All Folded Up

On the Nose

2012-02-26T17:47:00.000-04:00

I've been home for the past week for university "reading week" (spring break, whatever else you might call it) and I decided that, of course, I should try to design something. Normally I would think that and not follow up on it, but for some reason one night I had the idea to fold a giraffe from a pentagon. For some reason that struck me as a good use of a pentagon, seeing as one corner could go completely into making the neck while the rest could make the legs and body. The first attempt, as always, was a complete failure and I thought I would probably give up there. Oddly, I kept making one new attempt per day and the models gradually got more giraffe-like as I tried. Finally, the 5th try actually looked right so I went with it. Here is the CP:

It's pretty clear from the CP what each part is, but getting the details might be a bit trickier. The neck can be thinned to half the width and the front legs are made by a rabbit ear. The rest is just a question of closed sinks to thin the body as well as details on the head. The head took me a few drafts to be happy with, but if you look closely you can see that it includes horns and ears.

So why did I title this "On the nose"? I'm writing this post from the airport as I head back to university. I was satisfied with the model as of yesterday, and only folded the final model this morning. In between finishing up assignments and packing, I didn't quite have the time to publish the model but I'm happy that I managed to finish it in time.

Chemistry Meets Origami Again

2011-12-25T16:54:00.006-04:00

As some people may be aware and others not so much, I am a full time chemistry student in university at the moment. I've been interested in chemistry for seemingly forever, and I've made a couple models in the past to try to represent concepts in chemistry. However, for the longest time what I really wanted to fold was an organic chemistry model kit. I'd seen one before somewhere (if you find it, feel free to send me the link) but I thought it would be best if I designed my own. I didn't have the idea on my mind for the past couple of months until, taking organic chemistry my professor suggested we go out and buy model kits to help visualize the molecules we were dealing with. It wasn't until two days before my last final exam of the semester (which happened to be my organic chemistry exam) that I came up with an idea that worked.

My main problem when trying to fold a model kit was the tetrahedral shape. I could see how it would be possible to fold a unit from a single square, but not without wasting a lot of paper. Finally, for some reason I had the idea to fold two identical units that could fit together to make the tetrahedron. I tried folding the elbow section so that the slits on the two units would fit together, but that didn't have any way of locking. After playing with that idea, I decided to try something else: using two different units. At first, one unit was just a 90° elbow using reverse folds, and the other flat piece was simply slid into the elbow. That, like before, fell apart easily; however, by changing the elbow to have alternating 22.5° angles, the second unit locked in place nicely. I left the model like that until a couple days ago, when I realized that one of the units was too floppy. I added a sink fold to unit 1 and a crimp to unit 2 so that both units would hold their respective angles equally. The result is a couple of really simple units which can make just about any molecule, such as ethanol:

Or benzene:

The diagrams show how to make and assemble the two tetrahedral units, as well as the hydrogen unit. The tetrahedral angles should be 109.5°, but the diagrams use 90°. This is on purpose because the angles tend to unbend a little. Note that a lot more can be improvised such as double bonds and simply atoms like oxygen and sulfur. I haven't quite figured out how triple bonds or sp³ centres with a lone pair (such as nitrogen) will work, but I'm pretty sure they're both possible.

Click Here for Diagrams.

Normally I wouldn't draw diagrams, especially not for something so simple. For some reason I hope that the model might be useful for someone who, like me, never had a model kit. Unfortunately with things like closed sinks and crimps involved a non-folder might have a bit of trouble, although I would love to be proved wrong.

Digital Hermit

2011-06-21T21:06:00.005-03:00

Two posts in two days? What is the world coming to?

I've actually had a lot of time to fold since the school year in May, but I only recently had the inspiration. Near the end of May, I finally did it: I permanently deleted my facebook account. I had only logged on once or twice since December, and was only keeping it so that I could use facebook chat (without loggin in, thanks to a plugin for Pidgin Messenger). I started considering deleting my account after reading an article by Themba Mabona (Sipho's brother), but ended up hanging onto it for another 5 months.

So why would I delete facebook? Well, facebook is the place to go in order to keep up with old friends. It creates "digital friendship", where you can interact with a friend but not be anywhere near them. Great, that means we're never cut off from anyone! In reality, we are almost completely cut off when it comes to interaction and I can't stand that. At the very least, I want to hear someones voice when I talk to them. For a reason similar to this, I have never owned a cellphone (although my cellphone aversion has more to do with the constant connection you have when you carry one). I don't think facebook and cellphones are bad things, they're just two things that I would rather live without.

Once again I've started to rant, so I'll just talk a little about the model. I enjoy trying to fold logos, so I figured the facebook logo might be a good challenge. I tried a couple different ways of making the "f" on a square background, but my first way ended up working the best. The major problem was the proportions, and once I had that I couldn't find reference points. I ended up having to change the references for each size of paper I tried. On the 2nd try with 10cm kami, I ended up with what you see below.

As it turns out, having a reason to rant is actually a pretty good inspiration to fold something...

Not Sore Losers

2011-06-20T14:13:00.007-03:00

I'll start off by saying I'm not a hockey fan at all, despite being Canadian. Yes, I folded a model just so I could rant.

I've seen a lot of different news and videos from Vancouver lately. In case you haven't heard, there were riots after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup final last week. A lot of people attribute the rioting to "angry fans". Others say they were people who weren't even fans, but who were there to cause trouble. I'm not sure who the riot-causers were exactly, but I know for sure that there would have been a riot, win or lose.

You can't exactly say Vancouverites had nothing to do with the riot. Thanks to huge crowds of people in Downtown Vancouver for the game, there were lots of people that joined in. The part that upsets me most has to be the bystanders, a lot of whom stayed around just to film it on their phones or cameras, some who didn't like what they saw. The rioting was done for attention, so the fact that so many people stuck around and gave them that attention is, in my opinion, why it kept going for so long. An odd way to think about it is comparing the riots to Justin Bieber. If so many people dislike the young pop star, why does he have the most popular videos on all of Youtube? People will go just to dislike the video, and end up just contributing to the Bieber fever.

But enough ranting, this is still an origami blog. I originally wanted to fold the Canucks alternate logo with 2 sheets of paper to get the blue, green and white but the model ended up being too messy and with too much wasted paper. I ended up using the same hockey stick shape and adding arms and a body.

My colour choice is pretty clear from the picture, but I don't mean to say that riot had to do with the outcome of the hockey game. Take a look at the videos or photos and you will see the same 3 colours are very prominent. Its not all bad news, however. The day after, thousands of volunteers went to Downtown to clean up after the glass and board up windows that couldn't be replaced. To me, this is a better representation of Vancouver citizens. I may live on the other side of the country, but Vancouver is still one of my favorite cities to visit.

A Break From My Break

2011-06-04T15:12:00.003-03:00

For anyone that didn't notice, I haven't posted anything since September. This is mostly because I haven't had the chance, and even when I did I couldn't seem to design anything. I finished my first year of university about a month ago and had a lot of fun, sadly though no origami whatsoever. Somehow I also managed to get all my work done too, which I really hope will continue for the rest of my university years.

