45min

351: Diaz’s Stallion

| wonko

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.

349: Orca

| wonko

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.

338: Maekawa’s Triceratops

| wonko

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.

336: Maekawa’s Cow

| wonko

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.

335: White Rabbits!

| wonko

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.