940: To Bee or not to Bee, that is a question …

| wonko

For the last few months I have been working on parts of a project that will eventually be a framed collection or composition of some sort. Half of the fun is finding/developing models that suit but for this project I decided I would make paper for it also.

I started with Mark Kirschenbaum’s “Honey Bee”, primarily because it had the promise of a colour change to create contrast wings and a lovely stripey abdomen. Realising I had no suitable paper (going for a yellow/black vibe here) I laminated patterned black and yellow tissue to make a crisp double-tissue with little colour bleed. In retrospect the pattination on the black was distracting and, after going most of the way to folding a swarm I abandoned that line because the lovely detail of the bee was lost in heavy black paper patterns.

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939: A Weyr of Red Dragons

| wonko

It has been a while since I last blogged a fold. Truth be told the end of the term beat me up a lot – coupled with a savage cold, auto-immune rash (I still have) and an infected tear duct, on top of the marking and reporting it beat me up proper:

That said, folding remains a refuge and I did fold a lot in the interim, just did not blog about it – must redress the balance.

I “found” a set of diagrams, well, stumbled across them on Pinterest (the largest bastion of copyright infringement) and decided it was worth a fold after seeing an unauthorised youtube video tutorial of the same fold (I must have skipped over it while scanning the document).

Paper sizes for body, wings and head
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938: Angelfish by John Montroll

| wonko

As a member of Origami USA, I get access to publications, diagrams and a community of folders world wide. It and JOAS are important communities for folders from Oz as we are so far (physically) from everywhere:

Every year, OUSA decorate a Christmas Tree at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. members are asked to contribute models to hang. Continue reading →

937: Diamond Bracelet

| wonko

I hate throwing things out – having cut the biggest 2×1 rectangle possible from an A2 sheet, I was left with a lovely thin strip of scrap:

I was playing with a corrugation, with the view to design a millipede, but stumbled across a molecule that I then tessellated along the length. Continue reading →

936: Naomiki Sato’s Hummingbirds

| wonko

Cruising around on Fakebook, as one does, I can across a photodiagram series from Naomiki Sato:

Lovely little hummingbirds, folded from 15cm square patterned paper, from bird bases.

I discovered he published a variation also, so thought I could give that a try. I think I like the wider tail one better, but they are both so cute. I have yet to see an actual hummingbird so have no real idea how morphologically accurate this is. Continue reading →

935: Snapology Icosahedron

| wonko

I have seen amazing geometric models based on Heinz Strobl’s strip-based modular technique called “Snapology”, and thought it about time I gave it a try:

Starting simple, I divided A4 sheets lengthwise into eighths, then gridded squares on those strips. I used grey for the core, 6×1 strips were cut for each triangular core. I used red for the connectors – 4×1 strips were cut for these.

The locking mechanism is simple, and in situations where the modules are tightly packed it just sort of holds itself together, but I can see how, with small extensions to the connectors you could easily and securely lock adjacent modules more securely. Continue reading →

934: Mikiller觅晨’s Modular Dragon

| wonko

Assignment time at school is fairly boring, for the most part, for a teacher. Students have lots to do, you need to be available to help on demand but there is a fair bit of sitting around waiting to be needed:

I had found a bunch of PDF’s explaining briefly how to fold parts of what I had assumed would eventually be a dragon. After trial folding the head and a foot I thought it was something I could do in stages. I (arbitrarily) decided my “standard square” would be the biggest cut from an A3 page. Most parts were then made using this standard.

Origami purists would probably have issues with this design, as there is an element of paper craft in some of the details, the head, for instance, is actually 1 standard square and 6 other bits of paper, folded and (shhh) glued in place. The body was made from 7 separate standard squares, 6 of which were the same, the tail segment was a little different to create the fan end.

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933: David Brill’s “Robin”

| wonko

I have been a fan of David Brill’s designs ever since I read his book “Brilliant Origami”. Such a lovely touch, breathing life into paper:

This Robin is delightful – I saw hand-drawn diagrams on David’s website and then professionally drawn diagrams in the latest Tanteidan Magazine and knew I needed to try it. I particularly like the free-form nature of the hand-drawn version, making it a bit more of an adventure to fold this bird.

The shape, management of colour change and general model stability is wonderful in this model. There is nice sense of volume, beautiful 3D head, and an animated pose. The subtleties in fold here are such that I found all 5 of them (yes, I got a bit carried away) are all slightly different, making almost a family grouping. Continue reading →

932: Clever Girl

| wonko

In a classic scene from the first Jurassic Park movie, a hunter realises he has just been surrounded by hungry, angry velociraptors, and utters the words “clever girl” before being ripped to shreds:

This delightful mode is really simple to fold, and belongs to that stable of models whose proportions are perfect, detail is sufficient, form is elegant and stable as is – a mark of clever design.

There is lots to love about this little snapper – the head, the placement of the haunches, the gentle curve of the tail – fabulous.  Continue reading →

931: Sipho Mabona’s Fugu

| wonko

I have had this model on my “to do” list for ages – I had shied away from it because of what I perceived was a brutal precreasing sequence and impossible collapse:

That said, with a little large scale and some accurate pre-forming, the laying of the corrugations was fairly straightforward – all based on halves. Laying crenelations across these were fiddly in low light, and had I realised they would be angle bisecting squares later then I think I could have been more accurate. Continue reading →

930: Ground Control to Major Tom …

| wonko

…take your protein pills and put your helmet on.

I have waited an age to fold this model – I was waiting on finding some large format duo paper. When visiting IKEA, I came upon delicious 70cm wide rolls of duo Kraft paper (black on natural and white on natural), and bought a bunch of rolls. 

Folding a 24×24 grid on a virgin square of white/natural Kraft, the collapse lines laid in, the collapse proceeds to the first stage then you re-work each stickey-outey bit. Continue reading →

929: Penrose Triangle

| wonko

I love geometry that messes with your head, and a “penrose triangle” is a faux 3d shape that is clearly impossible as a whole:

Looking at any 2 adjacent vertices, it looks fine.  The twist of dimensions is what makes it difficult for our brains to comprehend. Continue reading →

928: In Memoriam – Francis Ow

| wonko

The international origami community recently learned of the death of Frances Ow:

Francis was an active and beloved member of the Singapore Origami group, and sadly I never had the privilege of meeting him in the real world. But, via the magic that is the Internet I have been personally encouraged and supported by him over both of my recent 365 challenges. You can try this Tsuru Wreath for yourself – one of many designs he shared freely. Continue reading →

927: It’s All About the Base

| wonko

One approach to paper folding starts with a “base” – a form with flaps and general morphology that suits an end goal.

A well-designed base is a thing of beauty, and a flexible tool.

This base, a mutated fish base has really useful properties as demonstrated by these two wildly different folds, both designed by Jose Ma Chaquet from Spain. Continue reading →

926: Tiger, tiger, burning bright

| wonko

There are lots of origami tigers – few actually look like tigers – you know, the stripey thing. This model is radically different:

Using a HUGE square (I hand-made a large piece of double tissue – black and yellow), you start with a birdbase, then torture the paper for 2 days to create a pleated ruffle either side of the back ridge that is then zig-zagged to reveal colour slices that become the tiger stripes.

This model is really really intense – it took me ages to even work out what half the folds mean, let alone how to achieve them. Thankfully the double tissue was thin and terrifically strong, so it withstood the torture unscathed. Continue reading →