Anyways, as for the model, it is basically the result of a doodle. I started with a bird/frog hybrid base, similar to what I used for my Kangaroo. After a few folds, I knew that I was aiming for a dinosaur but I wasn't sure which one. I actually took the finished model and looked through pictures until I found one that looked the same. That dinosaur ended up being the Ornithomimus, as you can see from my picture:

Hopefully I will design a few more models over the summer, and perhaps for the school year too. Anyone getting this years OrigamiUSA Convention Book should see my loon diagrams inside as well as plenty of other great diagrams (although I don't think the contents have been released yet).

Updated Theme

2010-09-02T16:00:00.003-03:00

Obviously, as you can see (unless you're reading this through an RSS feed I guess...) my blog now has a new, brighter theme, featuring "pieces of paper" for the posts/widgets and a new logo. The logo is meant to represent the letter A as well as a piece of paper folded twice, which I drew after trying out a few possible other logos. The post backgrounds were drawn with Inkscape, and then I convinced my brother to edit the blogger template so that they were on the blog. I was told that there might be some errors when viewing with Internet Explorer, such as the background on the post list not working properly (my suggestion would be to switch to google chrome, but I might be biased. Updating to the latest version of Internet Explorer also works). Its a big change, but I really like the new look.

Blog Relocation

2010-09-01T12:31:00.002-03:00

I am changing my blog to allfoldedup.blogspot.com because I feel that the current URL doesn't have much to do with the blog. I am also working on a new logo and layout, although I'm not sure how soon that will be.

A New Challenge

2010-08-22T15:00:00.003-03:00

Its been a long time since I folded anything for a challenge, maybe as far back as the Spectacled Bear War. On the french origami forum this month the challenge is "Avatar", the movie by James Cameron of course. This month, Argil (the moderator of the challenges) introduced personal challenges. Until seconds ago, I figured there wasn't one directed at me because I haven't participated in so long. I just found out that I was challenged to fold the Thanator, the giant angry six-legged panther with frills. However, because I didn't read that before I decided to try folding a Hammerhead Titanothere, an elephantine creature with six legs and a giant head like a hammerhead shark. I really wanted to incorporate a color-changed fan on his back too, so I got to designing. I spent days trying to fold simple models, and eventually I caved in and used some good ol' techniques. Here is the crease pattern:

The top isn't as complicated as it looks, the creases are mostly hinge folds. Its based on a 20:20 grid, but I wouldn't suggest folding the whole grid. The top middle is the hammerhead part, and on either side there are flaps to make the color changed fan. The legs are the oddest part. The front pair of legs is made from the top and bottom of the diamond shapes in the middle by pulling them apart, and the back pair is made by folding the whole back section forward. Hopefully the pictures will help to clear some things up. Now it looks like I have to fold a panther with six legs!

Drive. Stretch. Dream.

2010-07-31T12:42:00.007-03:00

So its been over a month since my last design, that seems to be how many chances I get to fold now. Hopefully I'll get a bit more done in the next 4 weeks, seeing as I'm free. A week ago, I came back from the Shad Valley program at Université Laval in Québec. Before I went, I wasn't really sure what I was getting in to, and now that I'm back its still hard to describe. I didn't get much sleep, thats for sure, but thats just because I was having too much fun.
Before I even went to Québec at the end of June, I was thinking about how to fold the logo. Its pretty simple, just 3 arrows coming out of one origin on a yellow background. I was having the hardest time trying to figure out how to make the curves in the lines to either side, and I finally decided that it looked a lot better if I left it simple. I folded the model from a windmill base, and ended up with this:

It shouldn't be too hard to reverse engineer from the photo, knowing what base its made from.
I've also finished my Rat diagrams, 7 pages in total. It might be 8 by the time I get to adding explanations and step numbers. It seems like diagramming gets easier every time!

Feeling Educated

2010-06-19T15:01:00.003-03:00

I noticed yesterday that its been an entire two months since the last time that I've designed anything. For me, thats got to be a record. I've been spending all my time lately running (5th in my region for track and field, alternate for provincials), watching the world cup and finishing up my last year of high school with my last exams. After yesterday, I'm finally done so I decided to celebrate by folding. The fish base challenge on the french origami forum caught my eye, so I decided to see what I could do. Heres what I ended up with:

A nice simple snail, my second snail in fact. The idea for the snail took only seconds to make, but then I spent hours trying to figure out what to do with the shell. I'm happy with what I ended up with, although I wish that there was slightly more emphasis on the spiral.
Now that I have the summer ahead of me, I decided to try diagramming again. I've had some ideas for my Loon for a while now, and I recently refolded my Rat 2 which I think will now diagram nicely. Lets hope it works out!

More Minimalism

2010-04-18T14:52:00.003-03:00

Playing around with color changes has always been a lot of fun to me, because I like the idea of seeing the other side of the paper. Today I was just fooling around with dragon curves when I picked up a small square (did I mention that I have a little notepad with (formerly) about 1000 5cm squares? Very handy for testing small things on the spot.) and started folding, just to see what kind of things that I could come up with. At first, I couldn't think of much. I decided to fold the bottom corner up to the middle of the top edge, and then base the rest on 90° folds. Eventually, I ended up with this (3 folds, despite there being 4 actual creases):

I knew it looked like something, but I couldn't say what. After turning it around a couple of times, I saw it: it was a hunch-backed man with a shopping bag, if you only looked at the colored parts. Of course, you can interpret it any way that you want to. If you fold with the colors inversed and use a background other than white, you could have a balding man with a moustache.

Somewhere New

2010-02-08T17:35:00.002-04:00

I found out in October about the possibility of a student exchange trip to the Czech Republic. Since then, it was delayed, canceled and un-canceled. About two weeks ago, I found out that the trip actually would be happening, and that my small knowledge of Czech would be used. Earlier on, I had thought about how easy it would be to fold the Czech flag. The red and white parts would have diagonal folds on one end where the blue would slide in to make a triangle. I finally decided to try it, and halfway through folding I decided that I wanted more of a challenge. I decided to try making the flag so that if the blue section was on the left, the white would be on top and the red would be on bottom. This turned out to be a lot harder than I expected from a 8:8 grid. However, after several tries, I ended up with this:

The second picture is actually the opposite side of the model from the first. I decided not to try making a CP, partly because it would be very hard to fold from because the layers need to be arranged a certain way. The model also has some really nice locks. Not only is the red and white section hard to get apart on its own, but when you add the blue part it can be locked in with diagonal folds on the inside.

It's almost a new year

2010-01-31T15:50:00.004-04:00

The Chinese new year is coming up on February 14th, and everyone if folding tigers. It seems to me that the Chinese zodiac challenge is the biggest unofficial challenge every year. This year is a bit different because tigers aren't exactly easy to fold, especially if you like color changes like I do. I doodled for a long time with just the stripes and found out that there are three (or maybe more) ways to make stripes. You can use offset reverse folds, spread pleats or use an offset grid. I tried to make tigers with all of these methods, and ended up liking the offset grid the most, even though my tiger didn't end up with legs. Thats why I decided to call it Tiger Pelt.

The diagonal lines that make the grid offset starts from the top 1/4 of the square and goes to the bottom 1/8 in the corners. As you can see, it is based on an 8:8 grid. With the head (on the bottom of the CP), you can make all sorts of different things because there are plenty of flaps. I kept it simple and just added a nose, eyes and ears. You can thin the tail and the very top middle part of the model can make another stripe.

