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254: September 11

| wonko

For me, September 11 2001 was the day the world lost it, in a big way. Senseless acts of violence were met with years of senselessly violent retaliation and witch-hunts, government sanctioned genocide and publicly celebrated religious fanaticism. There were no winners – we as a species did little to justify our position atop the food chain:

A symbol of peace in the origami community is the crane, there is a branch of the craft that looks to incorporate cranes into other models. this intricate and often torturous craft can result in some stunningly complicated folding – this one by Jeremy Shafer is called “The Star of Peace”.

Using a technique termed “isolating squares”, you reserve unfolded squares and crumple all else out of the way and in this care we end up with a 3d star with a ring of 4 cranes flying around the top layer. The container is waterproof (like a fancy waterbomb).

I fold this with mixed emotions – the media has so skewed the events leading up to and after 9/11 that it leaves me with an even stronger resolve against war, military action and religion … you get that. I live in hope that the human spirit continues to emerge from the morass, looking for ways to help, positive actions that build the dignity of people and erase the artificial barriers of race, creed and sect.

Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try
No people below us, above it’s only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do
No need to kill or die for and no religions too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger a brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing for the world

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
Take my hand and join us
And the world will live, will live as one
John Lennon, “Imagine”.

253: Happy 10th Birthday terraMOO

| wonko

On September 9, 2001, a virtual environment called TerraMOO was first launched.

An intersting date given a couple of days later the WORLD changed forever. terraMOO is an Encore-based MOO, it has run continuously for the past 10 years, even though boys have constantly tried to break it – name another technology that can come close?

As a learning environment I believe it is unequaled, providing chat rooms, object-oriented programming, web publishing, online interactive assessment and smart objects there is nothing that comes close.

Yes, I have played and developed in 3d worlds, yes I understand their potential also, but a MOO is unique – long may she run.

This cow I have been saving, the folding was intense but the end cow-shape is most pleasing – lovely ears, horns and a serene facial expression, good body proportions and a lovely swishy tail.

251: Infinity

| wonko

Now in my quest to fold 365 models, one a day for a whole year, it seems like I have been doing this forever already. Not having an infinite amount of time, I thought I wold fold an INFINITY in paper:

this is a rather ingenious pair of interlocking rings, the whole of which (hole … a ring joke there, lol) was folded from a single square, no cuts, no glue.

This ingenious fold is from Jeremy Shafers book “Origami to Astonish and Amuse” and is the first step towards achieving a snarly fold that features EIGHT rings (again, from ONE piece of paper)

A lovely accordion fold and some tidy end pleating and presto, an infinity symbol which I think is splendid. Even the wife did not believe it was only one sheet until I unfolded it and proved it was.

249: Vinco’s Fish

| wonko

Davor Vinco has made many elegant models, most with simple lines – I particularly like his fish:

The beautiful eyes have featured on an earlier model but I like the body shape of this fish, the way the fins lock and gill line makes the nead a different colour to the body (if using duo colour paper)

A fairly simple fold to give my tired hands a rest from yesterday, nice none the less – 3d enough to consider filleting.

It is child protection week so I must chase some design for that.

247: Alix’s Giraffe

| wonko

Now I have been on a mission to find and fold Alix a giraffe for her birthday (Happy Birthday Alix!) and the model had some criteria:

  • * it needed to look “giraffey” – so many do not
  • * it needed to be achievable with  square of cardstock I found in a Landsborough scrapbooking shop (don’t ask) – the giraffe hide was tough to fold, so the model had to be simpler- No margin for error, you cannot re-fold this stuff as the design is only screen printed on so cracks when you fold it
  • * it needs to stand freely

Voila! We have a Giraffe – I found these instructions on the interweb but no credit was given to the designer – can anyone help me here?

I rejected models by Peter Engel, Robert Lang, John Montrol for one or all 3 reasons above having folded them and barely achieving an acceptable model using plain copy paper (which is much more forgiving that the giraffe print I had).

