As often happens, I was approached by a mate to fold a model for him (MJ) – he wanted a “Chook” for a surprise gift for his wife (Nikki) on her birthday. I love a challenge, so began looking for the best origami chook.

Turns out there are LOTS of roosters out there, but relatively few hens that looks like hens – I wanted feathers, volume and a playful but realistic chookiness and found in Makoto Yamaguchi’s beautiful book “Transcendent Origami”, a chicken designed by Kyohei Katsuta that I knew I needed to fold because it was perfect.

After doing a test fold, it became apparent that it was a 2-part model (top half has the rings and tail, comb and wattle) and the bottom half has the legs, beak and fluffy bum. It is a colour change model so with some careful “Kimiroing” I was able to use 2 sheets of glorious black spattered Shadow Thai (from origami-shop.com) that has Rorschach-like inkblots on one side, black mulberry on the back. The black was perfect for feet and beak. I laminated some red Kozo in the spot that would become the comb and wattle and I was away.

From my test fold, I was able to guestimate the paper size to make the chook more or less life-size – well, more of a bantam, but large enough for my purposes.