You might also have noticed that I've been playing around with my banner lately. I decided to rename the blog "All Folded Up", because I was finding "All Folded Up in Cupcake Paper" to be too much of a mouthful.

A Few More Sides

2010-01-25T17:20:00.002-04:00

Ever since seeing Andrew's Pentagon Pig, I had to try making a model from a pentagon. I ended up getting a bit distracted and decided that folding an insect from a heptagon would be a better idea. It took me a while to find instructions on how to fold a regular heptagon from a square (in fact, the ones that I found weren't really good... they could do with some simplification), and then I started folding. At first, I had something that looked like a turtle with six legs, using only the corners of the heptagon for flaps. I gave up one that idea pretty quickly, and started doodling. A couple of folds into the doodle, I knew that I would end up with a dolphin. How do you get a dolphin from a heptagon? I'll show you how.

Thats how. There are quite a few details to be added after that. With a crimp near the top, you can form the head section. Then you can make the head with some reverse folds and a petal fold. Another reverse fold makes a flipper, and the excess of the body can be folded beneath. The flipper actually took me seven tries to get it right, which ended up being on the final model. The tail just needs to be folded downwards and thinned with two layers tucked inside and a closed sink. A couple of folds underneath can make a nice lock in the middle of the tail. Here are some pictures of my final dolphin.

At Long Last

2009-12-20T14:23:00.002-04:00

After a couple of months, I'm finally able to fold again. Projects and homework assignments have overlapped with my time playing basketball and volleyball, meaning that I haven't had much in the way of free time. Christmas break began yesterday, so now I have plenty of time - but that doesn't mean that the work has stopped. I have 2 or 3 projects (including sub-projects put together as one) that I have to finish over the break, some that are going to take some time.
However, I've been using my time for the past two days as most people would on break. Yesterday morning, I started doodling with Andrew's latest creation in mind. I ended up with something bird-like, and played around with it until I had a little penguin. Here is the CP:

The middle point can be open-sinked (open-sunk?) to make feet and the bottom right hand corner makes the color changed belly. The eyes and beak in the top left corner are also color changed, and the wings can be folded however you like. Here id my model. Good luck! I hope to fold something(s) for the holidays.

Fun With Corrugations

2009-10-05T20:32:00.003-03:00

I've always liked the look of Ray Schamp's corrugations, but I'd never really thought of making something similar. I was thinking of using more acute angles with the basic waterbomb corrugation (such as on Sipho Mabona's Fugu). Eventually, I tried the same thing with obtuse angles, which lead me to the idea of going from small to big. I didn't that I would be able to fold it flat, but it ended up that it does! The mountain / valley theme of the model lead me to the name Erosion. Here is the CP:

There isn't much to do in the way of details. The CP folds the whole model. Because of the change in angles, the model makes a sort of oval shape when flat. Here are some pictures.

Meeting the Deadline

2009-09-26T14:54:00.005-03:00

I have to say, I'm quite happy right now. Eric Madrigal started posting an origami countdown two days ago, making me realize how little time I had left to fold another spectacled bear for the challenge. For the past month, I had been thinking of a better way to fold the eyes, because on my first bear I had them "backwards". My idea was a fold a small 45° color changed triangle for the eyes which I could pinch and round, making it look somewhat like Bernie Peyton's model (from his picture, you can tell that he did something completely different). I tried a few times to make this triangle, but usually ended up with annoying other color changes and upside down triangles. Finally this morning I managed to get it right. It took me 4 tries to get a body that I liked, but the body isn't that important. Here is my CP. The 90° lines in the bottom corner are ninths.

As you can see, all that this CP folds is the color changed triangle. The body can be folded any way you like. I folded the tail end underneath and made the separate legs with diagonals and flattening. For the ears, I used a simple pleat idea which is also used many times for my Samurai Helmet Beetle. The outside part of the ears can only be folded once the model is 3D. After making the model 3D, you can unfold the tail end underneath to make the body closed. Good luck!

Succumbing to Peer Pressure

2009-09-20T15:33:00.002-03:00

If you have a flickr account and have many other artists as contacts, you might already know that I've folded a loon from the title. A loon? Of course! There always seem to be a subject that pops up that everyone tries to design. For instance, I folded my poppy design last November, which to lots of designing/redesigning by others. This started with Joseph Wu designing a loon for a request from Eric Gjerde. Soon, I saw three other new loon designs in the contacts display on the flickr homepage. Of course, I had to try it myself. The neat thing is with the spots on the body of the loon, you can interpret it as a lot of things. I tried to capture the light and dark parts with the black and white colors. I don't have a CP, because the model is from a fish base. Many of the folds don't even have references, but I might try diagramming this because of its simplicity. Here is the model that I ended up with:

Taking a Break

2009-09-20T12:01:00.002-03:00

From school work and sports, that is. I really haven't had that much free time lately, but I was lucky enough to have the cold this weekend, so I finally got around to folding again. At first, I had no idea what to fold, and then I remembered the Models from Triangles challenge. I had thought of folding a tessellation from an equilateral triangle earlier, so thats what I started to do. After folding the grid, I remembered Geoff Mayhew's Tortoise, which had made me want to fold an animal form the same grid. After folding for a while, I ended up with my own simple tortoise, using a small hexagon as the shell. My first model had lots of thinning on the legs, but I decided later that it looked better just to leave the legs pretty much how they come out. Here is the CP.

I'm glad I found Inkscape's axonometric grid function a while ago, otherwise it would have taken me a lot longer to draw the CP. The CP ends up with the four legs, large head and a small tail. You can sink and unsink the tail, and fold the legs down and use a couple of pleats on the shell so that it has a more 3D shape. A couple of pleats on the head will do the same thing. I think that I might try diagramming this model.

They can do that?

2009-09-07T16:28:00.004-03:00

I only found out yesterday that herons can bend their knees backwards. I guess now that I think of it, other birds (like flamingos) can too. I guess it wasn't something that I really thought about. This month on the english origami forum, the challenge is Models from a triangle. I was thinking tessellation at first and I tried to fold one from a 45-45-90 triangle. Once I figured out that I wasn't going to get anything nice, I tried something more like my usual models. I ended up with long neck, long legs and a fairly small body. With a bit of details, it became a heron! I was just about to fold the final model this morning when I found out that I could open sink the legs back to make the wings go farther back on the body, so I had to go back and refold it some more. Here is the CP that I got after that:

There are quite a few details for this model. The neck can go up with a double rabbit ear, and the legs should be folded thinner and so that they are color changed. Where the wings stick out on the back can be tucked in. two outside reverse folds on the neck can make a curved chape, and then you can fold the head and thin the front to make the beak. Here is what I ended up with:

Photobucket Makes Me Angry

2009-08-27T12:46:00.002-03:00

Why? Well, it seems that their former unlimited space for all users is now limited, and they've also decided to get rid of the old uploader function, which was the only one that I could use easily. The files on my camera are .JPGs, whereas photobucket only recognizes .jpgs... And their new uploading window comes up much wider than my screen.

