The next few posts will follow a theme, playing with the idea of a classic game, this is the infantry – the cannon fodder, there are lots of these to throw at the enemy:
Max Hulme has designed all of the pieces for a paper chess game, seems wrong to split them up. Folded from a 12×3 proportioned rectangle, a little grimacing face under helmet emerges, then arms, finally the body. Continue reading
A mate, Tim, knew of my paper bending tendencies. He is also a Bank Manager and so he came across a rareish paper Australian $20 note:
Once upon a time, boys and girls, Australian currency was made of paper, not shiny brittle plastic as it is now.
Much to my surprise, a letter arrived addressed to me, containing a lovely crisp $20 note – limited edition and precious, along with the instructions to make something out of it.
I have agonised about this – creasing a rare thing is fraught with guilt and I am sure currency collectors would be horrified, but it came with challenges – most “dollargami” is geared towards American “greenbacks” which are not 2×1 – the $20 note is oddly a 2×1 rectangle, meaning conventional dollargami landmarks are in the wrong place. Continue reading
Recently I have noticed a proliferation of geckos around our house – after research it seems it is not a native but an introduced species. The “Asian Hose Gecko” apparently came over amongst ship cargo and now is over-competing with our native species:
I like these little fellows, even though they are illegal aliens – they eat bugs (we have not seen a roach or many moths for ages) but they get everywhere, crap inelegantly on everything and make a loud but cute “clucking” sound when they are randy – unfortunately this is usually in the middle of the night when all else is quiet and asleep.
This model was torture, and a result of poor planning on my behalf – I cut the largest 4×1 rectangle possible from an A4 page to begin this model and then realised that this was TINY (well, in fact, the model turned out LIFESIZE), given how much torsion the paper would need. The tail is lovely but was hard work, the pattern malformed the head (I dug some paper back out of the body to fix that) and the legs are clumsy (because my fat fingers could not detail stickey-outey bits that small and thick with any great precision (thank goodness for fingernails).
Taken from “Origami 4” by Robert Harbin, designed by Max Hulme, it is a little beauty nonetheless, quite chuffed it worked first-fold when in reality it looked like it was going to hell at a number of junctures. I must try this one bigger.
Looking through the British Origami Society website, I stumbled across a simple pattern for a Polar Bear:
Made from 1/2 a square triangle, you fold half the bird base and massage from there – nice little model designed by Max Hulme that uses creases to create a 3d body and hindlegs out of nowhere. As a first fold I am very happy with this one, but would improve the posture and expression next time I folded it now I know what makes what.
Why a Polar Bear? Well a colleague suggested it (thanks Bruce).
You can try it too (diagrams are a little rough and leave a lot open to interpretation): http://www.britishorigami.info/practical/creative/bestof/mh.php
Wow, no I mean WOW!
This little beauty is a masterpiece of box pleating, designed by Max Hulme. I was sure it had no chance of working correct as the whole working in 6ths, 12ths and quarters was a real pain on such a small scale. Made from the largest 2×1 rectangle that can be cut from an A4 page, I think next time I make it I will do it bigger and it is really fiddly with such big fingers.
This pattern was given to me by a Year 12 student years back on a Kairos rereat, and one look at it relegated it to the “yeah, maybe later” pile to try – I decided to give it a whirl first-fold today and am totally chuffed it worked.
I am amazed with the intricacy and detail – his face has ears, body is wearing a coat with sleeves, he is sitting on the most torturous but beautiful spring and most magically of all, actually folds up into a tiny neat box so the lid closes – wow!
