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190: Yoshizawa’s Sumo

| wonko

Considered by most to be the “father of modern origami“, Akira Yoshizawa created many artistic models and invented the system of diagramming we now use as standard. He also, it seems had a wonderful sense of humour:

This model is as much a character study as a comment on Japanese society, and I must admit to a giggle when I first found this model nestled near the back of Yoshizawa’s seminal work “Creative Origami”.

Initially, the model is folded asymmetrically, then as features emerge it is obvious this character is “fully equipped” and ready to rumble (although I was sure sumo usually wore some form of ceremonial “nappy” – for some reason Yoshizawa decided to omit that detail).

A simple fold that would benefit from thinner paper (the shoulders and neck were very difficult to fold with an A4 copy paper square). Quite cute however and I would imagine shocking in the day (but these days we would probably suggest steroid abuse will do that to a man 😛 )

186: Teddy Bear

| wonko

I once had a friend that could comfort me when I was sad, that I told all my secrets to, that kept me company when the lights went out, that never complained or criticised me, that joined in on all my adventures, that I loved completely and unconditionally. This is Ted, my bear:

So a friend of my wife is having a baby – what better to welcome the little one into the world than a bear:

So I have had this design for ages and wanted to try it out. Scale was important, as I was going to mount it on cardstock with some double-sided tape, the height is 1/3 the original square size, so … easy. After performing my “first fold” on an A3 cut square of copy paper, I then fashioned a 26cm square out of brown paper from the baking drawer in our kitchen for his little brown brother.

A fairly difficult fold to complete with copy paper – thicknesses make subtle details clumsy. Surprisingly, brown paper (you know, the stuff you line cake tins with) folds beautifully – is strong and thin, must remember that.

I like how the finished model has character – I have now folded a few of these and each one has it’s own unique posture and facial expression – a lot like real teddy bears I think.

You may collectively go awwwwwww now 😛

184: An Alpaca

| wonko

I thought I would try something simpler, so found what looked like a mostly harmless little Llama model designed by Jim Adams:

On paper, this model was straight forward – in practice however the thickness of layers at the tail end made this model impossible to fold using copy paper (I tried, breaking one of my own rules, it exploded – well, split and the tail broke off, so I started again) so I used a square of tissue foil – even then the tail was too thick to be elegant, pity – the diagram makes it look crisp and slender. I guess if one used large format foil it might be easier – not sure the overall model proportions warrant that treatment however.

Some interesting applications of sink, crimp and double-rabbit ears – it suggested double rabbit-earing the rear legs – already needle thin, I merely reverse folded them and think that is a better result. Pity they are so thick else I would have added hooves also.

Although it is diagrammed as a Llama, I think it is more like an Alpaca (mostly because I wanted to use “an” in the title and “An Llama” does not seem right – yeah, I know, tissue thin reasoning there but you get that)

182: Canadian Bull Moose

| wonko

Now I was told it was Canada Day on July 1 by Peter and Jen, and they kindly asked me to fold them a moose (after seeing a picture of the finished model on google) … if it was not too much trouble.

Fortunately i had a copy of “Origami Design Secrets” by Robert Lang, which has this as a penultimate box pleating example (typical a mathematician would take the simple art of box pleating to this length), so I thought “why not, can’t be that difficult” – lol.

Now I had some “tissue foil” I had shipped from the origami shop, and was itching to try it out to see how it takes folds. I must admit it is different to what I thought it would be – this is cotton-based, metallic thread impregnated opalescent paper is not a paper and foil sandwich, so will keep looking for a supplier.

Wow, no I mean WOW! – what a difference good paper makes on the fold process – no splits, tears, paper fatigue (except on the folder). I am impressed given the length of this paper torture session and the lengths to which the square was crimped, distorted, pleated, reversed and teased. I began to realise this model was epic after nearly 2 hours of PRE FOLDING was necessary before the first collapse – at one points folding 64ths along one edge – thank goodness for large format paper.

I started this at about 8am – after a bowl of Porridge (with maple syrup – it is CANADA DAY remember) and finished the fold prior to photographing the posed model at 12:45pm!!! 3 cups of tea, 2 panadol and 3 albums of Lawrence English sound art and it is done.

HAPPY CANADA DAY Peter and Jen – thanks for the challenge.

181: Piglet

| wonko

I have a lot of pig models, all have their charms – it is interesting that it is a much-folded animal:

This figurative model is quite a simple fold, a nice change of pace on a busy day

An interesting twist on the waterbomb base, it’s body proportions are ok, it has a good snout that could be further modeled as there is lots of paper there, and a fab curly tail.

180: Rocking Horse

| wonko

Now I have been a customer of Rocking Horse records in Brizvegus for as long as I can remember – they stock an important mix of local releases, electronica, avant-garde, metal, obscure and dance music ephemera that appeals to me.

They are in trouble – difficult to compete with torrents and copyright theft (I know many young people who have never purchased music ever, but have iPods full of the stuff). I decided to visit today, purchase a bit but sadly everything is on sale – not a good sign. Today’s model is a rocking horse:

This little model actually rocks also, very tidy (if torture to get all the paper inside the body and leave the rockers largely fold free so they, well, rock…

I like the body proportions – very horsey – and the weight distribution is also good – very well designed model by Ronald Koh (the same guy who designed the King Cobra)

Precision was important here, and a little luck – many of the folds were judgment calls, no landmarks are trickey if you have not folded a model before and do not know what ends up where.

Happy with my first fold, fingers crossed that a good record store can survive – brissie would not be the same with out it.