Anyways, enough of that. I did manage top upload the pictures of my latest model, a fiddler crab, based on Brian Chan's model. Yes, another submission for the Complex model in less than 30 steps challenge. It seems that I had missed something in the rules, and step doesn't mean step for this challenge, so I had to withdraw my Ryuzin. Anyways, this abides by the rules and I based the legs on the legs of another contestant's scorpion. It actually doesn't have legs, just a supporting strip where the legs would be. Here is my CP:

The claw section is pretty straight forward, all it needs is a bit of thinning and shaping. For the body, you can fold out the flaps on either side underneath and then shorten the length to make the legs. A bit of rounding a a pleat to make it a bit more 3D, and you end up with this:

Squashed Like a Bug

2009-08-18T12:41:00.002-03:00

As mentioned in the previous post, the challenge this month is to fold a complex model in less than 30 steps. For my next model, I chose to try and fold a Samurai Helmet Beetle, based on the many models of the beetle that have been folded. I used Robert Lang's model for reference. My ideas started off with some simple pleats to make the elytra and the scutellum (the triangle) on the abdomen. After that, I figured out how to make the small and large horns, and up to that point the model was all flat. I figured that I would make it 3D when I added the legs, but I found a way to make the legs flat. I liked the result quite a bit, despite it not being how I intended it to be. Here the is the somewhat complicated CP:

From the CP, you can see where the abdomen, thorax and horns come from. The smaller horns are just above the middle of the square. When you fold back the edges to make the two points, you can squash the underside part and then open it up to get eyes. You can sort of see them in the picture. The legs come from folding out the visible pleats. The forelegs are just valley folds, but the hind legs are each pleats, starting from under the body. The large horns are fairly easy to fold into shape, just by flattening the very top middle section, then thinning the long connector between the horns and the body. After you're done with the details, its best to fold the side and top edges behind to lock the pleats for the legs and horns. Also, where the pleats and on the bottom edge can be locked with small 45° angle folds.

Based On...

2009-08-12T11:42:00.002-03:00

I found the challenge this month on the english origami forum very interesting. This month, the challenge is Complex model in less than 30 steps. That means pick any model such as one by Kamiya, Lang or Takashi and fold an interpretation of it in 30 steps. I chose 3 models to try out, and the first with a result was Ryuzin, based on Kamiya Satoshi's Ryuzin 3.5. I wanted a lot of details, and just ended up with a really thick model. Here is the CP, which gives you an idea of the thickness of the middle.

It can be diagrammed in 30 steps or under, what with all of the repetitions. To start off, pleat the corners into the middle so that the paper is a quarter of the width (diagonally). You can see that the outside parts are just repeated. Fold the CP for the middle. For the feet, pleat them into the middle. The head and tail details are fairly straightforward, and you can choose to make a tongue, too.

Three Rivers

2009-08-08T11:53:00.003-03:00

I've been thinking of folding this for a while, but didn't really know where to start. It turned out to be really simple! I decided while I was there to fold the Trois-Rivières seal, which is quite simply three rivers going into water. I would have liked to have folded every part of the symbol, but I'm still happy with what I got. Here is what I mean:

As compared to the actual seal:

Theres quite a bit of difference, but thats okay. To fold it, start with a preliminary base with the open corner facing top left. Fold one edge to the top right-hand corner, and then fold the two of the edges from the top right into the shape of the rivers. It should take up about a quarter of the space on the preliminary base. Fold the colorchanges, and then refold the rivers. Fold the excess paper behind, and you should end up with a seal! Good luck!

Third Year

2009-08-05T16:10:00.002-03:00

I realized while I was away that I'd missed my post for my third year, so I figure that I may as well write it now. I kind of slowed down since last year, mainly because of school, and I didn't do very much. However...

I have:
-Folded models for (about) 17 different design challenges
-Designed 50 models (making it 161)
-Changed my diagramming style, and diagrammed my Stegosaurus
-Submitted my Stegosaurus diagrams, and ended up with them and my and Ant diagrams in this years OUSA annual convention booklet
-Received a request for my Man With Bouquet to be in Jean-Jérome Casalonga's book "Minimal Origami" (and accepted)

I didn't end up going to any convention, sadly, and have hardly seen any photos so far. I am looking forward to both convention booklets.

Outside of origami, I ended up with a 95% average in my second semester and was on 3 sports teams at school: volleyball, basketball and track & field. I also received a bursay to travel to Québec for 5 weeks. Hopefully theres lots more to come in the coming year, but I said that last year. I guess we just wait and see!

5 weeks of fun

2009-08-05T16:01:00.003-03:00

Well, as I mentioned before I just spent 5 weeks in Trois-Rivières, Québec. I probably had the most fun that I've ever had in my life, thanks to all of the people there, and miss everyone. There are a few picture on my flickr album. Now I'm back home, and I have plenty of spare time. I guess that I was having so much fun that I didn't get to fold! I did fold one thing halfway through: a Kangaroo. I was sitting in someones room and I asked one of my friends what I should fold, and thats what they asked for. It worked out well, because I came up with the basic design in about 30 seconds. I ended up using a really simple CP, that looks something like this:

As you can see, it is very simple and I guarantee that I have seen the CP somewhere before. After folding the base, thin the entire sections on either side of the arms with rabbit-ear folds. Shorten the tail and inside reverse fold it, and then just add the details. The kangaroo should end up something like this one:

Apish

2009-06-27T12:12:00.003-03:00

Every year, there is a design challenge at the OUSA annual convention. This year, the subject is nonhuman great apes, so everyone is busy folding gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos. I originally wanted to fold a bonobo because of there unique look, and almost achieved folding one. However, I ended up folding a gorilla instead. The base is quite nice and can be folded out of this CP:

I'm quite happy with how the gorilla ended up seeing as it was meant to be a completely different ape. The collapsed based already looks apish, and could probably be used to make a chimp or bonobo. To make a gorilla, you just need to move the legs so that they're facing down, and then shape the face and body and add details such as hands and feet. Here is what you can end up with:

By the way, I'm leaving for Québec for five weeks tomorrow morning, so I will still be designing but won't be able to publish my designs until I get back.

Aromatic ⌬⏣

2009-06-22T14:00:00.003-03:00

Benzene is a pretty important compound in the study of organic chemistry, but you shouldn't drink it. However, you can fold it if you like, which is exactly what I did. I wanted to fold some more chemistry related origami, so I decided to try benzene. I started off by making a hexagon and making a hexagon twist in the center to make the circle that represents the modern delocalized view that we have thanks to Kathleen Lonsdale. Here is what I ended up with:

No CP, because the explanation is all that you should need. It was free-folded anyway, so theres no real measurements.
Next, I decided to try the older structure of benzene with alternating double and triple bonds. This was Kekulé's structure, and is still commonly used for many drawings of compounds. On the BKChem program on my computer, this is the structure used when drawing an aromatic compound. I folded 3 sets of pleats from the center and then folded at the edge in those three spots to make a line. This might be a little harder to understand, but the picture should help.

Hopefully I'll be able to use these to make other origami structures in the future.

