box pleat

326: Rough End First

| wonko

All too often we feel like we are dealt the “rough end” of the pineapple:

It is a curious expression that, I think at least, has something to do with inserting said pineapple in a pineapple-unfriendly place (makes my eyes water just thinking about it).

This is a pleated structure designed by David Petty and it contains techniques I will use elsewhere.

You can see the pineapple-like structure (squint, close one eye, through a mirror) … yeah, there it is and this design is meant to be folded with duo coloured paper, as the top would then be a different colour to the bottom – neat.

I have seen much larger paper sculptures using this “stretched pleated rib” technique and now I know how they were made, which is a good thing.

Paper and folding is taking up waaaay too much of my life right now – have other things I HAVE to do but will somehow muddle through,

303: Llopio’s Moment of Truth

| wonko

The croud erupts spontaneously with “Olé!” as Llopio narrowly dodges the bull calf’s first charge. His grandfather’s matador cap, too loose for him, slips and obscures his vision, there is an amateur swish of a cape as the bull’s developing horns pass too close for comfort, quick step out of the way and Llopio is finally a bullfighter.

This is “Llopio’s Moment of truth” – the reason I bought the British Origami Society’s compendium of Neal Elias figures. There is much to like in this complex box pleat. from one piece of paper emerges a Matador, Bull and the Cape that separates them.

I like how there is movement, you can sense the drama, a fitting end to my exploration of Neal Elias’ work. This fold is challenging, so much of the design is “mystery meat” where you just have to sort of “improvise” – you would not want to fold it much smaller, the manipulation of layers in the bodies is intense and fiddly and it is not immediately obvious what is going to be what until near the end.

Interestingly, only the matador is box pleated – unusually you torture 2 water bomb bases to get the bull and cape so this is a nice fusion between pure box pleating and free-form sculpture. Happy I have folded this, apparently if you fold it with duo paper the cape ends up being the alternate colour – wow.

302: Pereira’s Jack In The Box

| wonko

If you were ever after proof that “magic happens”, here’s your proof:

This masterpiece of design by Hugo Pereira is a Jack-in-a-box, complete. those who have been keeping up with this blog will remember a previous Jack in the Box by Max Hulme and I must admit I like this one better.

The design engineering alone in this model is breathtaking, from the box to the spring and then to the jack, the details here are lovely and structurally amazing.

So many technical elements here, from intense closed-sinks, folds that cause automatic puckers in the spring and just when you think you are near the end a tight pair of accordion folds to make the arms in almost Elias style.

I am so stoked with this, as a first fold. After an hour of pre-folding, the actual collapse took relatively little time considering the complexity of the model. I had relegated this model the “yeah, prolly not” pile because it just looked too hard – indeed, some of the manoeuvres only make sense if you look before, after and what that part will eventually be used for.

Sense of achievement – tick 🙂

298: Violinist

| wonko

When I saw this design I knew I had to try it:

Made, oddly, from a “T”-shaped box pleat, designed by Neal Elias in 1971 to celebrate the then popular violinist Yehudi Menuhin, this is a masterpiece of miniature modelling.

We have a violin perched on a shoulder, being held by that hand, a bow hand complete with bow, a serious head tilt, trousers, coat and even shoes! He also free-stands, which is all the more remarkable.

Seriously happy with this fold, I was convinced it was going to hell in a hand basket at 3 junctures when the instructions did not patch what the model had (flaps and creases in different orientations), but in the end it just sort of worked.

Interestingly, it was not all that hard, well, it seemed that way to me – given I had never attempted box pleating before the 365 challenge, I guess my skills have improved, which is a good thing.

297: Taxi!

| wonko

In old Chinatown, when someone wanted to travel in style, they hailed a “coolie” pulling a rickshaw:

This picture was common in days gone by, these days the hustle and bustle of bicycles, motorbikes and tuk-tuks has replaced the hard work.

This is Neal Elias’ “Coolie and Rickshaw”, designed in1967. An ingenious box pleat using a square and tidily fashioning a running man and a 2 wheeled buggy behind, replete with lovely conical hat, wheels and canopy.

I have been wanting to try this for a while, just because really. Taken from “Selected works 1964-1973” by British Origami Society. I am happy with this as a first fold. I modified the body and legs a little to add a sense of movement, and re-worked the wheels so they were round (the original design had them nearly square).