2hrs

1028: Montroll’s Butterfly

| wonko

Flipping through “Bugs and Birds in Origami” by John Montroll one gains an appreciation for the clear design skills on show:

Montroll's butterfly

This is Montroll’s “Butterfly” – published in 2001, representing ‘old school’ design, the resultant model is lovely, efficiently uses paper and is morphologically pretty accurate – all this without the hundreds of instructions typical of more modern designs.

Montroll's butterfly views

Folded from a 30cm square of Daiso unryu (do they still make this? i have not been able to buy it for years), the work to isolate legs and antennae is delicious (if requiring precision) folding, and overall is a fun sequence minimally diagrammed.

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1007: The Difference Between a Duck…

| wonko

I am reminded of a joke, oft told by my Father In law: “What’s the difference between a duck? … Nothing … One leg is both the same”:

A duck

In looking to start some recreational folding I remembered a model from Wei Lin Chen I found ages ago but had not gotten around to until now.

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997: Western Dragon

| wonko

Western dragons are an attempt to make sense of a mythical flying beast – the whole wing-thing appears necessary, and the morphology is usually based on a giant lizard:

Redpaper's Western Dragon

This is a test fold of Redpaper’s “Western Dragon”, well my rendering of it at least, from his forthcoming book.

I have taken liberties, having folded it a couple of times to try and work out the most dense parts of the design, and required sheet size.

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996: Eastern Dragon

| wonko

Currently editing a book including designs by “Redpaper”, I decided to road-test his “Eastern Dragon” – an intense fold on the diagonal of a square.

I tried this with a 35cm square of japanese tissue and was unable to realise most of the detail, so scaled up to a 65cm square of duo kraft and found it more manageable.

Red Paper's Eastern Dragon

There is a bot to take in here, the front claws are cute, the facial expression reminds me of the chameleonic monster from “Monsters Inc” but I think this model is really challenging on a few levels.

The back legs are an intense ride that results in fairly clumsy toes, but it is free standing on them in tripod and the rather odd tail. The neck is bent back and forward to point the head forward. If I were to re-fold this, I think large format double tissue would help, and there is so much paper in the body that I am sure you could make that more textured.

The fold sequence contains some mystery meat also – the formation of the legs is a bit smooshy (or it was for me), and the antlers were also tricksey, but it was an interesting ride. Keep your eyes out for the new book – there are some fab folds in it for experienced folders.

993: Roman Diaz’s Deer

| wonko

When asked by a colleague for a model that evokes memories of Japan, Miyajima’s Deer are right up there:

993 - Roman Diaz Deer

I started with a 45cm square of plain Kraft, and started folding – as much for therapy as it was for exploring a new model I am amazed I have never folded before.

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