When asked by a colleague for a model that evokes memories of Japan, Miyajima’s Deer are right up there:
I started with a 45cm square of plain Kraft, and started folding – as much for therapy as it was for exploring a new model I am amazed I have never folded before.
Continue readingI have been looking for foxes, long story. I stumbled across Roman Diaz’s Fox from “Origami Essence” and thought I should give it a try:
This is a lovely stylised model, careful management of colour, nice big tail and some solidity to the body.
In many ways it feels like an “old school” model – flat, angular and difficult to balance the curved folds that define the face with the otherwise flat structure. I was also surprised it stands, but hte weight balance is good, he stands regal and magnificent.
Continue readingPaper fractals are fascinating self-repeating/reducing designs that are relatively new in the origami world:
This 2nd-level “Octospiral” is a model I saw in one of my last BOS journals before my membership lapsed. Designed and modified by Roman Diaz, Endre Somos and Meenakshi Mukerji, it is a delightfully dense spiral that, theoretically, could keep reducing inside itself indefinitely. Continue reading
It is a commonly held belief that Goldfish have a short-lived memory:
I have no idea if this is true, but suspect it is complete bunk. Continue reading
I always find it remarkable that with relatively few folds, we can hint at a shape so familiar that our minds go nuts and full in the visual context:
This is Roman Diaz’s “Casa Illusione”, a faux 3D dwelling that nicely plays with light, angle, perspective and proportion.
I chose to fold it white (Casa Blanca) with a terracotta roof, and imagine it perched on some Tuscan hillside, awaiting my return after a hard day wining and dining at some cantina.
There are many approaches to folding owls, all concentrate on the eyes and head structure:
This fold takes you on quite a ride. Diagrams taken from “Drawing Origami Tome 1”, the folding sequence is clear and rich, but I am sure my next fold of this model will be better as I now know what becomes what. Continue reading
Scrumbling through my “must fold list” I came across a curious hand-drawn diagram set from Spain and decided to give it a whirl:
After much torturing (I started with a 35cm square) the result is a rather lovely goat. I think this is my favourite farmyard animal so far – lovely proportions, fantastic modelling potential. Continue reading
Took a leisurely walk through some rainforest and noticed these perfect blue wrens, flitting from trunk to vine:
Exploring a new book called Origami Essence by Roman Diaz, this little beauty was amongst the models I have decided to try.
I like the “wrenny”ness of this model. Some lovely techniques here for this keeper of a freestanding bird model
Now I am aware that a certain “Brent” recently had a birthday, and on that birthday I folded a creepy crawly, so thought it appropriate to counter the scary with “unicorns and rainbows”:
This is Roman Diaz’s Unicorn, lovely thing – mane, tail, beautiful ears, splendid horn.
Happy Birthday (all be it belated) Michael the Brent – may you live long and prosper. Folded amidst the rainforests of northern NSW
Amongst the plethora of models I still have not yet tried, there are some beauties:
This is Roman Diaz’s Deer and it is a lovely specimen indeed. 10 points on his antlers, proud stance and a spring in his step.
This model, though lovely, was a cow to fold – hand drawn instructions that were not to scale, step 41 I missed altogether, which caused no end of peril and a re-fold (so sue me).
In the end this is fantastic – you get a real sense of the animal, the proportions and stance feel quite natural, the ingenious mangling to get enough points for the antlers amazing and the wrangling to get the majority of the paper tucked away to reveal the body nothing short of breathtaking. 
Diaz has a unique style, this model features closed sinks in abundance (quite difficult to do well) and so provided me with some valuable practice.
Roman Diaz is one of many talented Spanish origamists and with this model he captures something of the proud noble stallion:
there is much to like about this model – apart from it being a nifty use of the fish/camel base, the posture, proportions and attitude evident in the horse are present in this little model. He is also free-standing, on 3 legs, neato.
A slight mis-calculation in scale made this model really difficult to fold – the thickness of paper and tiny details made shaping a real challenge – I will fold this bigger because there is much model-ability here, truly clever design.
I got caught up in a much more complicated fold and completely forgot I had no fold for today, so searched the list of “must dos” and came up with this one. Happy with this as a first fold.
At 5:30am every morning, the dog next door explodes in a flurry of barking and howling – I call this our “wolf alarm”:
I think it is in response to an early morning walker on the street beyond, regardless it wakes me from my light sleep and I struggle to return after the wolf alarm has gone off.
This nice model from Roman Diaz is a “Coyote” howling at the moon, but I think it looks like the mutt next door (well, at least in my head it does). happy with this as a first fold, would do it differently if I were to fold it again as the forming of the muzzle is very congested and could be done before hand I think.
It is a well known fact that I am a little obsessed with all things Cow. I used to have a plush cow (called Terry the Moo) but I loaned her to a student who cared about her less than I do and now she is lost:
A paper replacement is no real substitute but this little beauty is easily the most lovely paper cow I have seen so far.
Taken from a book by Roman Diaz “Origami for Interpreters”, there is much to admire about the ingenious design – a full set of curled horns, lovely pendulous ears, a fantastic rounded muzzle and face, strong shoulders, cute swishy tail and general cow-ness.
Folded from an A3-cut square, the proportions and fiddlyness is just about right and amazingly it is possible to nurse copy paper through this fold – the head was the most problematic and likely to split asunder, obviated by rounding the central axis rather than attempting to bend all those layers into a sharp crease.
Very happy with this model – it is a keeper and i will fold it again – I can imagine a paddock full of them, all slightly different as the model is poseable as well – bravo Mr Diaz, I am in awe of your design.
Curiously, a female fox is called a “vixen”. this delightful model is Roman Diaz’s fox:
I must say I really enjoyed folding this one – there are some fantastically complicated steps, astonishing collapses, intricate sinks and some nice fine work – thank goodness I used a square cut from A3 – the facial expression particularly is just fabulous and such a lovely tail.
This took me about an hour, I had seen the diagrams but having Sara Adams talk me through the steps (via a video tutorial) made it so much easier (as some of the diagrammed maneuvers were baffling). With 2 colour paper there are white highlights in all the right places – brilliant design
You should try this too here
