1110: Origami World Marathon 4

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.

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1104: BE the Water

For the last few years, over what was the Christmas holiday school holidays, I have gone lap swimming at a 50m pool near(ish) me. I always intended to continue into the year, but work and lane availability (due to squad training) at the times I could go always got in my way:

Having recently retired, I have been able to continue right into winter (the pool is indoor, it is heated) at a time that suits me, and choose to do it as one of my activities on Wednesdays. It is part of a broader activity set that is hopefully keeping me fitter and a little less fatter.

I first saw this lovely, simple, perfect design on Joseph Wu’s Facebook feed. It is a rare privilege to have one of Joseph’s designs shared step by step, and knew it was something I HAD to fold. It perfectly captures that delicate balance between clawing through the water, and drowning. The model is taking a breath on the left-hand side. This is something I struggle to do due to neck vertebrae fusion (for some reason right-hand breathing is easier). Swimming is a gentle exercise that is gradually giving me back some of the movement lost since the neck re-build.

I folded the model from a piece of Tuttle indigo dye duo paper that has a pattern that closely resembles the ever-changing abstract water caustics I swim through every time I get in the pool. I love the simplicity but also the accurate depiction of that, a very human act of swimming.

692: (142/365) Wu’s Modular Chess Board

Looking around for a chess board in origami was fun, there seem to be a few out there, including a few that use only 1 sheet of paper and a million creases to perform the necessary colour changes for the squares:

I discovered I could not source paper large enough to make a playable chess board, so looked for alternatives and stumbled across Joseph Wu’s modular chessboard. Continue reading

630: (80/365) Eastern Dragon

The dragon is a favourite subject for origami designers – most have tried their hand at one:

This is Joseph Wu’s “Eastern Dragon” – how can we tell it is an eastern dragon? It has no wings and does not need them to fly. It is only us silly westerners that decided to rationalise the dragon morphology.

I have been meaning to fold this for ages – nothing like a 365 challenge to bring out the models on hold. Continue reading

170: The Happy Couple

Another parental milestone today. We are going with our daughter and her fiancé to look at a wedding and reception venue:

Lots on, important however to attend to that which really matters – family and friends.

Designed by Joseph Wu to me folded at the reception of a wedding (to give the guests an “ice breaker” activity to get to know the people at their table), a figurative “Happy Couple” – nice and simple.