Now I have seen a lot of dogs, some do not look very dog like, most in flat profile but this cheeky little terrier looks like it is expecting you to throw the ball for it – nice and simple, surprisingly, but lovely and dimensional (with a pudgy body and an alert expression on it’s face)
cutey little turned up nose, curly tail and the only type of dog I will let my kids have, sorry (they have asked, not in my house said I)
You should try this – really simple and delightful
Quite taken with box pleating, I looked for a 3D piece of fruit and came across Fujimoto’s Apple – a real bastard of a pre-creasing exercise that coalesces into a delightfully organic shape
I was heard to exclaim WOW as the mess of twisted and tangled paper started to take shape. Botanists will note this is a morphologically correct model – it is comprised of 5 sections/divisions as is the core of a real apple, has the right shape and is hollow.
Why an apple? Well, I have a saucepan of stewed apple and nectarine gently ticking away on the stove that will become the most delicious crumble later tonight … why not?
Please have a go at this yourself, if you can follow the instructions and understand the presenter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2e4jyWCtaU
…there are many variations of dragon (indeed, most experienced folders have their own variation it seems), some that do not look dragon-like at all, I like this one although it is a tough fold – so much paper gets gathered in the body that the final detailing is hard work using photocopy paper (discovering all sorts of limitations of the media).
I think I did a reasonable job (having never tried this model before), an A4 sheet reduces to a figure that is only 5cm tall, but the tail and hands/legs are ok and I quite like the wings that can be folded back or extended
You can have a go at this one yourself, it is great practise for “rabbit ear” folds, as this model uses a lot of them. The folding diagrams are mostly understandable but I found myself looking ahead to see where a fold would lead to to better complete it. It is of intermediate skill level (not a good introductory/newbie model)
…now I have many diagrams for cats, mostly flat models that do not look very cat-like but to find a chubby little kitten that is “anime” style is a treat – I like the head/ears and the lovely 3d body and playful tail
I had to resist drawing in whiskers and big anime eyes here, clever use of shaping after folding also to make front/back legs and the body bulge – hope you like it, I do.
You too can make one of these cute little blighters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwmjLFkSztQ
…so I set out to find a crocodile, found one that will do as a first try, the base it is built from has potential, but the limbs and head are in the wrong proportions, will keep looking I think:
He has all the bits a decent snapper should have, just not real happy with it (and yes, it is faithful to the pattern), I improved the body a tad.
Why a crocodile? Well, I was door knocking in a flood affected area, gathering information on what volunteers could do this weekend for householders and came across a family in a garage, in good spirits (no idea how they managed it, but there you go, human spirit hey) – they had concrete animals in their garden pre-deluge, as the flood waters rose, they retreated to their roof, and brought a concrete crocodile up with them. Rather cheekily, they said, as the waters rose above gutter level they positioned the concrete croc at the waterline, and dramatically huddled their family at the opposite corner of the roof so the overhead news helicopter would think they were being corralled by a crock – they chuckled about it when they told us. I love larrakinism – it can make an insufferable situation bearable.
You can make your own snapper here: http://www.craft-s.info/origami/videos/view.php?id=JBUnkhHnIXc&/How-to-make-an-origami-crocodile-1-2 … you know you want to.
Now I was quite taken with the whole “box pleating” idea so looked out some more designs that use this technique. This is a front-end loader, or bulldozer and was fairly fiddly to be honest
It does have an integrated scoop, hints of a caterpillar track and a nicely formed cab, but I think the folding pattern is incorrect at two key junctures, so I improvised.
have a go and see what you think: http://origami.happymagpie.com/diagrams/bulldozer.pdf
…so you gotta imagine this is blue (an unimagined limitation to my original white rule, doh!), the shape is fairly faithfully the twitter logo – tricky to get the head and feet angles/proportions right, and some thick folding through the body here
You too can fold your own twitter bird: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r38S8fjDUN0 … you know you want to
…as my daughter often points out, anything that is not pertaining to elephants is irrelephant (lol, she even has a tshirt that proclaims that).
So I thought I would make her an irrelephant
I have lots of elephants, this is quick and capable of some nice poses – I modified the body a little from the diagrams I had, rounded the tummy and repositioned the bum/tail to make it more “dumbo” like, might try another later in the year, we shall see. Nice big ears – does that make it an African or an Indian Irrelephant? … Google it now!!
…do or do not, there is no try.
I have seen a few Yoda models, this is one I decided to try – quite like the stance but geting the expression on the face and arms/feet right were tricksey. They can not all be gems I suppose
See if you can improve on this model, have a go at: http://www.fishgoth.com/origami/diagrams/yoda.pdf
I was looking for a nice mousey and stumbled across this tutorial, nice and easy to follow and the resultant mouse is so very cute – pudgy body, lovely ears and fantastic tail
Very pleased with how it turned out – remember all these models are first-go folds for me, no practice allowed.
You should have a go at this little cutie – the tutorials can be found at: http://origamiks.com/showorigami/289-origamiblog/7275-origami-tanaka-mouse
…so “box pleating” is a geometric style of folding where you take paper, divide it up and then pleat it into smaller modular shapes. I have never tried it, until now.
Made from a 4×1 rectangle cut from the longest side of an A4 page, this model design is very clever indeed – it features a cab, strong chassis with rounded wheels and an articulated tray* that actually tips – I could not stop smiliing as it came together whilst I folded it.
* Bassetts Frosted Jelly Babies sold separately.
Wanna give it a go? Jump here and try the fold yourself: http://origami.happymagpie.com/diagrams/dumptruck.pdf
I think we all feel a little slothfull from time to times, and this model is a nice representation. I particularly like the proportions and facial expression.
Danged photocopy paper is not good at taking repeated creases, the split down the face was a primary crease that opened up due to the thickness of paper at that point.
Subtle advertisement for QSITE anyone?
It has been fairly wild weather here in Brisbane, oddly as flood levels rise we awoke to bright sunlight – dams and mitigation schemes still to interact with the tides to peak our water levels.
Thought it might be nice to inject a little ray of sunshine into the otherwise bleak situation:
This is my first attempt at this model – another exercise in pre-folding where if you get it right, most of teh design just falls into place as if by magic.
I saw demoed on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHMZtIwiWRQ and thought was pretty neat – a lovely geometric that you can have a go at – we need all the sunshine we can get at the moment.
Some development shots:
So it is raining, and there are storms and floods, so how better to mirror that than with an articulated Origami model – this is a storm cloud, it’s lightning bolt snaps up and down.
…it was late, I was tired
We visited Cape Otway Lighthouse, there in the underbrush was a small, wet rabbit – very cute, so I thought it would be a good model to make.
Difficult (and I had to cheat with a cut to make the 2 lobes of the ears) – might search out another rabbit model that does not require cheating however.
Folded whilst in Victoria, on the Great Ocean Road.
