P Whitehouse

540: Parliament

| wonko

Voting is something democratic societies hold as an important right. Some counties have compulsory voting, most allow citizens to choose whether they want to vote – all too often the result is the same – groups of opinionated, empty-headed people are elected to represent the views of the common people.540Parliament4

Anyone who knows me, realises I take the political piss whenever I can – voting only encouraged politicians to think they are more important than the rest of us, but they are just us, right, paid to argue (usually paid a LOT more that those of us who enjoy a good argument). 540Parliament

We organise candidates into “parties”, “alliances” and “coalitions”, pick “leaders” and rally behind them like their personalities are what really matters. All too often, in the end, we end up with the government we deserve. Continue reading →

538: Sock and Buskin

| wonko

After some fiddling, and diagramming (hopefully for the Sydney Folders Convention book) I am happy with the component parts of this original model:SockAndBuskin

The sock and buskin are two ancient symbols of comedy and tragedy. In Greek theatre, actors in tragic roles wore a boot called a buskin (Latin cothurnus) that elevated them above the other actors. The actors with comedic roles only wore a thin soled shoe called a sock (Latin soccus).

Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, is often depicted holding the tragic mask and wearing buskins. Thalia, the muse of comedy, is similarly associated with the mask of comedy and comic’s socks. Some people refer to the masks themselves as “Sock and Buskin”.

Inspired by face work on Eric Joisel’s Dwarf series, a single piece of paper becomes BOTH comedy and Tragedy – happy with the result.

Have a try with my diagrams: http://www.wonko.info/365origami/wp-content/uploads/SockAndBuskin-PeterWhitehouse_2.pdf

Segway V2

| wonko

I was recently asked how I folded my Segway model because someone wanted one. I was loathed to part with my original and to be honest I had no idea, I just folded it, so decided to revisit the model (which seems unique in the origami community) and see if it can be methodologised:SegwayV2

Originally I folded in 32nds, but decided in re-working the model 24ths work better, and are easy folding once you have thirds. The balance was always consuming enough paper for the body to leave enough for the control stalk which splits at the top. My original cheated because the proportions were off ( so I sneakily cut a strip off to shorten it) but on 24ths, it just works. Continue reading →

About Face

| wonko

Faces are things we humans are born to recognise. We see them everywhere, we can recognise them with the barest of visual clues:

 Apparently even magpies do facial recognition, remembering the dive-bombing victim and their seeming boundary transgressions for years.

I am interested in the structure of faces, particularly how little paper manipulation is necessary to evoke a face that embodies an expression, the visual manifestation of attitude and mood.

Inspired by the work of Junior Fritz Jacquet, I am exploring how to fold faces from flat sheets without edge incursions, with the hope that it translates into tube-folded faces – we shall see. I have documented my progress below: Continue reading →

595: Twirly Bird

| wonko

I was asked if I could make a flock of birds designed to be attached to fishing line on the end of poles that seem to fly:496TwirlyBirdPrototype

I remember a “seagull” by Toyoaki Kawai, in an old book I had so based a fold around that basic form. Continue reading →