It was an interesting investigation – there will be more giraffes to come – the challenge is to adequately represent the “spirit” of the animal rather than necessarily be accurate with the morphology as they are such an odd collection of animal bits really (almost as odd as a platypus). No model I found had the lovely long knobbly kneed legs and the vaguely trapezoidal body for instance but various models had aspects that looked correct.

To get the long neck and distant body when using a square so much paper has to be tucked away that it gets really dense, but it ends up with lovely ears, and vestigial “horns” which I have never worked out what they do.

Hope Alix likes it;

Happy Fathers Day also to all those Dads out there, hope you also have a good day.

246: Satoshi’s Chocobo

| wonko

There is a yellow bird that features in Final Fantasy called Chocobo:

Satoshi Kamiya calls it a “yellow bird” and advises not to attempt this model in anything other than tissue foil – reviewing the instructions I figured I could (maybe, perhaps, possibly) nurse copy paper through the torturous process and so set about to push an A3 cut square to it’s limits

I am so chuffed that I succeeded, managing to complete all folds, using plain copy paper – yes, that IS an achievement and yes, you should applaud now!

Based on some interesting box pleating, sinks and swivel folds, the tweety bird shape evolves rapidly – look at the feet, even beautiful claws, feathered wings and a tail, very pleasing

This is the second model I have folded from “Works of Satoshi Kamiya”, I am working my way towards the “Ancient Dragon” (yes Josh, soon, soon, sheesh!). I had my good paper out for when I finally admitted defeat but, who would have guessed it worked first fold – yay me!

245: You Shall NOT Pass!!

| wonko

Now I am an out and proud “Lord of the Rings” fan – loved the books, liked the movies – the standoff betwixt Gandalf the Grey and the Balrog was such an amazing bit of cinema:

This here is a (sort of) Balrog – pity the photos do not do it justice. Nice leathery wings, a grimace on his face and sort of snarly hands and a lovely tail.

I am writing exams at the moment and the phrase “you shall not pass” is something I try to keep furthest from my mind whilst doing it – I am sure my students would hope that is the case also.

Some interesting teasing of a blintzed preliminary base that is crimped and petal folded in interesting ways – the base that results I can see huge potential in as it has 8 symmetrical flaps asking to be bent into something else – must have a play with it. I found the instructions for this critter on the interwebs and have NO idea whose model it is – anyone help me out? … anyone out there?

243: Cessna Plane

| wonko

I have had this model, described via hand-drawn diagrams for ages and thought it a good one to finish the month with:

This is a tidy little plane, named Cessna after the style of modern single engine aircraft it is modeled on. I am not, however, sure who the designer is – can anyone enlighten me?

A clever use of the bird base with some ingenious accordion pleating to liberate the wings and some interesting pucker pleating to form tail and propeller, there is some very dense folding to shape the fusilage and a cute domed cover for the cockpit, even some vestigial landing gear underneath.

Happy with this as a first fold, can see myself trying to refine it so it is tidier – am sure I could tease some wheels and maybe master the propeller a little better in subsequent folds.

242: Trainset

| wonko

Now when I was a kid I did not have a trainset – you know, one of those Hornsby jobbies with the locomotive, carriages and transformer-powered track:

Not sure if I actually wanted one, but there you go – I had friends who did, right down to the chemical you put a drop of in the smokestack to generate puffs of steam in a (from a kids eye perspective at least) realistic way.

This is a set of folds based on the same box-pleating trick, and really there is little to stop you making a whole swagger of types of carriages using it – I made 3 variations but can imagine more. An interesting cross pleat and collapse was used (in some cases many times) in each model, useful to remember.

Although these are technically separate models, I present them as one as they would, individually, be uninspiring.

241: Un Papillion de Joisel

| wonko

Eric Joisel was a treasure in the paper folding community – this is a butterfly designed by Michael LaFosse in memory of him:

A simple fold with much potential for modelling, the body ends up being thick and the wings delicate

Happy with this as a first fold, hope you like it.

239: Little Red Riding Hood

| wonko

Someone gave me a copy of foreign version of “Red Riding Hood” that I missed in the cinema that I thought was artistically interesting. A modern slant on a village terrorised by a werewolf, so I thought I would fold “Red”:

“Oh Grandma, what big eyes you have, ears, teeth …”, yeah, it was never going to end well. This model is designed by Stephen Weiss and reminds me a lot of the box pleating figure work of Neal Elias.

