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322: Fledgling

| wonko

Comes time in the life of all magpie chicks, when pin feathers have moulted and the adult feathers, shiny and new are through, untested. The fledgling inches to the edge of the nest, mindful of the effects of gravity. With encouragement, and a gentle nudge, the fledgling spreads its wings, tenses the flight muscles it has been exercising more recently. In an act of self belief, it launches into the great blue yonder:

This is Jun Maekawa’s Crow (or similar, cannot read the Japanese, sorry) – I like that this bird looks like it needs to grow into it’s feet and wings – much as I imagine a fledgling does.

Why a fledgling? A new batch of year 12s launch itself into the real world today. Their future is entirely in their hands, the potential is all there, they will make of it what they see fit. I hope they look after each other, and themselves, that they make the world a better place to be and never forget that they can make wonderful things happen if they can be bothered.

Happy with this as a first fold, lovely feet, nicely proportioned body, economy of use of paper, great design.

321: Zombeh!!!

| wonko

I love it how you can have a serious and in-depth discussion with students about Zombies:

They are experts – both the “undead” and “infection” zombies could, like, totally happen – yeah, and it is well understood how to dispatch them.

Having not long finished an adaptation of Jane Austin’s classic tale “Pride and Prejudice (and Zombies)” I am in touch with my undead self.

Well, in truth, I am a little undead zombie myself – marking does that to my brain, with perilously close deadlines and waaaaay too much to actually do before it, I neeeeeed braaaaaaiiinnnsss!!!

This is Jun Maekawa’s Zombie – well, I assume that is what it is as the book I got it out of is entirely in Japanese and I cannot read it, so, yeah. I love this posture of this model, the hands reach out sinisterly and there is just enough of a facial expression to know he is gunning for your fresh brain.

Glad I used a scrap of lithography paper for this model – copy paper would not have let me puff out and flatten the face before disintegrating.

320 Kasahara’s Mouse

| wonko

Now I like a good rodent, particularly one that is simple to fold but lovely in proportions – this mouse is such a beastie:

A tough fold in an A4-cut square to be honest, but the tinyness of it is worth the pain and bruised finger tips due to the thicknesses of the folds.

Lovely ears, poseable arms and legs and a splendid tail – from relatively few folds actually, glad I have found this one, I think I will add this to my “can do by heart” collection because of the finished shape.

Busy day, lots going on – lots of it red pen on things that need marking – hate this time of year, you get that sometimes.

I must investigate the animals of Kunihiko Kasahara some more – nice touch with the media, classic style.

318: Dromedary

| wonko

On review, I have not folded many camels – I have no idea why this is:

This is John Montroll’s “Dromedary”, a one-humped Arabian camel and there is much to like about the model, if not my first fold of it.

Lovely ears and face, curious sunken hump, legs more or less in the right place.

I might fold this one again, I learned much on the first time through, and it was a mashup of his “camel” instructions to a modified base, so I did not really know what was going to be what until fairly late in the piece (hence the disoriented development pictures).

Busy times, lots to do, spent waaaay too much time on this, you get that.

317: Fiery Dragon

| wonko

As a DnD fanatacist, I am always on the look out for a good Dragon – Kade Chan’s Fiery Dragon is one such beastie:

Having loved folding Chan’s “Werewolf” I have had this model in the “must do” pile for months.

WOW – to take an A3-cut square and twist it to this degree and get such a lovely result with no paper fatigue demonstrates the brilliant design here – the body is so thick, wings so tortured, tail so tight, head so detailed that any of these features could have meant the paper split asunder but no.

Coaxing copy paper through tricksey folds is beginning to be an obsession of mine – I have no doubt that many of these folds would be easier with more robust paper but … well … where is the challenge, right?

From all angles, this little beauty is 100% dragon and I will fold this again. If you look carefully he even has eyes. Potter fans will probably label this a “Horntail” or “Ridgeback” dragon, because we are knowledgeable about such things also 😛

Mastery of the square is something Kade Chan is known for, economy of fold and attention to media are the hallmarks of a talented designer. I feel honoured to have folded this one.

316: Wasp!

| wonko

Now I started this model assuming I would keep folding until the paper failed – I could tell from the instructions that copy paper would not be ideal, but for shits and giggles I kept bending:

To my amazement, with some gentle coaxing and no little pressure on tough folds (15+ layers for body/wing bend) a delightful and menacing wasp emerged from the crumpled and teased paper.

This is Annibal Voyer’s “wasp” and she is a beauty – lovely textured 3d abdomen, shapely wings, intricate head and the requisite 6 legs, all from an A3 copy square – wow.

There is much to admire about this design – although forming the body was tough with such thick brittle paper, at no time did I see a step I could not attempt (even with some inaccuracies like the paper being not quite square it still worked).

This is very clever design and I will fold this model again. Busy day again so I needed to get this out of the way, really glad I chose this model tho as the result, as a first fold, is astonishing.

314: Snail on a Leaf

| wonko

Slow and steady wins the race, in theory at least:

This is Nicholas Terry’s “Snail on a Leaf”, a lovely model that from one sheet rends a quite shapely snail, foot, shell and feelers, and a veined leaf – neat.

Busy day, bit of a rush, you get that sometimes. I like this as a first fold, learnt something about the model along the way so if I should fold it again, the result would be smoother and a little neater I think.

