Hyenas get a bum rap by the general public, They are seen as garbage collectors and, whilst it is true that they will eat stuff already dead, they prefer to hunt.
This is a difficult model to get the posture right – I like the base however and can see a rande of quadrupeds that could spring from it.
A “jackall” I think, and a dog are closely related. Hope you like it.
I like this container/vase a lot:
It self-locks, is water tight and could be used … to … put things in I guess.
the best bit is that you control the size of the base, and therefore the height of the thing – nice and useful for … things 😛
I once shared a house with 3 other uni friends – much happened, most memorable. Late one night, instead of finishing a due-next-day assignment, Mark was seen flitting and pirouetting through the house:
We coined the expression “sugar plump fairy” after the dance he was attempting, it stuck. Happy Birthday Mark!!!
I like this model, simple folds, precise creasing that gives form from flat surfaces – very clever Mr Brill.
This model is designed to be a Christmas tree topper – I can see how that would work given the convenient pocket at the back. It is not free standing (although I could mangle the lovely minimalist legs into feet and knees I guess – that would ruin the lines however.
Hope you like it.
Now I put my hand up as a staunch REPUBLICAN – I have never seen the sense of a colonial country holding on to a token monarchy. It would be different if the monarchy were actually USEFUL to us, like a table:
Strong, supportive, present, made of something sustainable and central to daily life, a table is central to any home. This is a “Queen Anne” style table, designed by Robert Harbin, folded for our celebration of the Queen’s Birthday (a public holiday for us – one good, tangible thing that benefits us I suppose).
Nice exercise in petal folding, there are a few variations possible to transform it into a square table – quite like the polyhedral form however. Folded from “Secrets of Origami” by Robert Harbin, a treasure trove of old-school origami designs.
Now I have been looking for nicely shaped Dragons:
and stumbled across a Hungarian fold that reminded me of a cartoon one.
Lovely wings, thick and powerful tail, nice head – a fairly simple fold actually but sometimes simplicity is good too. 
I am working towards a Satoshi dragon, so I need all the dragon-practice I can get. I would like to pretend this one was my first-fold, but I scored a Year 11 Maths C stuporvision at school, and got bored with matrices and vectors so tried it then – so sue me.
Was going to give it to Josh, who has not shut up about dragons since he heard I was going to try the ancient dragon, but then he did not stop talking so took it back – you win some lose some I guess.
For those people not in Brisbane, it is unseasonally cold today so I thought that it might be appropriate to try a Joisel model:
This delightful model has very few folds, yet emerges with a fairly normal posture, plump belly, lovely fins and figurative feet.
Joisel is a master, each fold well thought out and I always enjoy folding his models – this model is a nightmare in thirds – most divisions are thus, and really difficult to get right.
On a day like today, this little penguin would be well at home.
You see a gaping cavern, the sudden rush of sulphurous breath hints at a hiding dragon, you fumble in your robes, raising your wand and hope your newly learned incantations are sufficient defence against the scaley foe …
I love RPGs, get lost in them all the time, as does my Wife. She has a good friend, on the other side of the world, who is having a birthday today – **Happy Birthday MIKE!!! ** So I thought making a mage (his fav class) would be a good idea. 
Cute model, relatively few folds (which is good as I am not feeling the best atm), hope he likes it. Doubly fitting as it is also Draco Malfoy’s Birthday (potter geeks should confirm this).
When we were growing up, we had Basset hounds – lovely droopy, pendulous eared dogs. Mum had one called Rebecka, my sister had one called Cleo. Now I am not a “dog person” but these old ladies were different, they were family:
It is Mum’s Birthday ***HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM*** She is on the other side of the planet right now (in Cornwall) so a few weeks back I folded her a basset with similar colouring to Rebecka (bought a brindle cow print from a closing down craft shop nearby):
Hoping the post gets it to her on time, this model fills me with fond memories, companionship, childhood, feelings of home. Anyone who has had a Basset knows they are just like people.
I would like to say the cow-print paper was easy to fold but it wasn’t, tough work, my hands ached afterward, but it folded flat so it could be enveloped and sent off in the post amidst a card.
You can try this one for yourself – relatively straight forward, being tidy at the beginning makes for a better model later on.
June is a busy month for birthdays – must be something in the water around this time of year (or rather 9 months earlier :P)
About a month ago I bought a huge sheet of tracing paper. Well, I call it paper but it is actually a type of opaque plastic called “vellum”. For my birthday fold I decided to see what vellum could do:
The paper was 42cm square (cut from a 42x60cm rectangle) and straight away I knew it would be tough – vellum does not like to be folded but once it is, hates being unfolded.
