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
45min
609: (59/365) Leia Organa
“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
451: Tarsier
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
368: Brent The Unicorn
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
363: Tree of Wisdom
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.