Exploring the geometric folds of Rebecca Gieseking, I was taken with cyclindric transformations:
Using calculated crease patterns, a cylinder can be “shifted” using a peculiar tapered spiral, or “bent” using a curved “gusset” – interesting stuff,
Folded using printer paper, I think it would look nicer with slightly heavier paper, the trick is accuracy and crisp creases. I must explore these techniques more.
I cannot for one moment pretend that all my folds work out – indeed I have sent LOTS of paper to landfill as twisted wrecks of models i have later mastered.
A single week (with work, life etc) for me was not a challenge I could complete – the Harlequin model is a glorious extension of a “gnome-like” structure, the pre-creasing took me 2 days alone.
I managed the collapse, fairly cleanly, managed to isolate all the key features (face, hat, bow, cape, arms with ruffles, skirt and puffy-pants legs with diamond stockings. I ran out of time shaping, sadly.
Wet folding requires application of water and/or MC, molding, clamping and waiting for it to dry before moving on – the process is tedious, long winded if you have to go to work, sleep etc as well as shape. A piece like this would typically take at least a week to shape alone, so I am not sure it was a good model choice for a week challenge – that said, a couple of folders managed it – I have no idea how.
I will re-fold this, when I am less time-restricted. I am sad I did not complete the challenge actually – it upset me to think I did not have a week 4 entry. the process of acceptance has kicked in however and I am stoic enough to look back at what I did achieve over the past 4 weeks. I am inordinately proud of my efforts, regardless of what the judges thought.
I reflect on Joisel’s legacy a lot – he passed 10 years ago today, I remember the shock that consumed the origami community at his passing, but celebrate his artistic contribution – he re-defined shaping, “breathing life into paper” like no one else.
If you are interested in the challenge, other entrants and the whole shebang, go here: https://tributoajoisel.wordpress.com/ for the tribute competition home, galleries etc.
I had a 12cm square of thin crisp Kraft and decided to try the Riccardo Foschi CP for his gecko. This required a 32 square grid, making resultant pleats 4mm or less each:
I figured this was a good test of my accuracy, and found it quite relaxing but fiddly with my nerve-damaged hands. I am working on my CP deciphering skills, and this seemed quite straight forward.
Continue readingAfter what feels like ages, I am returning to recreational folding (it is great therapy):
This started as a mystery CP by Sergio Guarachi, that I sort of solved, then researched and realised I collapsed it more or less correctly. I am still a NOOB when it comes to solving CPs, so was a little chuffed that my collapse liberated a workable number of points, and with some creative smooshing (an actual origami technique) got a fair approximation of a human skeletal hand.
Continue readingLately I have been folding a lot of faces – some free-form, some crease pattern (CP) based:
This is Mask #16, designed by Flynn Jackson, folded from cardstock, painted bronze.
I am beginning to get a “feel” for facial features – repetition and practice of free-folding helps me realise nuances between face structured, position of key anchors (brow ridge, nose, mouth) and how to set the eyes.
Continue readingExploring the notion of curve-following corrugations, I drew a section of a sine wave, placed a series of graduated squares diagonally along it, constructed diagonal bisectors and extended them to the bounding boxes. then tiled, mirrored and flipped copies to construct a sine-wave that extended over an A4 page:
Although tiny, I used a stylus to score the necessary creases then spent a couple of hours delicately collapsing it.
The first few creases did not cooperate but as more of the structure emerged, it reinforced the remaining collapses and it sort of started to look after itself. Explore further the Maths behind this technique in this published paper.
Continue readingI will admit to being a sci-fi nerd, few movies did it for me like the original “Alien” movie, directed by Ridley Scott, designed by Hans Reudi Geiger.
The truly original mixture of a genuinely terrifying xenomorph, claustrophobic and grimy working space ship and stellar cast makes the movie, at least in my mind, perfect.