179: Goanna

| wonko

Now I have been looking for a good lizard – sounds like a personal problem I know, but it is hard to get something with the right morphology (proportion and placement of body parts):

This model comes close – a torturous thing in parts that comes together with the most lovely legs (toes and all) and a sculpty tail – not sure about the head though, there is plenty of paper but a goanna typically has a much longer neck (although this model does have the beginnings of a lovely forked tongue also)

An interesting use of a hexaonal base and some lovely sinks and collapses – I could see this base as a useful starting point for a crocodile, as there is plenty of paper doen the back to crimp up some lovely bumpy bits. I think there were some inaccuracies in the diagramming, as the initial folding of the toes, according to diagrammed landmarks was less successful, but minor adjustments sort that out.

When I fold this again I think the resultant critter will be much better shaped, now I know what is going to end up where – still, an interesting fold.

You can try this for yourself: http://zingman.com/origami/oriPics/lizard2/lizard_diagrams.swf

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.

177: Hedwig

| wonko

Now I am the first to admit I am an out and proud Harry Potter fan. I have consumed all the content JK Rowling has produced on the world of magical and muggle, and particularly like the use of Owl Post:

Looming is the release of Deathly Hollows part 2 and more recently mention of “Pottermore” which I hoped would be an MMO or immersive world because I thought it would be cool to play a character in that realm. sadly Pottermore will not be anywhere near as cool, but maybe more potterverse, but will watch with eager anticipation.

I found the Spanish origami Society’s magazine archive “Esquinas” – in it was this rather splendid owl. the instructions take a lot for granted, annotations in Spanish do not really help but I muggled through.

There is much to love about this model – it stands by itself, rather cheekily and I can imagine it perched on a branch or taking pride of place in an owlery, it has a lovely round tummy, some fascinating eyes (the next time I fold this, now I know what goes where I am sure I could fashion pupils etc) and the overall proportions are neat. this is a clever design because everything tucks inside and there were only a couple of errors in the diagrams that were easy to fix visually.

176: Triceratops

| wonko

Now I am not sure if a Triceratops actually looks like this, not having actually seen one myself:

Even fossil records are a little bit hazy on these things, but this is a lovely model none the less. Nicely detailed head, reasonable body proportions and some real solidity to it – a rhinocerous would be afraid of this beastie.

A fascinating application of the offset preliminary base, with some neat swivel folds and one or two interesting sinks, I am very happy with the first fold of this model.

Not sure who the designer of this model was, collected it as a PDF ages back, but it is a keeper.

Why a triceratops? Well, most people who know me think I am a bit of a dinosaur myself at times – you get that, fair call.

174: A Quill

| wonko

Now in bygone eras (and magical schools) people used to sharpen a goose feather, dip it in ink and write with it – they called this contraption a Quill:

I was browsing for feathers, no iea why, when I stumbled accross a Vietnamese origami forum that had a rather lovely feathery pen thing, so decided to inflict the design on a nice piece of pearlescent white paper I had

fairly simple fold, with some fiddling around to get the nib shapely, in the end quite a nice fold.

Why a quill? Well, we are hours away from some announcement or other from J. K. Rowling about the Harry Potterverse, so I thought it appropriate.

172: Life, But Not As We Know It

| wonko

Spock from Roddenberry’s Star Trek is famous for many things – wooden acting, pudding bowl haircut, extreme eyebrow waxing, pointy ears and green blood:

But his lines of dialogue are what does it for me: “It’s a type of space madness we have not seen before”, “Fascinating, Captain”, “It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it” …

A fairly effective caricature of Nimoy as Spock – may you live long and prosper.

You should have a go at this one yourself – http://www.spiraclemusic.com/webwalk/spock1.htm

171: Lambs to the Slaughter

| wonko

So I am setting and supervising exams at the moment – hate it almost as much as the marking – cannot help but feel sometimes like leading lambs to the slaughter:

A simple but flawed fold I think – hand-drawn diagrams with few landmarks and an oddity about the head formation that I would re-make if I was to re-fold it. There are ears there, and plenty of paper to improve them  them but the photo does not do this model justice.

I like the legs, and the body-head proportions are good, I can see myself messing with this model to improve the sheepishness of it. Still – they cannot all be gems.

169: A Yabbie

| wonko

Now in Australia, local waterholes and creek banks are often pock-marked with Yabbie-holes:

Yabbies are a sweet, freshwater crayfish that are related, albeit distantly, to the American Lobster more commonly seen off the Florida Coast

It is my brother-in-law’s Birthday today – happy Birthday Rob!!! he lives in Florida and dives for lobsters in his spare time – I thought it timely to remind him of his Australian equivalent.

This is a torturous model on a lot of fronts – a collaboration between John Montroll and Robert Lang from the book “Origami Sealife”.  I shoulda tweaked that it was the LAST model in the book (traditionally the the final model in a book is the most challenging) but began folding it anyway – 3 1/2 hours later, after some serious swearing and no little amount of paper torture I ended up with a delightful model.

Folded from a square cut from an A3 copy paper page, this TINY end model is testament to a superb design as it is all tucked away into a plump body, 8 legs, 2 claws, 2 stalked eyes and a lovely pair of antennae. It looks like it would cook a treat.

Actually pretty amazed that I was able to fold it at all, many times I contemplated giving up (like 1/2 hour in when I discovered my square was not quite … square), or the formation of the 2 pairs of 6 legs via some extremely fine (3-5mm) folds. You know a model is tough when on 5 separate points, after folding a tight model you are instructed to unfold everything, turn it over and fold something new – the planning to get that crease patter is mind-buggering.

You may applaud now, reminds me of the prawns I cooked for dinner last night – throw another shrimp on the barbie Rob, many happy returns for your birthday.

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.