From a single A3-cut square we tease out a ruffled skirt, arms, head and feet and it results in a poseable model – very neat indeed. The instructions stop at the basic figure, so I added elbows, knees and tried to fashion feet (the thickness of the paper there made anything but “club feet” problematic – with thinner paper I think I could have fashioned shoes and socks for her.

When I first saw this model I thought that I would have to use tissue foil for it – indeed the recommended paper was much bigger and thinner but I decided to try and nurse copy paper through the fold and am delighted with the results. This would be a perfect little “dolly” for a well behaved little girl (Kit, are you listening? )

238: Daffodil Day

| wonko

In Australia, August 26 this year is nominated as “Daffodil Day”:

We celebrate the lives of those brave people who have fought cancer in all it’s forms – to do so we use a flower, the fragile symbol of hope and beauty:

I made a white one, then folded 4 in colour and scattered then strategically around my school. I remembered, if few others did initially. I do this in memory of some dear friends that lost the fight and suffer no more.

A complex and time-consuming fold,  the flower head is dense and made, unusually from a hexagon cut from an A3 sheet, it collapses down to a life-size bloom via some interesting sinking, swivels and squash folds. An interesting (and cathartic) fold designed by Paul Jackson, taken from a book loaned to me by Amanda (thanks @ackygirl)

I hope you remembered Daffodil Day, or at the very least people you know who have been touched by Cancer.

236: Sipho Mabona’s Koi Carp

| wonko

When I first saw installation art, in origami, folded and designed by Sipho Mabona, I knew I wanted to do stuff like that also – this koi is elegant and beautiful:

Lovely dorsal and pectoral fins, graceful tail and head complete with gaping mouth.

There is much to admire about this model – it is tricksey to tease the fish from a square and Mabona achieves this fiarly simply – very happy with this as my first fold, althought it was a little fiddly to do the mouth crimps at this scale (I used an A4 cut square).

I can imagine schools of these, and indeed that is how Mabona displays them – in slight size variations floating in groups as if being fed in a pond – lovely stuff, feel privileged to fold it.

You can have a go here: pdf

235: Charlie the Unicorn

| wonko

Now I have been told off by Dr Winston O’Boogie for folding creepy crawlys and scary things and was told I should concentrate on unicorns and rainbows:

This is John Montrol’s Unicorn – a relatively simple fold with a nice horsey shape.

So much paper folded inside, it ends up having a plump body and very thick legs and a lovely twirly unicorn stickey-uppey horney thing

This will do me for unicorns for the moment, although I will be on the look out for another one as the horse shape is one much folded by origami designers as it is quite difficult to capture the equine profile.

233: Kawahata’s Locust

| wonko

Now I have not folded a model from Fumiaki Kawahata before because they looked so difficult:

The instructions I have come from her lovely book “Insects Volume 1” and are all in Japanese (problem number 1) and use a completely different set of sumbols to indivate things like repeat, turn over, sink, spontaneously combust etc which are also in Japanese.

I ended up just going on the before and after diagrams to make sense of what was happening when – not a very efficient technique on a 120 step model with dozens of “repeat behind” that I had to guess but, you know, that is part of the adventure -right?

This is a lovely model on all counts – the body is plump and 3d, the wings delicate 9single layer) with wing cover, feet including lovely sproingy back legs all int eh right place, lovely little antennae. plump and pleated abdomen – wow!

Originally I was going to use 18cm tissue foil and I am soooo glad I chose larger as the fiddly detail near the end would not have been possible with my fat clumsy fingers in a smaller format. I could not imagine trying to tackle this with normal paper as some of the sections are 12 layers thick and were difficult maneuvers even with tissue foil.

I will fold more from this book – the techniques are amazing and the models so lifelike – surely a rival to Robert Lang in terms of realism and complexity of model.

You may applaud now, I do deserve it for managing to get to the end with only a little bit of swearing.