1052: Theremin

I am a firm believer that people learn something important when they try to do something they are not good at. I have recently bought a Theremin, and I want to pretend that I am anything but not good at playing it, but, like, it is hard to master:

Origami Theremin

I noticed that a Theremin has a distinctive shape: an upright antenna that you use to control pitch (the high-lowness of a note), and a horizontal antenna loop you use to control volume. To my (not so great) surprise, I discovered that no one had yet done an origami model for this thing, so set about having a go.

I started with the fish base, long flap for the pitch antenna, long flap for the stand, then 2 shorter flaps become the volume loop. Some accordion pleating and the basic morphology is there. You can (I hope) see the development in the sequence below:

It is a start, I might try to refine it (add knobs, refine the antennae, etc). Happy with v1.

927: It’s All About the Base

One approach to paper folding starts with a “base” – a form with flaps and general morphology that suits an end goal.

A well-designed base is a thing of beauty, and a flexible tool.

This base, a mutated fish base has really useful properties as demonstrated by these two wildly different folds, both designed by Jose Ma Chaquet from Spain. Continue reading

739: (189/365) “Shoulda’ bought a Squirrel”

Cautionary advice indeed for anyone who has seen the movie comedy “Rat Race”:
We saw our first live squirrels when we first travelled to the UK, in a lovely park in Holland Park (interestingly the same suburb name we live in now here in Australia).

Lovely little grey filly, impossibly fluffy tail, cutely flitting around in the underbrush. Continue reading

658: (108/365) Yoshizawa’s Goldfish

Few origami masters did more for modern origami than Yoshizawa Sensei:

With delightfully few folds, his models evoke shapes, creatures and personalities. Continue reading