All Wet

2009-06-14T16:22:00.002-03:00

I've wanted to fold a molecule for quite some time because I love chemistry so much. At first, I was thinking of folding something like Asprin or methane, but decided on something much simpler to start with: water. Its not often you see water as the subject for a model. I have seen it as a background and many things that come from and live in water.
Here is the CP that I used. It is fairly simple to fold, but don't get the order of the folds mixed up.

To start off, you have to fold the model in half horizontally and then fold up two corners for color changes. After that you can make the other folds to get to the base. The details are quite simple because you just have to round the "spheres" until you get something like the common Van der Waals spheres models of water. Here is what I mean:

Too slow

2009-06-02T18:29:00.003-03:00

Just yesterday, I figured out that this months challenge on the french forum is Windmill base models. I started folding something right away. At first, I was trying to get a bird of some sort, and then I was just doodling. Eventually, I ended up with a bird that has no name other than "Bird". Because the final CP isn't really based on the windmill base, I've decided that it can't be part of the challenge (deadlines are a bit less important on the french forum). Here is the CP that I ended up with:

You can see that there is quite a bit to the model. The middle of the model is crimped at 45° angles and the bottom section forms the feet and tail. The top is the two wings and the head. After folding the base, you can do a lot with the head, such as make it into a beak or funny crest. It may take a while to fold from the CP, but hopefully it is still possible!

Good News!

2009-05-28T16:40:00.003-03:00

No, I don't have another model yet. I don't exactly have much time, what with so many things coming to an end and starting up. Hopefully I'll have something else before the end of the month.
First, a few months ago I was e-mailed by Jean Jérome Casalonga asking whether he could include my Man with Bouquet in his upcoming book of Minimal Origami. I, of course, said yes and recently received the finished book, full of minimal origami models with 4 folds or less. It may be a small book, but its packed full of great models and involves plenty of JJ's unique sense of humor. It can be found online on the publisher's website here.

Also, I just received an e-mail saying that the diagrams for my Stegosaurus will be appearing in this years OUSA annual convention booklet, which wont be available for a while. I have to thank Andrew Hudson and Quentin Trollip for reading over my diagrams and pointing out any errors that I missed, and giving me another point of view. Now I just have to keep waiting to find out whether they will be appearing in the 15th Tanteidan Convention booklet.

Again, thank you to everyone that made both of these things possible. Hopefully this will help me to do well enough in my long distance races to make it on to provincials in at least one!

Another Spiky Animal

2009-05-20T19:44:00.002-03:00

I'm not really sure how I came up with the idea for this. I guess I was thinking about the different hexpleated model that I had seen, and I started to wonder about octpleating. It turns out that octpleating really is possible, but isn't very practical if too much is used. The CP below is probably as far as you should go, unless you want something like a sea urchin (which are actually folded way too often, I find). After spending quite a lot of time trying to collapse the model, I finally figured it out. The way that it collapses ends up with two legs and a whole bunch of points. I turned the two points in the center into a head, and the rest became spikes. Here is the octpleated CP that I was talking about:

It isn't too impressive, but its a pain to collapse. Precreasing isn't too hard if you fold 22.5° radially from each center point. When collapsing, you have to collapse it all at once, slowly. Eventually (with a bit of trial and error), it should fold flat to the size of the center section. Thats the magic of crease patterns.

Spiky Rabbit

2009-05-20T19:26:00.002-03:00

Back when I originally folded this, about a month ago, Ubuntu 9.04 had just been released. As always, there is a animal name to go with the new version: Jaunty Jackalope. I'm not sure why, but that made me want to fold one. I couldn't / didn't have the time to fold a full jackalope, so I just folded the head. Anyway, since then I haven't got to refold it and take a picture until this week. I've been busy catching up on homework, working on a one hour presentation about the environment, playing soccer and basketball and training for track & field every day. Its not all over, either. I present my project tomorrow, and the first of three track meets begins the day after that. Here is the CP that I used for the jackalope head:

It isn't much, so it shouldn't be too hard to collapse. The top section of the CP make the antlers, and the bottom part is the head including ears. The antlers can be color changed, but you have to be careful not to rip the paper. Good luck!

A Pleasant Surprise

2009-04-10T18:40:00.004-03:00

Some designs can really be surprising, sometimes in a good way. That would be when they end up better than you intended them to. I was trying a think of something to fold when I came up with the idea of folding a simple pureland stegosaurus. This turned out to be harder than I thought it would, so I decided to go without the pureland. I folded a square section with 1/8 diagonal lines just to test whether I could make the plates from it much from it, in the same way as Joseph Wu's One-fold Stegosaurus. This test turned out as a full model with a strange CP. Heres what I mean:

Some of the details from the base aren't very obvious. The scales are there, as are the head and tail. Theres also these two other flaps that make up the legs. They have to be folded down with a rabbit ear fold and then shaped. On one side, the back leg part has to be stretched so that the legs will match up. The tail just needs some small folds to get the spikes up, while the eye parts of the head need to be squashed.

Joyeux Pâques

2009-04-09T19:25:00.003-03:00

Its just about easter time, time for the bunny to come out of his den, see the sunlight, and not care if he can see his shadow or not. I can't say that I've ever understood modern easter, what with the bunnies and chicks and eggs. Sure, I understand the "new life" part, but it still seems... strange. Anyways, I intended to just fold a rabbit and instead ended up with a humanoid rabbit, or the Easter Bunny. For this model, I actually designed using circle packing, which is a very strange and messy method when it come to actually making something. However, it worked. I just put on all of the circles and connected the vertices (centers of the circles) with folds. Here is what I ended up with, including how to get the important folds on the sides.

The model does have a strange base, but you can tell where each of the parts come from. After folding the base, the leg section has to be squashed and the head part folded down. Then you can fold the head up and flatten it for the face, and form the tail, legs, arms and ears. the tail is color changed unless you fold the corner over the showing colored section.

Quick, Fish!

2009-04-01T18:00:00.002-03:00

This morning, I had one of my first experiences with rapid designing. It is april fool's day, and I decided that I should fold some fish to stick on the back's of my french teachers. The reason is in french, april 1st is "Poisson d'avril", where people stick paper fish on other peoples backs. Anyways, I used those rectangles that I get left over from copy paper (of which I have hundreds). I found out that using half of it works best, so I used a 4.75 by 2.5 inch rectangle. No CP, but I'll try my best at a good explanation. Fold one of the smaller edges over by about an inch. Then fold the corners at the folded edge back at 45° angles, touching on the folded edge. Fold the remaining rectangle section (the part not already folded at all) in half. Fold about a 22.5° angle on the top and bottom, with the angle starting where the 45° angles end. Inside reverse fold along those lines, and fold the flap that is behind as far a possible without adding extra folds. Then make the tail smaller, and you're done! Here is what mine looks like. Not bad for something made from a strange rectangle in 30 seconds.

It is also possible to edit it so that it has fins, a more detailed tail, etc. Because of the simple base, lots of variations are possible! Also, the head color changes if you use non-copy paper.