This INSANE design sculpts 3 wise monkeys Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru and places them under a palm tree via some miraculous paper torture. See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil is a pretty good life philosophy but there were evil words muttered whilst this fold was wrestled into place.
Getting the monkeys to look monkey-like with the density the body ends up being is a real challenge. facial expressions, such that they are, and arm postures alike were tough fought, but I am pretty happy with the end result.
I have learnt a lot from this exercise – vellum can be folded, but fatigue shows itself as splits, particulalry at the pointy ends. It hates being re-folded in the opposite direction on a fold (reversed), is VERY strong, once folded it stays there – consequentially, this model is rigid and is not trying to unfurl (much as I imagine tissue-foil behaves).
Will I use it again? not sure – when my tissue-foil arrives along with my Satoshi book I now have a point of comparison, I am honestly surprised the model worked at all, but will accept congratulatory applause now.
You too can have a go here – be warned, this is NOT an introductory exercise.
Happy Birthday to me 🙂
Now I stumbled across this recipe for a snail, only problem was all the instructions were in Thai:
Quite by coincidence, we are having home-cooked Thai tonight (I make a mean beef and basil) but NOT cooked with snails
So I gave it a whirl – in the end I had to work from the way diagrams looked, think I nailed it, difficult to tell – this snail has a lovely shell, head/feelers and foot – quite my favorite mollusc so far
I really like how the shell becomes 3d, with some tweaking and some textured paper this would be really beautiful (well, as beautiful as a snail can be at least)
you all remember that feeling, right – the “new car” feeling, right down to the upholstery smell and the plastic covering the seats:
A mate, Gavin, recently bought his first new car – a white Subaru Impreza (or something similar) so I decided to make him a paper version to remember the occasion
I like this model a lot – preliminary fold with some clever sinking to form the roof, windscreen and windows
Long may it avoid dings – congrats mate.
…so my Wife and I went to see the fourth installment of “Pirates of the Caribbean” (admitting to be fans) and discovered Capt’n Jack’s beloved “Black Pearl” had been imprisoned in a bottle by Blackbeard (amongst other piratical stereotypes trotted out this adventure):
So I got to thinking about ships, and found a lovely “fully rigged ship” by Patricia Crawford, in the book “Origami – Step by Step”
I had previously made a bottle as designed by David Brill so put the two together and got a satisfying rendition of the classic “ship in a bottle”, which counts as my ONE model today, given the bottle has previously been folded, and the ship stand (Designed by Fred Rhom) do not count (cut me a little slack here).
I learned a LOT folding this thing – scale matters (had to scale the bottle to fit the model AFTER it was finished), cellophane (which the bottle is made out of) does NOT like being cut straight nor folded, nor does it intend to ever stay folded (I resorted to anchoring it in place with sticky tape – so sue me) and finally how jolly hard it is to photograph something INSIDE a bottle made of cellophane.
Still, I think the Black Pearl may well survive to sail another day, the scene after the credits (that few of us theater patrons hung around for) would indicate the adventure continues.
So tonight I went to see the School Musical with All Hallow’s School and St. Joes “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown”:
The show was wonderful, congratulations to all involved on such a slick production. It reminded me of how charming the characters Charles M Schultz created all those years ago and how relevant their observations of the world still are.
I looked for a Snoopy on his doghouse, but could not find a diagram, so settled on a Robert Lang model I had wanted to try – and I think this looks a little like Snoopy. Folded from “Origami Zoo”, a master work.
I like the posture and proportions of this model, expression in the dog and the fact that when I folded it, he looks like a naughty puppy banished to the doghouse.
Now I saw this “donkey” model and had a go – I think the diagrams are a little inaccurate because my first fold ended up looking a lot like Bambi
Beautiful head, strong forequarters that could withstand some more modelling but the back quarters and weedy tail are in need of work – they cannot all be gems
High on a rocky promontory sat an Electric Monk on a bored horse. From under its rough woven cowl the Monk gazed unblinkingly down into another valley …
And so begins one of my favorite books of all time “Dirk gently’s Hollistic Detective Agency” by Douglas Adams.
Today we remember DNA, and carry a TOWEL in his honour – may he rest in peace.
Whlst i could not find a “towel” origami (interestingly there IS a branch of origami that deals with folding towels for guest beds into exotic shapes) I thought I would go with the Monk – I decided against the bored horse – am convinced that this monk is more than willing to believe anythig it is programmed to believe in, as a service to it’s master … if you haven’t read the book – do so, it is fab!