Prior to that, space was clean (painfully white and tidy, according to the Star Wars, Blakes7, Flash Gordon and Dr Who visions), in Alien gear looked used, people were pissed off and tired, and we were introduced to a much loved and never duplicated alien.
H.R. Geiger imagined a life-cycle – from egg, to facehugger (this beastie) that implants an embryo deep in a host, chest burster through to adult killing machine. Scarily insectoid, acid for blood, no eyes, perfect.
Continue readingSometimes, just sometimes, it has to be noodles – rice or wheat, in broth, that are schlurped while way too hot, because … reasons:
I saw a crease pattern (CP) by Jinjang on an origami Discord I frequent and (in the season of justifiable procrastination) had to fold it.
I think there are errors on the CP, as I found I needed to adjust crease lines to properly form the bowl, and would probably manage the colour of the lip differently next time, but as a first fold this was a really interesting exercise.
Continue readingCruising Reddit, I came across a CP and photodiagram describing a fold designed by Lysiuk Dzmitry:
Being a breadmaker, I was drawn to the lovely little loaf – razor marks in the crust and nice squared ends.
Continue readingContinuing my quest to master the face, I decided to explore the facial widgets of CP#15, one of many generous public designs by Flynn Jackson:
From a single uncut square, emerges the angular features of a lovely goblin.
I am particularly interested in the formation of the nose, and it’s linkage to the nose bridge – something I want to master for another long-term project.
Continue readingThere is a story of a deeply depressed man who, when seeking help from a psychiatrist, was given the advice that he should cheer himself up by seeing the visiting clown, the great “Joseph Grimaldi”. With the suggestion, the man wept more intensely. “I am Grimaldi”, he said.
I am terrified of clowns, just putting that out there. That said, I saw this little CP of a “Pierrot” with a silly hat and decided to procrastinate even further and attempt to fold it.
Continue readingSo GOT has started again, the final season and it is a promised shitstorm between people and the undead (sorry, if that is a spoiler).
It seems ALL of the trouble of the resident ice-zombies was caused by an experiment between a man and a race called “the children of the forest”, and some dragon glass, but that plot point will be explored further I guess as the series winds up. This mask reminds me of what I imagined the children of the forest looked like when I read the books.
Continue readingThis 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? Continue reading
Now I am pretty sure that “ninja stars” were not really a thing, but – meh:
This rather charming woven six-pointed star is an interesting exercise in re-working a square into a windmill-like hexagonal base. Continue reading
Exploring Facebook, as one does, a delightful little sea turtle was posted in a group I am a member of by Migue Crm:
A simple 16×16 grid, some lovely waterbomb collapses for shell scales and some lovely flippers make this a fantastic model all round. Continue reading
Anyone who has seen any of the “Lord of the Rings/Hobbit” movies will recognise the profile of this hat:
Gandalf the Grey wore a wondrous felt hat like this, Mike Luo’s “Witches Hat”. Continue reading
So you take a 2×1 rectangle, fold it into 4×2 squares, then halve the squares:
Then bring one pair of adjacent corners for each square, sink the dimply corner to lock, then repeat. Continue reading
Sometimes a simple crease pattern leads to some interesting emergent geometry:
This is Charles Santee’s “Star Block”, a 2 part modular that I found when trolling among Origami USA’s “The Fold” issue #22. Continue reading
Few would argue that the Tsuru (crane) is the quintessential origami figure. Everybody starts there, the form is so familiar and the skills necessary to fold it form the backbone of so many models:
While I have tried many variations of this model, few compare to Riccardo Foschi’s “feathered Tsuru”, a glorious and complex variation with such beautiful wings. Continue reading
Reporting is a beast of a thing, particularly semester reporting where we seem to joust with nit-picking grammar on parts of a report that parents do not read. Slaying the beast is particularly satisfying:
This is Riccardo Foschi’s Baby Lizard Dragon … thing. I found the CP and a photo of the finished model and thought ‘how hard could this be?’. Continue reading
