On February 15, Chinese New Year kicks off – 2015 is the year of the Goat, but a sheepie is close, right? I thought I would take a preemptive strike given that I am sure to be really busy at work by then.
The latest Tanteidan magazine features diagrams for Beth Johnson‘s Sheep – a lovely 2 part model and I was itching to give it a go. Continue reading
I have been a fan of Star Trek since it was possible to be so, love the franchise, movies, series, the lot. I saw a diagram that resulted in an ATAT (All-Terrain Armoured Transport) – one of many fairly silly designs from The Babylon 5 universe, and with some shaming from a friend (thanks Dodes) I decided to give it a whirl.
If you were making a vehicle for battle, the last thing on the design bench (apart from a 2 legged chicken-like bipedal mobile gun turret) would be a quadruped.
Any Browncoat worth his part of the ‘verse would be able to ride their Viper Mark II with cables attached, tangle the legs and bring the thing down, like a heavy, falley-downey thing.
As 2014 rolls to a close, we welcome the new year:
These are digits designed by Andrey Lukyanov, as demonstrated via videos by the talented Sara Adams – check them out.
Happy New Year!
In the hiatus between receiving parts of the Ryujin to fold, I am always on the look out for something interesting to fold.
I first saw Froy’s Burr Puzzle on the Hong Kong Origami Society’s forum and decided to give it a try. Continue reading
For much of the past year (2014) I have been learning how to fold Satoshi Kamiya’s Ryujin 3.5, as taught to me via a series of lessons cunningly devised by Daniel Brown (Mr Origami). I started this project on March 21.
This is Part 3 of a series that also includes Part 1, Part 2
Lesson 18 was folding the head in isolation – I must admit that even when searching for photos on how the head of this beast should end up, none really make it clear. What is clear however is that there is a terrifying amount of detail.
Following photodiagrams (in 3 phases 18a, 18b, 18c), I ended up with a beautiful thing that is my take on how a eastern dragon head should look. Continue reading
There is always time to make a little peace in our world.
It takes incidents like those that unraveled yesterday to realise that peace is a choice we make as participants of the world on which we live. Continue reading
A dear friend (*waves to Caff) holidayed in Europe, visited Florence and found some amazing block-printed handmade paper, popped it in a post pack tube and mailed it to me.
To be honest, I have struggled to use this paper because it seemed a such a terrible shame to cut it. Lovely irregularities, vibrant colours and relatively heavy cardstock suggested that a kusudama might be the solution.
Thumbing through Tomoko Fuse’s book “Multidimensional Transformations, Unit Origami”, I came across a unit called “little turtle” that I had not tried. I think they got the name because, as part of the folding process of the unit you make a shape similar to the “turtle base” I have used for other models.
…so I am a teacher, and I teach senior students:
I have, on occasions, joked about how cool it would be to own a Segway – my classes are physically far apart and getting between campuses takes time, hence the idea that a PTD (personal transport device) would be cool. I _never_ in my wildest dreams imagined my students would do anything about this pipe dream – let’s face it, we all say things in jest.
It was an ambush, total surprise – I think I was the only one who knew nothing. It still gives me goosebumps thinking about it. I was teaching my year 11 class when the whole year 12 class arrived headed by Tom on a Segway. They had crowd-funded a second hand one as a end of year gift – wow, just wow!.
Not sure if you have seen it but I enjoyed “Guardians of the Galaxy” – nice escapist buddy movie whose adventure that does not withstand much scrutiny from a plot perspective. Love the characters, particular Rocket Racoon and Groot.
When I first saw Groot on screen, I knew he was perfect origami material, resolving to design something similar to my tree model for him, but Luciffer Chong beat me to the punch with his simple yet effective Crease Pattern.
I see influences all over for this model – lovely joisel-like hands, Acuna-like arm formations, I am sure I will fold him again – might be fun on some rough textured hand-made paper also. Continue reading
A mate, Tim, knew of my paper bending tendencies. He is also a Bank Manager and so he came across a rareish paper Australian $20 note:
Once upon a time, boys and girls, Australian currency was made of paper, not shiny brittle plastic as it is now.
Much to my surprise, a letter arrived addressed to me, containing a lovely crisp $20 note – limited edition and precious, along with the instructions to make something out of it.
I have agonised about this – creasing a rare thing is fraught with guilt and I am sure currency collectors would be horrified, but it came with challenges – most “dollargami” is geared towards American “greenbacks” which are not 2×1 – the $20 note is oddly a 2×1 rectangle, meaning conventional dollargami landmarks are in the wrong place. Continue reading
A work colleague is going on Long Service Leave – lucky bastard! It appears he had no end of trouble buying a camera for travelling, so I thought I would make him one as an hooroo gift:
Designed by Won Park, this little SLR Camera is tiny, but has a viewfinder, winder lever, shutter button, pop-up flash and lovely lens all sticking out of a lovely boxy body.
Genius design, if tiny and torturous, I hope he likes it. Continue reading
Procrastination, thy name is Wonko!
I had some time, and some coloured paper, so decided to try Daniel Kwan’s lovely geometrical modular:
Simple units, reminiscent of Frances Ow’s 60 degree unit interlock to form one, then two etc triangular prisms – choice of nice bold colours make this a real charmer. Continue reading
The international sign of Peace is a Dove holding an olive branch in its beak
The world could use a little peace.
As part of our student end of term send-off, our littlest students (year 5) had prepared origami(ish) doves with messages of peace, to be sent to places where the wishes will be appreciated. Continue reading
…so I am folding this crazy big dragon at the moment – insane 2mx2m square to make something ridiculously time-consuming. A work colleague of my wife gave me a pair of raggedy USD$1 greenbacks and asked if I could do anything with them:
I ironed the notes to crisp them up and flatten the worse of the existing crumples (they are old notes, one nearly falling apart) and began bending a Won Park creation I had been itching to try.
The fold is very dense, helped and hindered (in equal measure) by the robust note paper, and the level of detail here is nuts – the head has 3 sets of horns, eyes, 2 fangs, bottom jaw. Each foot has a set of claws, the body has dorsal spikes and the tail has an ornate tuft. Continue reading
After much care and attention, diligently following expert lessons (courtesy of MrOrigami’s Daniel Brown), I have managed to successfully navigate lessons 1-11 in what promises to be an ever intensifying journey towards understanding the whole model. This is PART 2 of a previous post. Part 3 also exists.
Along the way I have learned a LOT about myself – patience is it’s own reward. If at first you do not succeed, try, try and try again (something I needed to do for lesson 11 – which I folded 4 times until I got it right, each attempt taking me 12ish hours)
I can see why Satoshi Kamiya (the astonishingly talented designer) has not folded lots of these – the detail (and there is LOTS of details here, most you cannot see) needed to let the paper sit correctly whilst transitioning between elements is breaking my brain.
So far, I have learned elements of the design in isolation:
The lessons after this appear to tackle larger and more complex chunks – the aim to get all pieces to co-exist on the same sheet.
Interestingly, although it is time consuming, I am finding the process fascinating, each piece gains a sort of momentum that propels me on to finish it and get it right, and I look forward to the next part with a sort of morbid curiosity.
I bought some WIDE Kraft online (90cmx30m) and, depending how it behaves, intend to laminate 2 strips together to make a square nearly 2m x 2m as my first attempt of the whole model – no idea if that will be big enough, we shall see.
The Lessons continue. Continue reading
