2019 is the Year of the Pig – a fresh page that you are free to form anyway you choose:
There are a pair of pig models in Tanteidan 172 I mean to try, this is the first – a wild boar piglet. Little known fact: boar piglets have stripes (presumably for camouflage) while vulnerably young.
When one looks at the symphony of bones and tendons that constitute human shoulders, one can only wonder why we then put it through contact sports like Rugby which so effortlessly re-arrange and break this complex calcium tangle:
This is Boney McBoneface’s shoulder assembly, an amazing mix of a vertebrae, lovely pair of integrated shoulder blades and a nicely perched collarbone.
It has fixing points for arms, integrates with the neck component, will provide a fixing point for the sternum (breast bone) and provides the starting point for the remainder of the spine. Continue reading
Not sure if Australia has any native species of Hummingbird:
Some “sunbirds” look similar but are not closely related species. Continue reading
Reading through Origami Bygota, I stumbled across Ma Yong’s charming penguin:
Clever use of colour change goes part way to defining a penguin, but proportions and general morphology also helps. Continue reading
Reporting is a beast of a thing, particularly semester reporting where we seem to joust with nit-picking grammar on parts of a report that parents do not read. Slaying the beast is particularly satisfying:
This is Riccardo Foschi’s Baby Lizard Dragon … thing. I found the CP and a photo of the finished model and thought ‘how hard could this be?’. Continue reading
I quite enjoy folding modulars – the way they combine to make a larger form can be fascinating and this module is no exception:
This is Dave Mitchell’s “Artefact” module, it can be put together in 2’s and 6’s. Continue reading
“Help me Obi Wan Kenobie, you’re my only hope’:
This is my second attempt at Tadashi Mori’s “Leia”, a fun fold that does so much with a tortured little piece of paper. Continue reading
I had a small but lovely piece of elephant-dung paper – now this is not as gross as it first sounds, the paper is cleaned fiber retrieved from elephant dung – yeah, ok, it does not sound any less grotty – lovely textured irregular and lumpy paper though it was:
I needed a model, Sebastien Limet’s Tarsier seemed most logical (given I had not folded it before and I thought folding it near life-size might be an interesting challenge).
There is much to love about this model – apart from the delicious expressiveness of the face, delicate grip of its primate hands or the prehensile grip of its tail, this is a real charmer.
I like that the face is implied, but I can see lovely big innocent eyes, sensitive ears and all the hallmarks of a delicate but mischievous “bush baby” which makes these little chaps endangered in the wild because rich folk sentence them to long agonizing deaths as pets outside of their native habitats. Continue reading
Now I am aware that a certain “Brent” recently had a birthday, and on that birthday I folded a creepy crawly, so thought it appropriate to counter the scary with “unicorns and rainbows”:
This is Roman Diaz’s Unicorn, lovely thing – mane, tail, beautiful ears, splendid horn.
Happy Birthday (all be it belated) Michael the Brent – may you live long and prosper. Folded amidst the rainforests of northern NSW
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.
Roman Diaz is one of many talented Spanish origamists and with this model he captures something of the proud noble stallion:
there is much to like about this model – apart from it being a nifty use of the fish/camel base, the posture, proportions and attitude evident in the horse are present in this little model. He is also free-standing, on 3 legs, neato.
A slight mis-calculation in scale made this model really difficult to fold – the thickness of paper and tiny details made shaping a real challenge – I will fold this bigger because there is much model-ability here, truly clever design.
I got caught up in a much more complicated fold and completely forgot I had no fold for today, so searched the list of “must dos” and came up with this one. Happy with this as a first fold.
Now I have gradually come to realise that captive cetaceans must lead a miserable life – dolphins particularly given tehy “see” with sonar, but the Orca is also something that does not belong in captivity:
This is Satoshi Kamiya’s Orca, well my go at it – for the most part it worked but there are some untidy parts that , in retrospect, I cannot work out if they were my fault or the fault of the diagrams.
With duo paper, this model is the standard black with white parts (or is that white with black parts) – was tempted to make the dorsal droop (in honour of “Willy” the orca who never actually managed to get free.
Inching towards the end of this project, need to be strategic with the models I choose, you get that sometimes.
I have folded a few dinosaurs, some have been simple but this little beauty has a good body shape and a fab head:
This is Jun Maekawa’s Triceratops – folded from his book “Genuine Origami”. There is something calming about folding a Maekawa model – I needed calming down as I had a model fail today – some super complex one with Russian instructions that made only partial sense.
I discovered Maekawa’s work relatively late in this project – there are many more in her collection that I would like to try – his models seem to have a “character” to them, difficult to isolate but her style is evident.
Near the end of a massive project – holiday time will see a mix of complex, ball-breakingly super complex and simple, I suspect – depends on where my head is at. I _want_ to pretend I have had a plan but, honestly, for the most part each day I decide there and then what I feel like folding – as evidenced by the mostly blank spreadsheet ahead of the day I have just folded. I like that tension (except when I arbitrarily try something too hard for me – you get that).
Very disappointed with the auction idea – after so much encouragement, to receive only 3 bids so far is disheartening and very depressing, thinking of abandoning the whole idea (and 4 of the 12 voices in my head are urging me to return to the bonfire idea) – you get that I guess, Internet “interest” is different from real interest in many ways.
Always on the lookout for a good COW, I stumbled across this little beauty:
This is Jun Maekawa’s Cow, an interesting fold containing many new techniques for me, particularly treatments for flaps you need to multiply (ie. one stickey-outey bit that becomes 3 via some neato crimping and a swivel or two).
I like this, it reminds me of those old world illustrations of cows that appear almost rectangular – great painters are not necessarily accurate anatomists.
Not sure if I have room for more cows in this project – we shall see what turns up. A little brain-fragged at the moment, a good rest after a particularly brutal week will be welcome.
A pinch and a punch for the first day of the month:
This is Jun Maekawas Rabbit, a lovely 3d head and body and an interesting development – some precision needed in the early stages else it catches up with you later on.
This is my LAST first day of the month – woo hoo! that means only 30 Models to go after this one.
Of the rabbits I have folded this year, I think my favourite one would be Lang’s – something about the body shape and ears. They are all good – bid on one if you are so moved.
