I have recently completed the mammoth 50hr+ live fold-along festival called The Origami World Marathon. I folded as many as I could physically attend, and it is a super rare privilege to be actually taught by such world class designers.
I managed about 14 models live, slept some and can complete those missed because, as part of the purchased ticket I gain access to video tutorials from the designers for the next year – win, win.
Continue readingMy Mum had a large carpet snake take up residence atop her hot water system. Apparently he (she? who can tell?) was gentle, sleepy and knocked off some terracotta plant pots in his quest for a coil-spot:
Over a period of a couple of weeks, he moved about, basking, slithering and generally being a snek, then he buggered off (as they do).
Continue readingCautionary 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
Exploring Tanteidan Magazine 138, I noticed a rather lovely Frill Necked Lizard that I had not yet tried:
This is Gen Hagiwara’s Frilly, a torturous fold that spends lot of time isolating legs and tail from the large corner that would become the frill and head.
…so apparently, like, on the internets and stuff, Tiny Sneks are a thing, right:
This is Gen Hagiwara’s cartoon snake, a cute little model with lovely googly eyes and a smile.
I made it tiny… because. Continue reading
It is Australia Day “down under” on the 26th of January and there are few things more Australian than kangaroos (well, apart from football, meat pies and Holden cars, thongs, budgie smugglers, throwing another prawn on the barbie and getting a day off work):
I have folded a couple of previous versions of this kangaroo, designed by Gen Hagiwara, but never this version (version 2013 featured in Tanteidan Magazine 147). It is somewhat ironic that the very best Australian Kangaroo designs are from a talented Japanese designer – I wonder if it is because us Aussies take these critters for granted whereas they appear fantastical to people who do not see them often? Continue reading
My heuristic is that we do not get mail on Fridays – not sure it is always true but mostly. Last Friday I therefore did not check the mailbox. Sunday I discovered my Tanteidan had been delivered on Friday and I had left it for nearly 2 days before opening it.
On the cover, Gen Hagiwara’s violin – a sublime fold that I have seen many fellow paper-benders succeed at folding and I was determined to give it a bash.
