…at a CROCODILE:
This little beauty started as a crease pattern suggested by Mark Leonard and ended up as this little snapper. The crease pattern suggests folds necessary to form the base, but finishing the model was an interesting challenge.
the feet are really reminiscent of a Joisel fold, and with a nice little tummy-tuck, his body stays round, ridge of roughness along the spine and a lovely head/mouth. Continue reading
Now I hate it when things get the better of me. Mid year I tried this model only to have it disintegrate in my hands half-way through amid a flurry of swearing:
This is Satoshi Kamiya’s Wizard – well, my rendition of it at least. It is fairly faithful to the instructions and I am totally stoked I actually made it to instruction 159 with paper largely intact and the resultant tortured mess looking even vaguely wizard-like.
This is a breathtakingly difficult fold – take ONE square of paper and from it fold a man (face, hat, hands with 5 fingers each) in a pleated, swirling robe, and make she he has a full-size staff as well. He free-stands, one hand grips his staff, the other is in mid-conjure and there is a sense of movement and authority about his pose.
Wow!
This has taken me an age, I have tried not to proceed until I actually understood the next instruction (no mean feat near the end when judgement is more important that reference creases) and for my first successful fold I am totally stoked. I videoed a 1.5 hour section near the middle of this model, last weekend, and thought Australia day (today, a public holiday) was as good a time as any to finally finish it. I did not take into account the effects of the stifling humidity of the paper, making it very brittle, so care, attention and only a little bit of swearing was necessary.
Now I know what ends up where, I suspect the next time i fold this (and yes, I think I will) will go more smoothly I suspect.
Now that the 365 challenge is over, I am free to fold (or re-fold) whatever takes my fancy:
This lovely critter is Dr Robert Lang’s Tarantula. I had a go at it earlier, using copy paper, and disliked the result so was determined to make a better one. For this fold I chose a 60cm square of brown paper and, over the course of the day, amongst other things, folded the spider.
I am constantly amazed by brown paper – it is tough, takes folds well and is so lovely and thin – making the legs and those torturous accordion pleats are that much easier with the right materials.
No paper fatigue, I like this attempt much better – lovely legs, great abdomen and thorax and some shapely pedipalps and fang-like mouthparts.
Our lives are a lot like a blank sheet of paper – WE decide when to put creases, who adds folds, how permanent they are and we are constantly given a fresh sheet to start over:
This is my interpretation of Eric Joisel’s “Self-Made Man”, a little origami man that is folding himself and I am stoked that this worked, given how little information I had to go on and the scale of the materials.
I started with a 78x130cm rectangle (3:5 for those trying to do the maths) and then transferred a crease pattern (the only clue I had as to how to actually achieve this model) on to the sheet.
The “collapse” was an exercise in self control really as the paper was really brittle and there were some complicated accordion pleats that seemed to turn in on themselves. The aim was to leave a square of paper (26x26cm) unfolded and build the little man (arms, legs, head) to seemingly appear from behind this sheet.
In the end, the layers were thick, it weighs a ton but more importantly he has loads of personality and is a fitting end to my 365 Origami Challenge.
In retrospect, this is an amazing fold and with some careful planning, patience and ample cups of tea I am so very proud to have folded it. Hope you like him too.
This little fellow has a special purpose, so will not be auctioned, sorry.
Wow. You know, sometimes a set of instructions for a model are so well designed that it is a pleasure to fold – time just … goes – so it was with this little beauty:
Robert Lang is a design genius, using mathematical and art sensibilities he has distilled what is essentially “mantis” and worked out ways of folding away everything but this essence.
Six beautiful legs, front two “prayey” ones with claspers, glorious head with inquisitive antennae, approporiate proportioned body and, well, wow, just wow.
I am not going to pretend that I did not struggle with this, but after yesterday’s model I was determined to go for accuracy, so necessary with so many accordion pleats. The legs are soooooo thin – painful to fold but amazingly brown paper survived without any paper fatigue.
I am so please with this model – all aspects of it. I folded opened-out paper clips into the legs to give them strength so she can stand freely and so the “knee” joints stay bent – 20+ layers of paper are really hard to bend and I envisaged accidentally snapping off a leg whilst trying to shape it.
I will fold this again, should I ever get some more suitable paper – needs to be tissue thin but really strong – normal paper will just not work. Bravo Mr lang, your figure is a masterpiece and I for one feel honoured to have folded it.