Harder Than it Looks

2009-03-29T15:46:00.002-03:00

After folding the water strider with the extending wings, I really wanted to fold something that transformed in a bigger way. Of course, I thought of the armadillo and started looking it up. It turns out that the three-banded armadillo is the only species of armadillo that can completely roll up into a ball. Thats what I planned to fold, but as it turns out it isn't that easy. You would think that a few pleats on the back to form bands being pulled apart would roll up the body enough for it to fit together, but it turns out that thats now nearly enough. At first, I figured that the un-rollable model that I folded would have to do, until I came up with the idea of using 45° angles instead of pulling apart pleats. Then I'd just have a nice little hinge in the center of the armadillo... Here is the CP that I used.

You can see the 45° angles that I was talking about. The thing is, this model has to be folded from foil or a paper that really keeps its shape well (I used foil sandwiched between kami and tissue paper glued with watered down glue and light brown watercolor paint. Its fun to experiment with materials). The head, tail and legs come easily, but don't forget the color change on the head. Also, adding two pleats on either side of the hinge make the three bands. Good luck!

Who wants diagrams?

2009-03-17T22:22:00.005-03:00

I just found out that I had drawn the CP of my Banana incorrectly. Sure, it would fold that way, but it didn't have the easy folding sequence. So I decided to release diagrams for it. I wanted to try out a different (and simpler) diagram style, anyway.
Click Here.

Also, I released some diagrams for my Christmas Tree this past Christmas, but forgot to mention it. You can find them here.

Spectacled Bear: Jucumari

2009-03-16T12:25:00.004-03:00

I was invited to a challenge at the start of the month called the Spectacled Bear War. Oddly enough, I can't find the page that I was originally directed to, on a blog. Anyway, the idea is to fold a Spectacled Bear and certain models will be picked to go to the challenge. There, they will be judged and the winner will receive a painting involving the spectacled bear and origami theme. I also realized that this model can go into the Black and White challenge on the english forum. Here is the CP that I used for the bear:

It is a pretty simple CP, but it includes most of the details other than the head. After folding the head (in the top left corner, by the way) as shown, you need to fold the corner flap about two thirds of the way down, and the the white parts for the top part of the "spectacles". The corner becomes the bottom part. Both parts of the spectacles need to be thinned. After that, you can pull out the ears and flatten the top of the head. Here is what you should end up with:

And by changing the head from 1/4 of the edge to 1/5, you get this:

Finally Back

2009-03-10T16:28:00.002-03:00

Its been a long time since I had enough free time to fold something. The beginning of semester homework flow is bound to end soon, and then I'll have time for as much folding as before (hopefully). I designed this model, a water strider, for the flying insects challenge on the french origami forum, as soon as I started looking around for bugs with wings. I wanted something different, and I remembered my brother telling me when I was little that water striders can fly, if they need to. However, usually there are good enough conditions that they can survive without having to fly anywhere.
I originally based this model on a 16:16 grid, but the 32:32 turned out a lot better. Here is the CP.

The only thing about this CP is that there are two extra flaps. The top flaps on either side do nothing but occupy the remaining paper, so you can just fold them underneath the model. The upper flaps coming from the center of the paper make the front legs (I took forever to decide on this. Originally, the first two flaps mentioned were front legs, but they were too thick and long). The other two flaps from the center make the wings, which can either rest on the back or be extended when it needs to fly. Please note that I tried something new, backcoated tissue paper. It turned out better than I thought it would, but I need more glue in comparison to water next time.

In flight:

A Little Bit of Editing

2009-02-19T17:13:00.002-04:00

This Christmas, I received a the "Mythical Creature Origami Book & Gift Set" by Duy Nguyen. Just by looking at the cover, I could tell that it wasn't much in the way of pure origami. However, the paper that came with it is nice, and holds folds well. I just need to find some nice simple models that will go with the patterns... The set came with a book, 50 sheets of paper and a terribly folded dragon. Whoever folded it confused some reverse folds with valley or mountain folds, and couldn't do some other folds (I don't blame them, the book isn't very well labeled in many spots). I was looking through the book, and decided to see how the dragon was supposed to be folded. It was actually one of the only models that didn't require cutting the base in two right away, but there was still plenty of cutting. I folded the dragon as best I could with the diagrams and without cutting, and then improvised to make my own parts that didn't need any cutting. Seeing as I changed the head, tail, wings and arms and pretty much everything else, I decided to call it my own design, but still give him credit. It looks quite similar in a few ways, but it is folded quite differently. Here is the CP that I used, which is almost the same as the original model's CP.

The tail is quite easy to make, because all it involved is opening up the end, such as on many other designs with tails. The arms are made from the two flaps at the chest area, and what were originally legs became the breastplate. The wings are a bit more complicated. They involve opening up the ends until they are at the original 22.5° form. Shoulder blades can also be made from the other ends (near the neck) of each wing. Someday, I hope to make a nice, big, complicated dragon, but until then, theres this one.

Never Ending Up Right

2009-02-15T11:32:00.002-04:00

It seems like I try to fold a model, and end up with something different that I wanted to fold anyway. This months challenge on the french forum is Flying Insects, and the challenge on the english forum is Sea Life, so I wanted to fold a flying insect and a crab. I started off making a Maekawa Devil based CP (using the 22.5° based molecules) with the intention of making a flying insect of some sort. After collapsing the CP, I found that the flaps wouldn't go in the right places to make an insect model. However, when I moved some flaps around, I had a crab! At least I got something that I wanted. Here is the CP that I used:

I haven't found a good folding sequence yet, and I doubt that I will. The CP takes a while to precrease and to collapse, but it has a nice result. The flaps from the top right and bottom left corners make the claws, and the long flap in the top right makes the nice bottom part of the shell. The bottom right section is actually the from of the model. As for the shell, it has to the squashed after you fold the CP, and that will create two more flaps beneath the shell section that become eyes. Good luck!

6 More Weeks of Winter

2009-02-04T14:09:00.002-04:00

Well, groundhog day has come and gone, and groundhogs across Canada have predicted 6 more weeks of winter. Not that it really matters, because they can only predict 6 more weeks of winter or 6 more weeks until spring. Either way, they get it right. Anyways, to celebrate this strange holiday, I decided to try folding a groundhog peeking out of its hole in the snow. My idea was coming along fine until I finished the first draft and realized that there was no hole, the groundhog was standing. However, I liked that, mainly because it even had color changed feet and a tail.
For the base, the model is made from a "fruit base" (as the Shumakovs call it), the same base that makes the OUSA strawberry, and will make an octagon when the bottom parts are cut off. After folding the head and arms, the bottom part simply needs to be opened up to make the base, and then the sides folded over to make the color change. There isn't a CP because it isn't really worth it to draw 8 lines all crossing the center and post it here. If I can figure out a good way to diagram the head, I might make diagrams.

Finding Models Just Got Easier

2009-02-03T21:20:00.003-04:00

At least on this blog, it did. I used to have a drop down menu that did absolutely nothing but tell everyone the names and chronological order of my models. However, after looking for a while on the internet, I finally found a way for the drop down menu to work for everyone! As it turned out, I just had to use the Javascript gadget that I didn't realize that blogger had...
Anyways, you can now just open up the menu (or open down...) and click a model, and it will go to the page where the model was posted! For the first two model that haven't been posted on the blog before, I've linked them to the old pictures. Now, if you ever want to find a model, just look in the menu. It may not be extremely efficient because there are so many designs, but its better than looking through the archive and guessing from the different post titles!

