660: (110/365) Riki Saito’s Alien

It is late, I am tired, the first week back at the start of the term is exhausting but this little alien is looking after me:

Folded from Japanese foil, it compliments yesterdays model. Incidentally today is a few days after the 56th anniversary of humans in space as Yuri Gagarin first left our atmosphere  Continue reading

659: (109/365) I WANT To Believe

Now I am not so conceited as to think that humans are the only intelligent life in the universe, but the more I understand about humans, the more I am convinced that the sure proof there IS intelligent life elsewhere is the fact that they have in no way attempted to contact us. Nothing. Not a peep:

I want to understand what form extra terrestrial life might take, but I am continually confounded by plethora of lifeforms on this planet.

I am sure that ET will not resemble the Sci-Fi little green carbon-based bipedal life we see in popularist imagery. Continue reading

658: (108/365) Yoshizawa’s Goldfish

Few origami masters did more for modern origami than Yoshizawa Sensei:

With delightfully few folds, his models evoke shapes, creatures and personalities. Continue reading

657: (107/365) Le Chat Noir

I have had this model on my “must try” list for ages but there was something about the fold sequence that made me uneasy, couldn’t put my finger on it:

I decided to fold it in black, because…reasons. faithfully following the folding diagrams unexpected things began to happen – layers on the wrong side, meridians not aligning etc.

I got a little “creative” and it worked out fine, but I think there are errors in the sequence (or steps missing). I followed the diagrams faithfully until … I didn’t, really. Continue reading

656: (106/365): Hsi Min Tai’s Rabbit

Having folded Robert Lang, Jun Maekawa and Ronald Koh’s Rabbits, I feel I have been a bit spoiled in terms of “best” rabbits out there:

Always on the lookout for something new, and given that it is Easter Sunday, a rabbit seemed appropriate and this rabbit gave me an interesting challenge. Continue reading

655: (105/365) Basset Hound

Those who know me realise I am mostly a “cat person” but my parents used to have Bassets, lovely dogs that were low to the ground, long ears and seemingly wearing a skin that was 5 sizes too big:

I have been looking for a good Basset hound model and, up until now, have not really found anything suitable.

Scanning the State Library (and learning you can e-borrow their collection) I stumbled across an archived copy of Seth Friedman’s “Dog Origami”. The last (and presumably most complex) model in the book was a Basset, and I have spent much of the afternoon trying to fold it. Continue reading

652: (102/365) Sleep In

Now you are set to sleep in, for the first time in ages right? Your neighbour, bless him, decides this morning is the time to chainsaw and woodchip the hedgerow:

As amusing as this sounds, this actually happened to me this morning. Coincidentally I had just completed Fernando Gilgado’s “Sleeping In” model – seems the universe was conspiring against me. Continue reading

650: (100/365) Mi Wu’s Dragon

Now I must admit for model 100 of the current 365, to starting this mode before we went on holidays, but left it barely started as it has taken me an age to decrypt the directions for folding it:

This lovely, plucky little dragon needs much bigger paper. Teasing the details and final shaping at this scale is torture. Continue reading

648: (98/365) Floral Vase

It is rare that a simple bit of geometry is so lovely but this floral pot combines glorious proportion and an efficient use of the sheet:

A simple(ish) twirl causes the vase shape. I must work out how to fold this without the pre-creasing scars as I think this would look beautiful in large format hand-made paper. Continue reading

645: (95/365) Peacock

A model I had mastered as a child was the only Peacock I had seen folded until fairly recently:

This is Edwin Corrie’s Peacock, a magic little model that makes a tight efficient little body out of one corner of the square leaving lots of paper for the fan-shaped tail. Continue reading

644: (94/365) Picnic at Hanging Rock

While in regional Victoria, in the vicinity of the Macedon Ranges, it seemed wrong to leave Hanging Rock off our agenda. Back in the 70’s, there was an important Australian movie made called “Picnic at Hanging Rock”:

A fiction/mystery, it involved the mysterious disappearance of some school girls at the rock, after they had a picnic. We visited, climbed and were not lost, thankfully, but by sheer coincidence we visited on the 50th anniversary of the book, and also by good chance they were filming a mini-serialisation of the same story in the woods we walked through.

Continue reading

643: (93/365) Square Bear

Australia do not really have bears, well, nothing that is actually a bear but this charming model needed to be folded so folded it I did:

This is Edwin Corrie’s Square Bear, a charming model that is relatively simple but demonstrative of form. Continue reading

639: (89/365) Baby TRex

I am sure dinosaurs were not cute – not even baby ones as they were snappy wild beasts:

The little purple beauty is designed by Issei Yoshino and is a lovely exercise in colour management. Continue reading