P Whitehouse

178: Scuba Steve

| wonko

Now I was watching this stop motion animation by Sipho Mabona, and saw a humanoid emerge from a sheet of paper, so began doodling with a square of parchment not really having any plan. Oddly a figure emerged with what looked (to me at least initially) like a shell on his back.

Immediately I thought of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” but my son said version 1 looked a lot like a skindiver (he has diving qualifications so I was not going to argue).

Surprisingly, I was able to fold it a second time and discovered a bunch of paper that was useable for a facemask, a nice 3d head, was able to fashion a pair of airtanks of his back and some lovely flippers and…

“Scuba Steve” now lives – I have NO IDEA where i got the name from, but depressingly when I googled it it seems associated with an Adam Sandler movle – my bad. The name stuck.

I am actually pretty proud of this model – i knew where I was going and, without reference to anything else I have folded (well, maybe the arms and legs are influenced by the Hoodie) I think this is pretty neat.

A PADI AOW diver in Florida offered to professionally diagram it for me (which is kind of cool, we shall see if that results in anything – he is a renowned origami author, fingers crossed).

Here is an interim set of instructions: scubasteve (PDF)

Addendum: Version 4 has been submitted to OrigamiUSA and 4Esquinas (the Latin American Origami Society) also seem interested in publishing it – we shall see. Interestingly because it has already been mentioned online, Creased magazine does not want to touch it – curious but fair enough.

173: Siberian Hamster

| wonko

Manuel emphatically suggests “Is no rat, is “Siberian Hampster, man is shop tell me” he insists – it cracks me up every time:

Fawlty Towers is not a show I can watch anymore, but a beloved memory is Manuel’s pet, “Basil” the rat, so I made one.

Curious and torturous fold this one – I stopped understanding the instructiosn and sort of winged it in all honesty – the Spanish with poorly drawn diagrams did my head in a bit, but I think I rescued a rat-like object from the chaos.

A deliciously complicated collapse does most of the work here, then it is mostly shaping – I made the mistake of using a 2×1 rectangle from an A4 page – it needed to be much larger, but you live and learn. When I fold this again I will be armed with the knowledge of what ends up where.

I can see much potential in this model – lots of paper for a nice tail, lovely head and ears, plenty of paper for legs – this base is a keeper.

168: Tulips for Jo

| wonko

Today is my Wife’s Birthday, her favourite flower is a tulip so I had an idea:

After researching tulips suitable to stick on a card, I discovered that none were suitable so I invented a fold for that, then I decided that real-size tulips were also a good idea – a dozen a piece

I chose some nice pastels and strong colours, invented stems and foliage, made a custom vase (pyramidal) and then went to the florist to buy some dry oasis foam and cut it to fit – after a little faffing around a lovely arrangement was made and the presents sorted.

Happy Birthday Jo, love and hugs.

150: Trophy for Matthew

| wonko

My son has recently graduated from his Honors program and as part of his Thesis, he had to compose a poster summarising his paper and findings:

So good was this poster that tonight he was awarded “The Alan Bailey Prize” for top student project – yay Matty.  I thought it warranted a shiny thing, so invented one

Using Brill-like techniques, I formed a cylinder then pleated and twisted a stem, quite happy with the result, hope Matty likes it – so proud.

138: Flu Jab

| wonko

This afternoon I went to get my annual Flu Jab:

I am told it is “just a little prick with a needle” but I am sure the bloke who injected me does not like to be referred to that way 😛

I thought I should go original design also, not thinking I needed a pattern, so did a little free-form shaping, some simple pleating and crimping. I am fairly happy with it – it looks syringe-y and a little 3d too which is nice – not very tidy on the reverse side and the needle looks not very sharp.

129: Making a Spectacle

| wonko

Now I had this idea that with box pleating it should be possible to make life-size spectacles:

So I set about experimenting, discovered that I could form 6×6 lenses, a nose bridge and some reasonable length arms with a 4×1 rectangle cut from an A3 sheet:

Quite cool – an original invention, chuffed with the result. hope you like them also – the ultimate in UV protection (and all light for that matter)

Don’t pretend like you do not want to look this cool 😛

And for those faithful following this nonsense, here is my crease pattern/plan so you can have a go yourself: