1hr

185: Bald Eagle for July 4th

| wonko

After abandoning a search for a decent “statue of liberty” model, I decided to settle on an American Bald Eagle as a symbol of independence, what the 4th July is celebrated for in the US:

After looking around, I settled on a figurative bald eagle by Robert Lang from “The Complete Book of Origami” and happy with many aspects of this fold.

Difficult to complete with copy paper, the thickness and brittle nature of copy paper means that several steps are likely to distress the paper severely and the body thickness makes shaping late in the fold difficult – quite happy with this as a first fold. I added pleats on teh wings to suggest feathers as I thought the wings needed it, and modded the talons a little to make them less clumsy.

Should I fold this again, I now know what becomes what and so would approach some of the steps a little differently, but living/folding is learning – right?

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

151: Gav’s New Car

| wonko

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.