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214: A Great White Pointer

| wonko

Apparently it is “Shark Week” – yeah, I did not know either until I looked it up.

This ferrocious little beauty is a variation of the blue shark described by John Montroll and Robert lang in their book “Origami Sealife” and there is much to like about the basic form (not sure the picture does it justice).

Lovely gills, beady eyes and toothless jaw, strong fins, shaped tail and a slightly 3d body make this model look like it should swim well and eat big chompy bits out of everything as it does.

Quite happy with this as a first fold – learnt lots along the way

213: A Foal

| wonko

Now in Australia, to save confusion, horse breeders take August 1 as the birthdate of ALL horses:

I made a foal, a newly born horsey to mark the occasion, he even looks unsure on his legs, but I cannot help but wonder what horses feel about us missing their actual birthday to celebrate the communal one. I wonder how horsey party supply places cope with the demand for balloons, streamers and cake?

This is a variation of “The Old Kentucky Horse” by Raymond H M’Lain from Robert Harbin’s “More Origami” ad the original model has always struck me as a much younger horse that promised – neato for today tho – Happy Birthday Horseys!

212: Brill’s Dragon

| wonko

End of another month, thought I would wrestle with a dragon to celebrate and found David Brill’s interpretation of the theme:

I like this a lot, for a bunch of reasons – it has a lovely head and tail, well placed wings and when photographed flat (hey, another model suited to a card) it looks like the Welsh Flag.

Some fiddly flap rearrangement and some folding by eye (rather than to landmark) makes this model interesting, my guess is each time it is folded it’s posture is subtly different.

Tidy use of plain paper, I was concerned the media would let me down but it was fine, meaning the model is well designed in my opinion (models that demand tissue foil are less so). There is an accompanying figure (Saint George – you know,  “George and the dragon” fame) but it is a composite figure, so might hold off on him for the mo.

Folded from the aptly names “Brilliant Origami” by David Brill, I really like that book, and there are still LOTS of things in there for me to fold.

211: Cello

| wonko

If I were asked to pick a stringed instrument that I love the sound of, it would have to be a Cello:

The tones and resonance from it’s timber soundbox are lovely, soulful and evocative if played well

I have had this design for a while, and thought it wise to try it out on a larger format paper (as the creasing to suggest shape, wooden workings etc are quite difficult to place) and am happy with this as a first fold.

The trick is to try to keep the front face as crease-less as possible so the shape creases stand out, fairly happy with how this turned out, hope you like it too, (if there is anyone actually keeping up and reading this junk that is)

210: Hippogriff

| wonko

Being a fan of Harry Potter, I am glad I have finally seen the last part of the saga at the movies.

It is late, I am tired, this is my first fold for a Hippogriff – there is promise and I will try again with thinner paper as I think the model has a good basic shape:

Hectic day, you get that.

207: Cat Ready For Dinner

| wonko

This delightful cat is a David Brill model worth folding – so much character and a smug expression on it’s face:

It is said that dogs are people pets and cats are place pets – this one certainly looks like it owns the place.

Busy afternoon – happy with this first fold, my subsequent attempts will be much more refined – duo colour paper has the head, feet and tummy a different colour to the body – nice.

206: Celtic Cross

| wonko

This week is Catholic Education Week – now I am not a Catholic, nor ever religious but I know that at my place of work there are a number of important ecumenical symbols – one of which is a Celtic Cross:

This model takes a preliminary base and distorts it in interesting ways – designed by Tadashi Mori it is an interesting geometric form that has its roots in ancient UK cultures.

Our school has one in it’s quadrangle, and our school crest has one as well – appropriate symbology I thought.

205 Satoshi’s Splash!(swan)

| wonko

The idea behind this model is fascinating (and a little difficult to explain in a white only fold) – use half a sheet of paper to fold a landing bird and leave the other half unfolded to be the pond it is landing on:

Quite difficult to achieve using copy paper, the finished model if done with 2-colour paper has the water one colour and the bird the other – very neat.

This is the first model I have chosen to fold from the “Selected Works of Satoshi Kamiya” – not the easiest but an interesting one none the less. The thickness of the body made subtle shaping of the bird difficult (without accidentally creasing the pond area) but I am quite satisfied with this as a first fold of this model – I am now eager to get a large format bi-colour page and try it. I could imagine some nice serpentine crimps on the pond surface, or maybe come concentric ones based on where it has landed – there is paper enough to do that and it might look nice.

Surprisingly the page is essentially divided in half horizontally to make the pond/bird – I initially thought it would be easier to diagonally fold it (annoyingly my paper is diagonally creased because that is how I cut a square from copy paper which explains the extra crease on the pond surface) – since when has Satoshi chosen a simpler path tho.