312: Gerboa

| wonko

Now in arid areas of Australia life is hard. Some animals never drink, some come out an night, some live underground – the gerboa does all these things and more:

Sometimes called the “Kangaroo rat” because of its rather splendid tail and hoppy back legs, it has always fascinated me.

When I saw this model I knew I would have to try it – copy paper, to be honest, is a terrible media for this but I soldiered on and am actually very happy with this as a first fold.

An ingenious use of the bird base, I will fold this again – it is poseable, has lots of character and the most lovely feet and tail – very clever design.

Celtic Cross Revisited

| wonko

When I first folded Tadashi Mori’s Celtic Cross I knew it would come in handy, being that it is a part of the symbology of my College:

My year 12s (well, I call them mine, they were the leaders in my tutor Group – a lovely bunch of chaps) had their last day of classes today so I thought it a good idea to mark the occasion with cards – naturally they would feature origami.

Hope they liked them.

310: Tutankhamum

| wonko

On the 4th of November 1922, almost by accident, a water carrier for Howard Carter stumbled across what looked like a step. They had all but given up hope of finding the legendary tomb of Tutankhamun but, on digging they discovered another, and another. By the 6th of November they had uncovered a sealed entrance to a tomb that bore the elusive cartouche of the boy king and so began one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of our time.

I admire an explorer that showed such great restraint – rather than rush is, as he was being urged to do, he covered up the entrance and went away, re-mounted an exploration mission 26 days later to actually open the tomb and painstakingly uncover and catalogue in-situ such wonderful things that belie imagination.

Having made a mask yesterday, I thought I would try another, and what better than a figurative representation of that famed gold and precious stone-inlayed death mask for the boy-king. I have seen this mask when it toured our city museum – it is breathtaking.

Scale was an issue here – it could have been made from an A4-cut square, but I could not tell how much was tucked away so made it from A3. I like that it hints at a snake in the headdress, the beard and overall proportions are nice. With time and a little patience I dare say you could fashion facial features – there is certainly enough paper there to do so.

Happy with this as a first fold – I could do a month of masks, there are lots of designs and a plethora of approaches to origami mask making – maybe that is for another day.

309: V for Vendetta

| wonko

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot…

As a kid I remember cracker night – well in truth, it was cracker week because you could buy fireworks and we used to spend the week blowing things up. In retrospect, all that messing around with gunpowder was really dangerous, but apart from some occasional superficial burns and the odd scorched letterbox we came to no real harm.

I am generally not a fan of Natalie Portman – the Star Wars prequels put me off a lot but she has been outstanding in a couple of subsequent movies – “Black Swan” and “V for Vendetta” for example. This is “V”, the psychopath in the Guy Fawkes mask and I am pretty happy with the result.

Designed by Brian Chan, it is an exercise in restraint, as you have a black/white paper and fold all the black inside, then, later, carefully reveal tiny hints of it – very clever design actually. you get eyes, a rather splendid nose, pencil moustache and goatee in a lovely mask shape, nice.

You can have a go for yourself – it is fairly easy and totally appropriate for Guy fawkes day

307: White Rabbits (belated)

| wonko

Now I know it is not the start of the month, and I missed out on the pinch and the punch because of a horsey thing, but thought I should get in on the act of start of month eventually:

A nice, compact and fairly poseable rabbit. Quite happy with this, although I seem to have misplaced my first fold (completed at school whilst I should have been paying attention to an all important rap battle).

I am looking for new rabbits to try, suggestions welcome.

This one looks more like a hare, but I like the ears and tail, well designed models can be simple and small too.

306: Wolf Alarm

| wonko

At 5:30am every morning, the dog next door explodes in a flurry of barking and howling – I call this our “wolf alarm”:

I think it is in response to an early morning walker on the street beyond, regardless it wakes me from my light sleep and I struggle to return after the wolf alarm has gone off.

This nice model from Roman Diaz is a “Coyote” howling at the moon, but I think it looks like the mutt next door (well, at least in my head it does). happy with this as a first fold, would do it differently if I were to fold it again as the forming of the muzzle is very congested and could be done before hand I think.

304: Wicked Witch of the West

| wonko

Apparently some cultures celebrate halloween, although it is not really an Australian tradition (despite the efforts of the shops) I thought I would get in on the act myself:

This has taken an age – I want to pretend that this is my first fold but in truth this if my 5th, the FIRST to be successful however. Three times I got to step 85 and could not work out what to do before the paper disintegrated – grrrr.

This is, as you can see, quite a detailed model – crooked nose, crooked hat, plaits flying in the breeze, one hand gripping the broom another waving it’s fingers, lovely flowing robes, knobbly knees, shoes, the works.

A very dense model, the body has nearly 30 layers. This was the one I had planned before the radio station asked me to fold something on air – lol – not quite sure what I could have achieved in the 10 minutes elapsed in the interview but you get that.

301: Miyajima’s Bat

| wonko

When looking for a suitable model for Halloween, I sumbled across this delightful model from Noburu Miyajima:

The bat is a much maligned critter, particularly in the light of the Hendra Virus here is Queensland, but this model is lovely (in a batty sort of way)

An amazingly well designed model that makes good use of paper, the resultant model being not that much smaller than the original sheet yet containing surprising detail.

Lovely wings, cute little pot belly and legs, fantastic face and ears and those majestic wings – wow.

This is not my first fold – I almost screwed this up once at work but I wanted to get the head right (the original attempt was mutilated and torn),  so sue me 😛