S Kamiya

496: Satoshi Kamiya’s Ryujin 3.5

| wonko

On March 21, 2014, I began a quest to learn how to fold Satoshi Kamiya’s “Ryujin 3.5”, and was lucky enough to be accepted as a pupil of Mr Daniel Brown (MrOrigami).496SigmundRyu

Daniel sent me a lesson, I had to perform the illustrated tasks and photo my evidence back to him before he sent me the next lesson. The process has been fascinating, frustrating, amazing, annoying, hard, humbling, wild and wonderful.496SigmundRyuViews

A year on, I have managed to integrate all the component lessons into the one sheet (well, 2 halves joined at a seam inside) to arrive at this amazing model. It has yet to be fine-shaped – a task that will have to wait until marking and an extended holiday are over, but at least I know that all the creases are now in place, the bits are all where they should be and the beast is something I am unbearably proud of. Continue reading →

… there be Dragons!

| wonko

For much of the past year (2014) I have been learning how to fold Satoshi Kamiya’s Ryujin 3.5, as taught to me via a series of lessons cunningly devised by Daniel Brown (Mr Origami). I started this project on March 21.

This is Part 3 of a series that also includes Part 1, Part 2

Lesson 18 was folding the head in isolation – I must admit that even when searching for photos on how the head of this beast should end up, none really make it clear. What is clear however is that there is a terrifying amount of detail.headviews1

Following photodiagrams (in 3 phases 18a, 18b, 18c), I ended up with a beautiful thing that is my take on how a eastern dragon head should look. Continue reading →

Ryujin 3.5 (continued)

| wonko

After much care and attention, diligently following expert lessons (courtesy of MrOrigami’s Daniel Brown), I have managed to successfully navigate lessons 1-11 in what promises to be an ever intensifying journey towards understanding the whole model. This is PART 2 of a previous post. Part 3 also exists.

Along the way I have learned a LOT about myself – patience is it’s own reward. If at first you do not succeed, try, try and try again (something I needed to do for lesson 11 – which I folded 4 times until I got it right, each attempt taking me 12ish hours)

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I can see why Satoshi Kamiya (the astonishingly talented designer) has not folded lots of these – the detail (and there is LOTS of details here, most you cannot see) needed to let the paper sit correctly whilst transitioning between elements is breaking my brain.

So far, I have learned elements of the design in isolation:PatternLessons1-11

The lessons after this appear to tackle larger and more complex chunks – the aim to get all pieces to co-exist on the same sheet.

Interestingly, although it is time consuming, I am finding the process fascinating, each piece gains a sort of momentum that propels me on to finish it and get it right, and I look forward to the next part with a sort of morbid curiosity.

I bought some WIDE Kraft online (90cmx30m) and, depending how it behaves, intend to laminate 2 strips together to make a square nearly 2m x 2m as my first attempt of the whole model – no idea if that will be big enough, we shall see.

The Lessons continue. Continue reading →

477: Rooster

| wonko

I want an origami rooster (in red) to live somewhere in our new kitchen, so set about exploring rooster form with a pair of masters and their individual approaches to rooster form:

I “warmed up” with an Eric Joisel “Le Coq” – a fold I had tried years ago and not really mastered so I patiently and carefully folded from a 60cm square a lovely rendition (well, in my eyes at least). the Joisel model is economical with paper and seems to focus on the feet and tail, with an almost caricature head comb and waffle.

I then, after a cup of tea, girded my loins and set about folding Satoshi Kamiya’s Rooster. Using the same size piece of paper, there are hundreds of steps, many of which were astonishingly complicated 3d collapses that had originally scared me away from trying it – indeed 2 years ago I would not have been able to fold it at all.

There is much to admire with Kamiya’s vision of the bird – body and head with comb/wattle are amazing,  full wings and a suggestion of a tail are wonderful, legs and feet seem (to me at least) almost an after thought, although the legs do have spurs and the right number of toes, I found them less generous than they needed to be for the proportions of the model – the poor chook would not be able to walk or perch. Even posing it I had great difficulty propping it up on the little spindly toes. It appears to have “barbie” syndrome – you know, Barbie the doll has impossible proportions, right? Continue reading →

Ryujin 3.5 Lessons from a Master

| wonko

I am honored to have been allowed to learn how to fold Satoshi Kamiya’s  Ryujin 3.5 by an extraordinarily talented folder who goes under the name “MrOrigami”.

When finished, it should look like this:

He sends me lessons, I must complete them neatly and photo-evidence back to him before he sends me the next lessons.

This blog post chronicles my progress so far. It is a long and winding road towards folding the whole thing from one square of paper – that road consists of a myriad of skills, techniques and components all designed to tuck away 70%+ of the sheet revealing just the dragonny bits.

The Crease Pattern is terrifying (but if you look closely you can see head, body in 2 sections, claws and tail … well, I can):

I hope I am skillful enough to learn how to fold it … we shall see. Explore PART 2 of this project. Continue reading →