I like the wings and can see much potential in shaping the bird with thinner paper

204: Android

| wonko

Now I am no fanboi of ANY operating system (they are ALL buggy, quirky and make little sense from a design perspective), and recommend NO hardware (it is ALL junk with 100% failure rate) but I thought some of my geekier friends might like this tribute:

A fairly faithful (at least from the front side of the model, it is fairly ugly at the back but might make a good card-mounted model) rendering of the Google Android mascot.

Apparently it should be green which is a little tricksey in a white-only first fold scenario but you get that. It features box pleating in TENTHS which in itself is interesting, but the initial collapse and shaping were interesting and I am happy with this as my first fold.

make me an offer, I might be convinced to fold one for you – you can have a go yourself here (be warned, it is not an introductory fold)

203: Skateboard

| wonko

Pressed with something to make and tired and shagged out after a busy week I stumbled across this model and thought I would give it a go:

I have seen kids using a mini-skateboard (tech deck I think they are called) and am amazed that this model is a fairly complete imitation of one, including wheels, trucks and deck.

Originally (the dev shots) I used a square from an A4 page – this resulted in a deck that was nearly 20cm long, so re-made it (the other shots) with a 1/4 A4 square and it is perfect in scale

I like how the wheels are made from curls of flaps formed from side sinks, it is fairly faithful – nice work Mr Trollip. You should definitely try this – you will impress the teens no end with you leet paper skills.

201: Winged Heart

| wonko

Apparently, according to JJJ at least, it is LOVE WEEK – awwwww

So I folded Frances Ow’s winged Heart (partly because it is late, I am tired and sometimes a simple fold is ok – ok?

An effective fold, in duo paper the heart is one colour and the wings are another – nice.

200: Hercules Beetle

| wonko

Wow, 200 days down so I thought I would try something special:

Kade Chan is a design master, and this beetle is something I will fold again (only not with copy paper) – this lovely beetle is complete with lovely carapace and modeled mandibles, all in very few folds.

Simplicity and economy results in a rounded body and legs that are i the right position – I got a little paper fatigue along the top central axis, but that is copy paper’s fault, not the design I feel as the thickness of 80gsm paper makes the body very thick and quite difficult to work with.

200 down, that is …only … 165 to go – bugger, just when I was feeling on top of this thing, nvm , happy with this as my first fold of this model.

198: Walkies (aka tree watering time)

| wonko

We live in a fairly quiet suburb and we like (not often enough sadly) to go for walks – as do dog owners who do it as much to get some exercise as to “empty their pet”:

I saw this exercise in box pleating and thought it had promise – starting with a grid of 24ths, you collapse and form a dog with leg cocked.

The tree (as per the instructions) was merely a fan – I thought that a bit boring so added some extra pleating to make a couple of branches and proceeded to add a fork in the trunk and some semi-crumpled foliage. With a little more crumpling the shapes would be nice and soft and gum-tree foliage like which is what I was aiming for.

I left it angular, as homage to the original design and to make it explicit what I had done to modify it – love it or hate it, I am pretty chuffed it worked given how fiddly the dog was. The little wee doggy has nice ears, an open mouth, four nicely formed legs (one lifted against the tree) and a floppy tail – nice.

197: Scissors

| wonko

I remember when I was in my early teens, I used to be forced to go to a barbershop just off the main street of Nambour (yes, lived there for a while) and the barber, a Maltese man with a thick mustache and little head hair (which is about as unlucky an omen as a thin chef I think) used to cut my hair:

“Short back and sides, with a surfie front” he used to call the hairstyle inflicted on me when all my mates had the finest “mullets” you have ever seen. Those were the days.

As I get older, there is less for the hairdresser to remove, more of it grey and less of it growing on my head – you get that apparently.

I was trolling to Netherlands Origami Society website (yes, these groups of paper benders are everywhere) and came upon a suggestion for scissors based on a stretched bird base, so I thought it appropriate today as I have just had a haircut and, being winter, my head is now cold – FML.

I have been told that the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is about 3 weeks – we shall see.

196: A Werewolf

| wonko

Now I have been a great fan of “Being Human” – particularly the character that plays the werewolf George:

I found this astonishing model by Kade Chan purely by accident – I was googling the telly show to see if there were more episodes planned and found reference to this neato origami model of a werewolf, complete with staring eyes, pricked up ears, ferocious claws and a lovely tail and I knew I had to try it.

This is such a well designed model – entirely doable with copy paper (I used a square cut from an A3 sheet) – with some precision and patience the body comes together without fatiguing the paper too much and astonishing detail is possible because each part is only a few thicknesses of paper, except the arms with are a little bulky towards the end when shaping the shoulders.

I particularly like the claws – scary things they are, with each finger posable and a snarly opposed thumb.

I could only find a vague photo sequence so had to guess in some stages by looking backwards and forwards towards the finished fold to work out what to do at times. This IS amazing, yes, you are right to be impressed – I am.

I will accept a round of applause, and cash to accompany any orders you have for me to fold you one of these.