Continuing on the “something fishy” theme, I thought i would have a go at the Veiltail:
This goldfish mutant is nuts – bred for the profundity of tail, the body is stunted and a small muscular tail necessary to drove the massive drapery of tail fins. Continue reading
I have been searching for something “fishy” to make with some lovely paper gifted by a friend when Ronald Koh came to the rescue with some amazing mutant goldfish designs:
This is a Ryukin, and has a lovely 3d body, staring eyes and beautiful flowing fantail. Characterised by a hunched back, chunky body and pot belly, they swim slowly and provide decorative elements to any aquarium. Continue reading
Every so often a model emerges that has such a naturalistic form that so perfectly represents the subject. This lovely rabbit, designed by Ronald Koh is one such “must fold” figure:
This lovely model is a dense fold (the hind quarters are necessary layer-dense to form the necessary flaps for the head), so thin paper is best – I failed on a 14.5cm square of coarse hand-made paper – it was too thick and my fat clumsy fingers could not tease the details but 20cm+ squares of most papers should be fine. Continue reading
Now I have been a customer of Rocking Horse records in Brizvegus for as long as I can remember – they stock an important mix of local releases, electronica, avant-garde, metal, obscure and dance music ephemera that appeals to me.
They are in trouble – difficult to compete with torrents and copyright theft (I know many young people who have never purchased music ever, but have iPods full of the stuff). I decided to visit today, purchase a bit but sadly everything is on sale – not a good sign. Today’s model is a rocking horse:
This little model actually rocks also, very tidy (if torture to get all the paper inside the body and leave the rockers largely fold free so they, well, rock…
I like the body proportions – very horsey – and the weight distribution is also good – very well designed model by Ronald Koh (the same guy who designed the King Cobra)
Precision was important here, and a little luck – many of the folds were judgment calls, no landmarks are trickey if you have not folded a model before and do not know what ends up where.
Happy with my first fold, fingers crossed that a good record store can survive – brissie would not be the same with out it.
When I first saw this set of diagrams I thought I wanted to try it (common sense did NOT cut in at any stage):
Originally diagrammed for a 1×30+ square, and originally designed to be a massive sculpture with a 2m+ wide hood on a wire-frame armature, finding paper to suit was a challenge. I settled on white wrapping paper (used for “Last Waltz”) and cut the longest length possible with a 15cm square as the governing width – I managed 18 squares long, roughly 4/7ths the required length, and accepted that I would just be missing some coils of the body.
So, over a 7 day period, doing a little (well, actually quite a lot) each day, I began the task of revealing the snake that was trapped in the long rectangle of paper. Starting with the HEAD (seemed like as good a place as any), keeping the rest of the paper not mangled was an issue on my work desk, so migrated to the dining table.
Having shaped lovely fangs, a prominent forked tongue and beady eyes, I then moved on to the first pleating marathon to form the HOOD – here scale was my enemy – the pleats necessary to stop the hood unraveling were accordion crimps with insane measurements like 2mm each – thank goodness for fingernails and my bone folder. I found I could only do these folds during daylight as overhead lighting on this paper made existing creases very difficult to see. At this stage the paper suffered paper fatigue and I strengthened the tiniest pleats with a little PVA glue – yes, I know this is cheating but I want the model to last, not fray and split.
After the hood was complete, the task of cross-pleating the BODY could begin – this was insane – the diagram said crease in diagonal 1/16ths – given that I had a 15cm width, I thought bugger it and creased in 15ths – so I could use a ruler as there were NO folding landmarks. Once the pre-creasing was complete, then alternate crimps (each 1/4cm) formed the scales – HUNDREDS of them.
The inherent beauty of the model was obvious – the diagonal pleating is architectural and although time consuming, the result is stunningly beautiful and very satisfying. Once scales were in place, right down to the tip of the tail, body SHAPING was next – carefully folding along the body to tuck rough edges under and round the body to make it snake-like. I put this off for a day or so because I was so pleased with the flat pleating and worried about breaking it to make it round. Additionally I added pleats on the inside surface to cause it to curve inwards, although it seemed to want to do that on its own accord.
All that was left was to devise a way of posing and displaying the model – I wanted it to have it’s head raised – that was the threat pose the model was designed to showcase – originally I fashioned a wire to make a sort of internal scaffold, but went to a craft shop looking for white plastic tubing to encase the ugly wire and found a “doll stand” in white enamel. $5 later and I have a permanent display for it.
This has taken me ages, and I doubt I will consider such a marathon project again. There was a LOT of repetition, which I suppose makes this model simpler, but at no time did I regret starting it and all the time I was folding I was excited to see what it would turn out like. I will probably keep this model, and with it’s nice stand it will probably find a way into our china cabinet (it currently sits atop it).
What have I learned from this model? Accuracy matters, patience is it’s own reward, small errors accumulate, near enough is NOT good enough and tea is a good folding accompaniment, beer is not.
If you have managed to continue reading down to here I thank you for staying awake. Polite applause is now appropriate.
