93: Lang’s Pillbug

| wonko

Now when I was a kid, ferreting around in the underbrush, we used to call these little chaps “Slaters”, as a Biology teacher, I referred to them as “Wood Lice”:

These isopods were made famous by “A Bugs Life” – remember the foreign tumbling critters Tuck and Roll? They are a sort of primitive crustacean and have a myriad of legs, body segments, are rarely bigger than 1cm in length and are usually grey or light brown (depending on how much light they have been exposed to.

Mistakenly I decided to try a “simpler” model than my chosen Joisel model which stated it needed much bigger paper to make it even possible – I cursorily scanned a Lang design and settled on this – it looked simple enough – boy was that a mistake.

This has taken me AGES, and so often I thought it was going to hell in a handbasket. So much paper torture to get to the stage when it said to do 8 3-way accordion crimps (like Hoodie) and I was ready to give up. Instead, I made a cup of tea and persisted.

It has 14 individual legs, a pair of antennae, 10 body segments and I think it is just plain awesome that it worked, first fold.

You may applaud now.

It amazes me that this pattern was generated MATHEMATICALLY first – Mr Lang, you are a genius – everything in its place based on some seriously wonky geometry constructed by exhausting pre-creasing. Very happy the paper survived and it looks like it should.

This model elevates me to Paper Ninja status (and reminds me to consider MORE carefully before launching into a model).

92: Wedding Bells

| wonko

Twenty Eight years ago today I married the love of my life, today we celebrate our anniversary (awwww):

Rather than purchase a Hallmark moment, I thought I would put my craft skills to the test, so I did (as my second fold) a smaller gold version, affixed it to a specially printed card for the day

I discovered that plasticised wrapping paper is fairly good fold-wise, but wants to unfold itself, so I fixed it together with sticky-dots and pressed it flat before attaching it to the card. Difficult to do in secret also it turned out.

I have seen a lot of smaller models that would look great on a card, and it seems there is a movement in the origami community that specialises in just such models.

This fold is taken from “More Origami” by Robert Harbin and is a nice variation of the stretched bird base.

Candle-lit dinner to follow, nice. Happy Anniversary Jo xoxoxo

March Done and Dusted

| wonko

Wow, this month seems to have gone on forever:Looking back there have been sone awesome models in the month of March (which sadly raises the bar for subsequent months I guess) – hedgehog, jack-in-the-box and more.

Models put away in the archive box, a new month begins…

90: RocketShip

| wonko

Now I was admiring a primary (well, we are supposed to call them lower middle school) student’s created paper plane because it used so many neato Origami folds and he said he could get me the design:

Little did I realise that he and his parents then copied a bunch of paper plane models for me to try – this rather nifty rocket was amongst them.

I like this model, it reminds me of old-school scifi rocket design (think Wallace and Gromit “Grand Day Out” and you can see where I am going with that) – Flash Gordon would be envious I am sure. It also flies really well – the weight distribution makes it ideal as a projectile.

Many thanks Alex T and family 🙂

89: Koala

| wonko

Not to be beaten, I returned to my Japanese Origami book (all instructions and nomenclature are in Jap) to try to learn conventions and symbology on a simpler model, given how the centaur yesterday turned out I figured I should start simpler:

I like this model – a Japanese figurative Koala (probably folded from an idea, not by someone who has ever seen one) – the tummy is full, it has a “stoned” expression on it’s face and it’s posture is satisfying.

I had never seen koalas in the wild (except for far off blobs someone else tried to convince me was actually a koala and not a dead branch) until Jo and I traveled to Cape Otway in January 2011 – to see them in such great numbers, clambering skillfully in trees, close enough to touch was a rare privilege (and a secret safe because no one is following this blog:P )

88: Centaur

| wonko

Fools rush in when angels fear to tread:

This looked simple, and the instructions made sense (up to a point, they were in Japanese and some odd symbols I had not encountered before) but I should have looked ahead … this size and type of paper (and my noobishness in this fold) resulted in a poor first fold – but I learned something in the process. I was rushed, stressed and interrupted but meh.

The hind-quarters are sort of right, interestingly the hands have 5 fingers each, the head/shoulders malformed and the arms out of proportion. Were I to fold this again I am confident it would be better. The SCALE was the main issue.

