2xsquare

381: Rodin’s Reader

| wonko

It is little known (partially because it is blatantly not true) that Rodin, prior to sculpting his masterpiece “The Thinker” had an altogether different idea:

Our school library is celebrating the National Year of reading by exploring a different theme each month – March is “think” so I put 2 and 2 together and got 17.3.

Based on Neal Elias’s box pleat, this little model is cute with a Brill “Spelling Book” on his lap.

Will not be around for the next couple of themes so this will have to do for a little while

363: Tree of Wisdom

| wonko

You know that feeling when you plan (and see quite clearly in your head) something and then it turns out exactly like you envisaged it? This is one of those moments:

I had a model fail on a large sheet of lithography paper and considered binning the resultant crumpled mess, but remembered an origami technique pioneered by Paul Jackson in 1972 called “crumpling”. You take a piece of paper (I carefully unfolded the model fail) and systematically crumple it, unfold it, re-crumple in a different place and direction, unfold and repeat. The result is a deliciously textured and malleable sheet that can then be formed, when dampened slightly, into lovely organic shapes.

I had this idea of a gnarled tree (modelled on a bonsai I have had since before my 23yo son was born) and so set about fashioning one, twisted and poorly pruned though it is. I then wet it, and bound it with a little twine while it dried.

Atop this lovely tree is the most lovely owl by Hideo Komatsu – I have held off folding this because he is designed to be perched (as in he does not stand on flat surface but rather sits astride some horizontal thing.  1+1=a million. I love this, it is still making me smile and I know the perfect thing for him – sorry, NO auction for this one.

It is so rare that an idea so perfectly matches the expression of that idea but this is one such occasion. I have learnt so much about myself and paper over the course of this year that this model seems fitting as the project winds up.

354: Should have bought a Squirrel

| wonko

One of my wife’s favourite movies is a comedy called “Rat Race”, the title of today’s model is one of the “morals” of that cautionary tale:

Akira Yoshizawa is credited as being the father of artistic origami – he also invented the diagramming language we all follow now.

This is his squirrel – a lovely 2-part model that uses relatively few folds to reveal the squirrel-nicity of paper beautifully.

There is much to like about this model – lovely face and ears, nice posture and a bushy tail. I also like that most of the folds used judgement rather than landmarks – that way a little of the character of the folder is intrinsically captured in the model making no 2 folds identical.

An ingenious system of locking the 2 parts together is employed – the rear half has pokey-outey parts that are re-folded into the shoulder folds of the front half – nice work Yoshizawa Sensei.

331: Happy Hogswatch!

| wonko

I have been a fan of Terry Pratchett’s writing for as long as it was possible – his amagination and ability to tell engaging stories is breathtaking:

I thought it apt to celebrate “Hogswatch” – a Discworld event (and the name of one of the dozens of novels set in this amazing imaginary world). I am constantly amazed and amused with the stable of characters, situations and his turn of phrase – if you have never read a Discworld novel then you must, you really must.

This delightful model is my favourite pig so far. designed by Adolfo Cerceda, folded from “Secrets of origami” by Robert Harbin, my oldest (and a bit fall-aparty) hard-cover book.

Complete with a lovely fat face, saggy jowls, nice ears, trotters and a curly tail, this compound model (uses 2 bird bases) is fantastic – very happy with it – he makes me hungry for bacon – is that wrong?

We shall soon be considering Ham, turkey and all the trimmings, with the festive season fast approaching, hope your Hogswatch is a good one.

55: Green Tree Frog

| wonko

Now I like frogs, could not eat a whole one, but they are gentle animals – this model reminds me so much of those lovely soft green ones that we used to get back when the weather worked – you know, they lived under your toilet rim and emerged blinking into the light to feast on moths that fluttered around the flouro tube in the laundry:

I misjudged the scale a bit, sorry – it uses a 2×1 rectangle and initial glimpses at the method seemed to suggest way more crimping than actually was required – he ended up fairly life-size. I like the eyes, and the vestiges of padded feet – must find a more realistic one for my next frog – toes on all 4 feet are not that hard, surely (hahahahaha).

Why a frog? Well, my pastoral care group today (thanks to some superb golf-putting by Josh) won a golf tournament thingy and were presented with a HUGE bag of red frogs – I wisely took them and strategically decided to distribute them evenly AFTER classes finished, else my munchkins would have been bouncing off the walls I reckon with all that sugar and artificially deliciousness.