525: Tadashi Mori’s Darth Vader

Needing to fold something and having a lovely sheet of Elephant Hide paper means something is going to get creased:525MoriVader

I saw this model in a video tutorial just published by Tadashi Mori and knew I had to try it. It reminds me of one of those cute little plastic dolly’s that are all the rage now – bobble-headed stylized versions of movie and telly characters.525MoriVaderScale

This lovely little Vader comes with helmet, breathing things, cape and the cutest little arms and legs, and is self-standing!

Such a fun fold, you should try it.

454: Unryushi Darkness Dragon 2

I was given a beautiful sheet of Unryushi tissue by a friend. The arrangement (in case YOU want to take part also) is if you give me nice paper, I will make you something out of it.

I prepared the paper by Methyl Cellulosing it to a clean window:

This make it crisp and strong, then, in a dragony frame of mind, I used Tadashi Mori’s own folding tutorial to fold a Darkness Dragon 2.

I had already folded the Darkness Dragon 1, but this model was a refinement I had not tried. There is a killer collapse after some exacting pre-folding – a sort of all these folds happen at the same time whilst inside a bunch of others, but the sense of it makes for a lovely body.

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415: Smaug the Golden

I have been looking for a nice dragon, you know, in celebration of the forthcoming release of “The Hobbit” (being a bit of a fan):

I saw a coloured/cut version of this dragon on Deviantart and thought it worth trying, turns out it is a WIP from Tadashi Mori, who released a video of how to fold it so I was away.

It reminds me a little of the “Ancient Dragon” by Satoshi Kamiya, but is much easier to fold and is a lot less brutal to the paper.

I can see huge modelling potential for this dragon, Tadashi calls it a “darkness Dragon” and I hope he is continuing the development of the model. I added knees, claws and modified the wings slightly so they stay out in display.

I like the tail and general morphology of this dragon – the central body length (betwixt fore and aft legs is a little compact, neck a little long and hind legs a little bunched but it is a nice fold none the less.

I am very happy with this as a first fold, and will probably fold it again. I used 55cm square Kraft paper and it seemed to hold up pretty well.

Soooo … who would like this little beauty? He needs a home, is only a little bit bitey but 100% dragon (well, 74% dragon, 26% paper, but with imagination…)

edit: smaug long since found a home, sorry

Celtic Cross Revisited

When I first folded Tadashi Mori’s Celtic Cross I knew it would come in handy, being that it is a part of the symbology of my College:

My year 12s (well, I call them mine, they were the leaders in my tutor Group – a lovely bunch of chaps) had their last day of classes today so I thought it a good idea to mark the occasion with cards – naturally they would feature origami.

Hope they liked them.

286: Spiral Star

I saw a video of this interesting structure and decided I should give it a whirl:

It is Tadahi Mori’s “Spiral Star” – a lovely fiddly modular using 6 bits of paper that interlock to form a 12 pointed star with lovely spirals near the centre.

If this was not so fiddly, it would make a nice decoration for a festive tree I guess, but even with A4-cut squares it was dense and tricksey.

Quite happy with this as a first fold and, yes, I know I have done my monthly modular but … meh, it interested me so there you go.