Metamorphosis

Few things can compare to the biological miracle that allows a caterpillar to become a chrysalis, inside of which it’s body chemistry and morphology transitions from grub to soup to butterfly:

Few models try to capture the whole journey. This set, designed by Fernando Gilgado  is an exception. Continue reading →

826: (276/365) Pelican

What a wonderful bird is a Pelican, whose beak can hold more than it’s belly can:

We saw lots of pelicans when on holiday up the mid-north coast in the holidays just ended. Majestic gregarious birds that seem to be an odd sum of parts. Continue reading →

824: (274/365) White Rabbits

First day of the new month, one superstition seems to be to say “White Rabbits” as the first thing you say that day – not sure why:

This is Fernando Castellanos’ rabbit, taken from DOT2, and it seems, designed to be folded on a MUCH larger sheet of paper than this. Continue reading →

823: (273/365) Owl

Cruising through my copy of Drawing Origami (Tome 1), I noticed a bunch of folds from there that I had not yet tried:

This little fellow is a bi-colour owl designed by Juan Hibou. Owls seem popular in origami design and this one cleverly manages layers and colours. Continue reading →

821: (271/365) Satoshi Kamiya’s Ant

After re-subscribing to JOAS, in record time my back-issues of the Tanteidan magazine arrived and along with one of them, a really challenging diagram:

About 170 steps, extreme paper torture and, as a project, something truly terrifying but I knew I needed to try it. Continue reading →

820: (270/365) Their Lives in Our Hands

Recently I had the privilege to see Humpback Whales lounging and playing in Hervey Bay:

I was determined to fold a Humpback, but only really found one designer that had designed something that even remotely looks like a Humpback. Highly tapered body, hooked dorsal fin, soft bellows-like throat, tail fluke – this model has it all.

Made for duo paper, this model has white bits in roughly the right places but none on the underside of the tail, oddly. Continue reading →

819: (269/365) Jassu’s Dragonfly

I am finally back up to date with my 365 project after an unavoidable hiatus. This fold is taken from “Drawing Origami – Tome 2”, a charming figurative representation of a dragonfly:

I like that the designer has distilled the essence of the critter down into it’s most recognisable features – body, head and wings. I decided to fold this using a square of Japanese Foil, I think that highlights the body nicely (although it makes it hellishly difficult to photograph). Continue reading →

818: (268/365) Simple Bat

Amazed as I was with the postal response rate from Origamishop.com in France, my “Drawing Origami Tome 2” hardcover arrived before I got back from holidays. It is full of models for me to try, this is the first one in the book:

A simple bat, made for duo paper, it looks a little more like the “bat signal” from classic batman days, but is none the less cute. Continue reading →

815: (265/365) Pez 3

Browsing through Eduardo Clemente’s “Papiroflexia”, I am amazed at how prolific a designer he was, and how many variations on models he published:

This is Pez#3 – a rather handsome fish with lovely colour changes. Continue reading →

813: (263/365) Llook out, there are Llamas!

PART 2: THE LLAMA, LIVE FROM GOLDERS GREEN
The llama is a quadruped
which lives in big rivers like the Amazon.

It has two ears,
a heart,
a forehead,
and a beak for eating honey,
but it is provided with fins for swimming.
Llamas are bigger than frogs. Continue reading →

812: (262/365) Tiny T-Rex

This rather adorable tiny dino is designed cleverly by Eduardo Clemente:

I am so impressed with the body morphology of this model, position and proportion of limbs seems really well considered. Continue reading →

811: (261/365) Stink Bug

My citrus trees have a problem that starts about now in the season:

Infestations of stinkbugs arrive and soon they are thick with debilitating sucking insects. It would not be so bad but I seem allergic to their secretions, making getting rid of them difficult.

I have tried garlic, chilli spray, soapy water, using an old vacuum cleaner to suck them off but to no avail. Poisons are not something I want to use but seem to have no choice. Continue reading →

810: (260/365) Pez

In catch-up mode, this is Eduardo Clement’s “Pez”:

A delightful fish fold that is designed for paper that is the same colour both sides. A charming fold from his book Papiroflexia.

relevant because we recently spent time on the waters of Hervey Bay (yes, we did see whales, but yeah)

809: (259/365) Un Tergo Del Cubo

I am constantly amazed by the variety of techniques on display in Jun Maekawa’s designs, and this cube is no different:

Based, in principle at least, on an acute windmill base, folded asymmetrically, it locks into a geometry that confuses the eye. Continue reading →