This time of year is horrible. The plain truth of it is that, for a teacher, we have more marking than a reasonable person can do, and deadlines that seem impenetrable:
I guess it is why teachers in Australia are payed the big bucks, right? [more of this post…]
Sometime a simple model has a charm of its own:
This tadpole is a relatively simple exercise in box pleating to isolate tail and back legs but the shaping is lovely. [more of this post…]
Many origami designers have tried to pack lots of details into the one sheet. I have folded Brian Chan’s One sheet Rose many times but I like the simplicity of this flower, stem and leaves:
Using some interesting box pleating and colour management make a rather nice simple flower atop a divided stem and pair of leaves. [more of this post…]
September 1 is often trotted out as the first day of Spring in the Southern Hemisphere:
Purists will argue that the spring equinox is not until the 21st of September, but with the climate as it is, it has felt like spring for weeks now in Brisbane. [more of this post…]
Flipping through Tanteidan convention books I have I came across a delightful little figure that was screaming to be folded in orange:
This is Riki Saito’s “Mr Puppet Man”, but I reckon he looks a lot like “Elmo” so I am calling it so. (On second thoughts, isn’t Elmo Red? Oh well, never mind) [more of this post…]
Looking for something to fold that was vaguely “insecty”, I stumbled across a lovely box-pleated fly mangled from a 2×1 rectangle:
Based on a 16×32 grid, we isolate head, legs, lovely plump abdomen and leave the back flap for a lovely set of wings. [more of this post…]
I want to pretend that we have a discernible Autumn in Brisbane, indeed there is a moderation of temperatures, but we lack the temperature drops and seasonal flora to clearly mark the change of season:
Having been places that have deciduous trees, and seen the glorious colour changes in leaves from yellow to red and all colours in between I appreciate the milder climate but miss the beauty. [more of this post…]
As part of my JOAS membership, I get sent magazines with models to try – a really excellent collection of complex models from the worlds best designers. When I saw Satoshi Kamiya’s Dragonfly, I was really scared of it.
The level of pleat management and re-arrangement of flaps and layers is truly terrifying when viewed as a whole.
As a “treat”, to reward my marking progress (I am a teacher, I set assessment but hate marking it) I allowed myself to complete a couple of steps each sitting. This fold has taken place over the period of 3 weeks, a little at a time. the advantage of this method is that I did not get freaked out by what was to come, just concentrating on the couple of steps I was allowed to complete. [more of this post…]
To celebrate the 500th unique fold documented on this blog, I thought I would hold a guessing game whilst trying a fold I have been considering for a while.
This is “Horse Laugh” by Kunsulu Jilkishiyeva from Nicholas Terry’s “Drawing Origami Tome 1” – a fun fold that sees some amazing box pleating and layer management to make a really detailed head (with lips, teeth, eyes, the works), tail, rather lovely mane and some funky legs. [more of this post…]
In need of some therapy, and with my procrastinator set on FULL, I embarked on a punishing box-pleating exercise:
I remember as a kid in New Zealand we had a cheezy Cuckoo Clock (Mum loved it) that used to have metal pinecones as counterweights and a faux timber case that used to “cuckoo” and scare the life out of me every hour. It had the loudest tick of any clock I remember.. I am fairly sure it did not survive the emmigration back to Oz because I do not remember it afterwards.
Robert Lang is known for beautiful mathematical models and when I first saw photos of his “Black Forest Cuckoo Clock” it seemed impossible to tease all that details out of an uncut sheet. [more of this post…]