frog

233: Kawahata’s Locust

| wonko

Now I have not folded a model from Fumiaki Kawahata before because they looked so difficult:

The instructions I have come from her lovely book “Insects Volume 1” and are all in Japanese (problem number 1) and use a completely different set of sumbols to indivate things like repeat, turn over, sink, spontaneously combust etc which are also in Japanese.

I ended up just going on the before and after diagrams to make sense of what was happening when – not a very efficient technique on a 120 step model with dozens of “repeat behind” that I had to guess but, you know, that is part of the adventure -right?

This is a lovely model on all counts – the body is plump and 3d, the wings delicate 9single layer) with wing cover, feet including lovely sproingy back legs all int eh right place, lovely little antennae. plump and pleated abdomen – wow!

Originally I was going to use 18cm tissue foil and I am soooo glad I chose larger as the fiddly detail near the end would not have been possible with my fat clumsy fingers in a smaller format. I could not imagine trying to tackle this with normal paper as some of the sections are 12 layers thick and were difficult maneuvers even with tissue foil.

I will fold more from this book – the techniques are amazing and the models so lifelike – surely a rival to Robert Lang in terms of realism and complexity of model.

You may applaud now, I do deserve it for managing to get to the end with only a little bit of swearing.

219: Redback Spider

| wonko

This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of a technology that changed my life – The World Wide Web:

Tim Berners Lee posted the first web page ever and the model of online information sharing was changed forever. I thought a SPIDER was appropriate to mark the occasion and an Australian one to boot – given a large network of networks in Oz joined the world wide network of networks to form what we now know as the INTERNET (I am old enough to remember when there was no net).

This was a torturous fold – fiddly beyond measure and I am so glad I started with a large format sheet of tissue foil instead of even attempting it with copy paper – the legs are like 12 thicknesses, thinned down (proving that Mythbusters were wrong). Beautifully thin legs, plump inflated body and ferocious looking fangs – it is really creepy.

The instructions were almost completely diagrammatic, with only occasional random spanish annotations so I had to improvise, or look forward/backwards to work out what was happening in a bunch of places.

There is something vaguely creepy about putting a spiders head in your mouth the blow up the abdomen, even though I knew it was paper it just felt creepy. The instructions were deceptively complex – I have grown to hate the “repeat” symbol which hides hours of work. I am really quite chuffed however with the result and think it looks suitably like a redback spider (we have them on the northern side of our house), the typical front bundle of legs behind a large abdomen are quite distinctive. It is a variation of the “Black Widow” designed by Manuel Sirgo

213: A Foal

| wonko

Now in Australia, to save confusion, horse breeders take August 1 as the birthdate of ALL horses:

I made a foal, a newly born horsey to mark the occasion, he even looks unsure on his legs, but I cannot help but wonder what horses feel about us missing their actual birthday to celebrate the communal one. I wonder how horsey party supply places cope with the demand for balloons, streamers and cake?

This is a variation of “The Old Kentucky Horse” by Raymond H M’Lain from Robert Harbin’s “More Origami” ad the original model has always struck me as a much younger horse that promised – neato for today tho – Happy Birthday Horseys!

188: Edelweiss

| wonko

Now I am on the look out for effective flowers, and oddly Origami has lost of four-petaled ones (which in nature are fairly rare). this edelweiss caught my eye:

Made from a frog base and a deep sing, the bloom has a lovely symmetry about it and the stem works will together with it.

A simple fold, will try it out in colour als to see if it is effective – building up a repertoire of paper blooms soif I need to consider a bouquet at some time that is a possibility.

Why Edelweiss? 2 reasons – (1) Mum is home from the UK and it might be nice to give her flowers (awwww); and (2) I saw pictures of @Edelweiss – the dog owned by @jzagami and thought it so cute … yeah, I know, tissue thin justification but you get that.

Addendum: Made some light lilac blooms on 2 colours of green stems – they stack you see – noice, unusual, different – I hope my mum loiks them 😛

183: Hummingbird Feeding

| wonko

I have the greatest of respect for Robert Lang, his models are discussed mathematically and with great artistic intent also, and when I saw this hummingbird in “Origami Design Secrets” I knew I had to make it:

Having never actually seen a hummingbird (except on the telly), I am amazed and in awe of their size, industry and life habit. After folding the bird I decided it absolutely needed a flower to feed from, found a simple blossom in Harbin’s “Origami 2” by Toshie Takahama and fixed them together with the wire from a straightened paperclip and a (shhh) little double-sided tape.

Hummingbirds use huge amounts of energy to fly, and so feed voraciously on high-energy foods like nectar, so I can imagine my little bird about to plunge into the nectary of this flower for a much needed energy boost.

Am really pleased with this model – beautiful beak, breast and wings, the tail was a surprise as it came from a tortured sink early on. A masterful design that, from what I can gather, captures the intent of the bird mid flight. this makes it difficult to pose (as it has no legs) and, interestingly, every picture I have seen of this completed model is posed adjacent a bloom (presumably using the same support trick I used.

You may, collectively, go awwwwww now, as that was my reaction when stepping back from the handiwork.