They cannot all be gems I suppose

87: Grim Reaper

| wonko

Thanks for the suggestion Simon, this little “Reaper” does not look so grim:

A relatively simple fold, few features, suggestive of form, I like it. Looks a little like a Dementor from Harry Potter’s world (except it is carrying a worrying scythe).

Why a Grim Reaper? One computer dies, another is built to replace it, the process is not always painless – you get that.

86: Bookcase

| wonko

The first box pleating exercise I ever did was this bookcase:

The whole thirds thing did my head in as a young folder, now it seems simple – I guess that with practice comes skill development – I wonder if that is a principle that would be useful in education?

I regret making this so small now, but I guess it is perfect dolls-house height, if only I had a … dolls house. A 2×1 rectangle cut from the width of an A4 page. I like how all the bits tuck away, reinforce the shape and the resultant model is so tidy. Folded from “Secrets of Origami” by Robert Harbin

85: House Gecko

| wonko

Recently I have noticed a proliferation of geckos around our house – after research it seems it is not a native but an introduced species. The “Asian Hose Gecko” apparently came over amongst ship cargo and now is over-competing with our native species:

I like these little fellows, even though they are illegal aliens – they eat bugs (we have not seen a roach or many moths for ages) but they get everywhere, crap inelegantly on everything and make a loud but cute “clucking” sound when they are randy – unfortunately this is usually in the middle of the night when all else is quiet and asleep.

This model was torture, and a result of poor planning on my behalf – I cut the largest 4×1 rectangle possible from an A4 page to begin this model and then realised that this was TINY (well, in fact, the model turned out LIFESIZE), given how much torsion the paper would need. The tail is lovely but was hard work, the pattern malformed the head (I dug some paper back out of the body to fix that) and the legs are clumsy (because my fat fingers could not detail stickey-outey bits that small and thick with any great precision (thank goodness for fingernails).

Taken from “Origami 4” by Robert Harbin, designed by Max Hulme, it is a little beauty nonetheless, quite chuffed it worked first-fold when in reality it looked like it was going to hell at a number of junctures. I must try this one bigger.

84: Tie Fighter

| wonko

So our school did a fundraiser today – crazy tie day (yeah, I know it sounds a little lame to pay to wear a novelty tie, but it is for charity):

I decided to interpret that non-traditionally, so made a TIE FIGHTER, from Star Wars (cue sfx: pew pew pew!) … well, I thought it was cute anyways.

After looking at reference footage, and the model (which is fairly faithful) I am left wondering how the floop these things were supposed to fly – Science Fiction expects a lot of us sometimes.

You can have a go also: Tie Fighter

83: Much Married Liz

| wonko

Sadly, Elizabeth Taylor passed away today (actually, embarrassingly, I thought she already had):The world is a little less bright without this starlet, they do not make them like her anymore.

I chose rings, she had a huge collection from the many husbands that bejewelled her life.

You can try these also:

82: Scottie Dog

| wonko

Looking for something that was quick, as I was out for most of the day, I came across a rather charming Scottie Dog:

This model by Neil Elias looks more like a pug puppy, but it could have been how I folded it – cute as a puppy, sitting, in profile however.

81: Pelican

| wonko

What a wonderful bird is a Pelican, whose beak can hold more than it’s belly can:

This elegant model by Ligia Montoya comes from “Secrets of Origami” by Robert Harbin. Relatively few folds, indicitave of form, nice and simple.

80: Knut in Memoriam

| wonko

To be honest I am not a great fan of Zoos, but in the case of Knut, a little Polar Bear cub rejected by it’s mother at birth, he would not have had 4 years of life in relative captive comfort.

I have been wanting to try Robert Lang’s Bear, from the book “Origami Zoo” for ages, this seemed appropriate, given the unexpected death of Knut yesterday (News Article). After you get past the odd proportioned rectangle (25cm x 15cm, cut from an A4 page), the actual design is fairly easy.

I really like the head, lovely ears and muzzle, powerful neck and suitably powerful legs (I even sneaked some bear claws in there – Mr Lang, there was paper, why not hey?). Although actually a brown bear, in white he looks suitably polar.

Happy with this model, as a first fold it could not have gone better.