Top Heavy

2009-01-31T11:03:00.008-04:00

This year is the year of the bull/cow/ox, so everyone's folding them! There is a challenge on the english forum, too, for the subject: Best of Show Bull Contest 2009. I have been working on my bull for a couple of days now, and at first I couldn't figure out how to fold it. I actually tried a few different ideas, and didn't get much at first. Then, I tried folding it diagonally, basing the legs on Noboru Miyajima's Ibex. It worked really well, except so much of the paper went into the head section that it ended up having a very heavy head. Below is the CP that I used. The square making the tail is en eighth from the center of the edge.

This model takes quite a few details, mostly on the head. It doesn't involve many combination folds, so I should be able to diagram it when I get the chance (now that I've finished exams). One of the most important details is swinging the front legs forward so that it doesn't just fall over on its head. The forward legs also give it the appearance of charging.

The 44th President

2009-01-20T22:58:00.005-04:00

Today was the Inauguration of the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama. He seems to be all of the excitement about him lately, and everyone is happy to have so much respect for African-Americans to have elected one. I decided to fold a simple color change model, Obama's symbol (at least for the election) which was the rising sun. One part was the stripes, just red and white, and the other was the blue background and white sun. I didn't make a CP for the top part, because its just folded over and tucked, etc. until I had a half circle. Here is the Stripes section CP (divided vertically into 16ths):

I didn't quite get all of the details that I wanted, but it is possible to have it more like the real thing. Using crimps, the model can be made into a circle (two halves). With correcting, you should end up with something like this:

Toasty Warm

2009-01-17T15:49:00.000-04:00

As usual, I couldn't find something to fold for this month's challenge on the english forum, Color Change, mainly because it doesn't ask for much... Its harder to come up with something that has only two colors and is worth folding rather than knowing what you have to make and deciding where to put the color changes. I started off with a kleenex box, a nice simple design. However, it looked awfully like a toaster, so I added another piece of toast and a "button" (I don't know what else to call it... The thing that you push down) on the front. It is a very basic color change, a lot like my last design. All it is is the edges being folded in close to the center. Here is the CP for this model:

As you can see, its not too hard. Just two points facing up to make the toast. After folding in the edges, you have to make the model 3D by pleating the sides into a rectangle shape, and then lock the bottom by folding some of it inside the toaster. The button is made from the small section on the left of the CP, with just some simple 22.5° angle folds to make a color change. Good luck!

The First Bit of Green

2009-01-14T18:27:00.000-04:00

The challenge this month on the french origami forum is Perce-neige, which is the rough equivalent of snow piercer (Its also a type of flower, but I prefer the literal meaning). It means the first blooms in the spring, often before the snow has melted. When I think of that, I think of the first healthy-looking grass that pops up in the spring. I decided to fold that, and make it on a really small scale. At first, I wanted it to be flat, but I decided that 3D looked better.

That if from a 32:32 grid, by the way, and it is made with the building block method that Shonen uses. I decided to make the main part 2 units (2 1/16ths) tall, and 1 unit pointing out to the side. This looked to me like some small and new blades of grass. To add the snow, I just folded the edges into the main piece, and folded some corners to lock it. Here is what I ended up with:

Its a... New Year!

2009-01-01T12:05:00.000-04:00

It was hard to decide between this title and "I'm dreaming of a White New Year". We had a nice big storm, which I guess is still going, and it brought plenty of snow. However, its so windy now that you can still see some grass in places where the snow has been blown away.
It wouldn't really make sense to fold Father Time for the Old Year and no baby for the New Year. So, of course, I made both. I actually folded them both on the 30th, but decided no to release them until New Years eve and day. In case you don't understand, the baby (often with the new year written on a sash) represents the new year, so father time and the baby are often seen together. Here is the CP that I used, out of a 16:16 grid.

There isn't much to the details for this baby. The left and right flaps are hands, the bottom left and right are feet, and the bottom flap is the diaper. There are 4 flaps above the diaper, and two of them are hidden, one under the other. The other two flaps make the face. The top part can be color changed to make the top hat, and then just make a couple flaps to make the brim.

Happy Old Year!

2008-12-31T17:17:00.001-04:00

Well, another year has gone by and plenty has happened. I've successfully made 3 of the 4 sports teams that I tried out for at school, and have folded about 70 new models. In previous years, I've seen the years represented by an old man (the past year) and a baby (the new year). That old man is father time, who carries his scythe and hourglass everywhere he goes. For the new year, I decided to fold father time, which proved a bit difficult. I took a few CPs, all boxpleated, to come up with this:

On the left is the hourglass, and the right is the scythe. The face is easy enough to fold, with two inside reverse folds after folding the middle triangle. The hour glass just needs to be spread on either end, and the ends folded over to make color changes. The scythe was my least favorite part of the model, because every time I folded it, the paper ripped. I guess that you need larger paper to make it correctly. Note that the feet are the same as the ones on HOJYO Takashi's Archangel Gabriel.

Oh, and I have a slightly different look to my blog, in case you didn't notice yet.

A Green Christmas

2008-12-26T17:01:00.000-04:00

Sadly, due to the unpredictable weather out here, we ended up with a white Christmas eve, and a green Christmas. I can't actually remember the last time that I had a white Christmas (probably two years ago...), but green in just fine with me. I wanted to fold a snowman recently, seeing as I couldn't come up with something with a Christmas theme. However, I soon found that snowmen with good color changes are actually quite hard to fold. I gave up on the idea, and figured that I probably wouldn't get to fold anything for the theme. Then yesterday, the rain caused most of the snow to disappear, and I had the idea of a melted snowman. I don't have a CP for it, because its easy enough just to explain. I folded a waterbomb base first, and folded the front to flaps up to the top so that I could pull up a layer to make the top button. then I pleated the flaps so that two more button could be made, and made the end of the flaps to make eyes. I squashed the back flaps and did a petal fold so that I had two thinner flaps. I then pulled the out enough ot be arms, color changed them and added details so that they look like sticks. Finally, I folded the body semi-randomly to make the puddle/melted shape. Here is what I ended up with. Happy Holidays!

Action Time

2008-12-20T20:11:00.000-04:00

I can't remember whether I've ever managed to design a action model before (not counting the jumping frog with mouth), but I did this time. The theme this month on the english origami forum is Holidays, so I decided against doing what most of the other people were doing, which is Christmas themed models. I went with a random holiday, Easter, and tried to think of what represented it best. Of course, it was a rabbit (or Jesus dieing on the cross, but I don't think I'll try that just yet). It is quite a simple model, and the jumping system is made the same way as the traditional jumping frog. Here is the CP that I used:

It is quite a simple CP, and there is are a few more details that need to be added. The front legs need to be folded inwards and thinned, and the back section has to be thinned. with a bit of details of the ear and some rearranging of the head, you should end up with something like this:

And, of course, no action model would be complete without an action shot:

More Biologically Accurate

2008-12-20T19:32:00.000-04:00

For some reason, I've been thinking about mushrooms lately. I wanted to fold one different for the others that I've seen folded before, with some more things that mushrooms usually have. Using what I learned in biology last year, I made a mushroom with gills underneath the cap, and with a simple stipe, annulus and volva. As with most round models with flaps, I had to use pleating. This is the CP that I ended up with:

After precreasing everything, simply overlap 1/8th of the side edges and fold. The gills should face downwards, so that they can be seen once the top us unwrapped to make the cap (which doesn't like to stay together...). Here is what you should end up with, or close to:

Tiger/Zebra

2008-12-13T19:45:00.000-04:00

The challenge this month is "In Black and White" on the french origami forum. Strangely enough, the only thing that I could think of to fold in black in white was a zebra. I had no idea how I was to fold one, especially because of all of the stripes on it.
Luckily for me, I remembered about Hideo Komatsu's tiger and the nice stripes. I didn't want to use his method at first, but I eventually decided to use it. To fold this model, follow steps 1-103 of his tiger to achieve the stripes. Then, make the head and tail using the lines folded in steps 11-12. For the details, color change the tail by wrapping the flaps around, and make a color change for the nose after folding a head. Thin the legs and the body, and you should end up with something like this:

Hummingbird

2008-12-08T15:01:00.000-04:00

Having recently been at volleyball provincials, I haven't been able to do much folding. Now volleyball is over, but that just means that I have more basketball to do. I have 6 games this week!
Anyways, yesterday I did manage to fold something, by doodling of course. I hope to think of something for either challenge this month, but I haven't got to it yet. I ended up with a hummingbird, which is an interesting design at this time of year. Here, they would just freeze and drop onto the snow-covered ground. Here is the CP that I used, which is actually quite simple:

The wings end up below the tail, and need to be folded forward and up. A little opening of the tail will make it more suited for a hummingbird, and the head simply needs to be thinned at the end to make the beak. Good luck!

Half of What I've Been Doing Lately

2008-11-30T12:11:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned previously, I am on the school basketball and volleyball team. I have been quite busy lately, mainly because all of the basketball and volleyball games and practices don't leave me much more time. I've wanted to fold a basketball for a while now, but I wasn't quite sure how to do it. I finally used the windmill base with all of the corners squashed, which leaves me with just the right number of color-changeable lines. There is no real point to having a CP, because the base is just too simple (and I just explained how to make it).
After folding the base, four lines have to become the horizontal and vertical lines, while the other four become the "curved" lines. Then the sides and corners just have to be folded in, and you have a basketball. I suggest using orange and black colors, but you can use whatever you want to.

Pokémon

2008-11-23T11:19:00.000-04:00

This month, the challenge on the english origami forum is Video Games. Seeing as I can't remember playing many video games in the past, I decided to try folding a Pokémon. I didn't even know that Pokémon still existed until I saw some recent models on flickr of what people claim are some, but didn't look like anything that I remember. The only Pokémon that I remember were the original red and blue versions. Actually, come to think of it, I remember some more but those first two were the only ones that I ever played. I lost interest before emerald, sapphire, ruby, etc. came out. I guess that I just figured that it couldn't still be going, but I was wrong. I don't have a CP for this model, mainly because the base is so simple.
To make the Kakuna (which I've always found strange, as it is the cocoon between a caterpillar and bee stage) , just make half a windmill base using the two two corners. It should end up looking somewhat like a house. The top corners become eyes, and the rest of the model is just details such as all of the pleating on the body. Try to make it look something like these pictures:

Lest We Forget

2008-11-11T10:13:00.000-04:00

November 11th in Canada is Remembrance Day, the day that we remember all of the soldiers who went to war for our country. Every Remembrance Day, we wear a poppy. I felt that this year I should try to make a poppy such as the ones we wear, so last night I started folding. I used a Kawasaki twist to make the black center, and then folded the sides in beneath the twist to make the red petals. I then made it into a octagon shape and added curves. Here is the CP:

The square twist has to be done first, and I suggest precreasing the folds into the center before actually finishing them, because one of the corners has to be tucked inside so that each part overlaps another part, and the center shows through correctly. The corners can be folded in with an inside reverse fold, and then just fold curved pleats from the center and lock them.

And Another Rat, too

2008-11-05T16:27:00.002-04:00

It seems that I like to repeat subjects, but not the way that I fold those subjects. I end up with the same things over and over, but they are never done the same way.
I had decided to try using the Maekawa 22.5 degree angle arrangement (as I like to call it), like what I used on my Moth. This time, I wanted to base it on the diagonal. Also, I decided to make two squares using boxpleating. At first, I made a cat out of the base, but yesterday in class I tried folding it twice more, and the second time I ended up with a rat instead. When I folded it out of two-colored paper, i found that there could be a color changed tail. Here is the CP:

The CP doesn't really get you very far, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. The head is probably the hardest to make, and after that the back is pretty strange without the right shaping. Folding the point of the body up to the halfway point the right way to go. Hopefully it isn't too strange. I hope to make diagrams, anyways.

And heres a refolded version:

Back to the Horseshoe Crab

2008-11-01T14:46:00.000-03:00

I didn't get to fold many things last month, as I had a pile of things to do. I am now a member of my High School Volleyball and Basketball team, and I had to write a few essays and do a few projects. Hopefully I'll be able to get more done, especially seeing as I have a project on the mathematics of origami coming up.
I finally decided to go back to the old horseshoe crab, because I never did give it any legs like I said that I would. I started out basing my model diagonally on thirds, but that didn't give me enough legs. Then I tried fifths with the same idea, and ended up with nice model that has all ten legs. There are a lot of details left out of the CP.

This crease pattern just shows how to make a base with all of the legs, but no distinct head of tail. Either end can make either, and they aren't hard to make. The head has to be shortened up and pleated so that the points on either side can be formed. The abdomen and telson has to be thinner, and the telson (tail) can just be made one third the size of the abdomen. A mouth can also be made with the paper between the legs, by folding four 45 degree angle folds.

Mike Wazowski!

2008-10-25T21:11:00.000-03:00

This month on la forum francaphone (which just got a new look, and an new name), the challenge is Film Characters (rough translation). I couldn't think of what to fold this time, and I started off with Lumiere from Disney's Beauty and the Beast. That didn't work out at all, so I tried Mike Wazowski, the short green monster from Monsters Inc. My first ideas didn't work out, and eventually I just stopped with the model that I have now. It doesn't look like Mike, maybe it was him as a child. Here is the CP, based on a blintz fold and windmill base.

The top and left edges are the arms, and the bottom and right ones are legs. All of the corners fold behind to make the color changed eye, except for the bottom right hand corner which makes the iris/pupil. As you can see from the pictures below, its not quite Mike, but I like it nonetheless.

More Mythology: Now With a K

2008-10-16T19:12:00.000-03:00

After reading about the Amikiri on a link, I couldn't help but make some proportional changes and such on the CP to add legs and a shorter body to form a Kamikiri. I started off by changing the top portion that makes the claws and beak from and eighth to three sixteenths. I then made simple legs with the bottom corners, and I had myself a kamikiri. There isn't much more to describe it, so here is the CP:

You can tell how the claws are similar to the previous model, and how the legs were made. The two 22.5 degree angle squashes near to the bottom corners are necessary, because otherwise the outside flaps run into that part of the legs. I shouldn't be too hard to make, and the part where the arms connect should be the hardest part,the same as in the Amikiri. Good luck!

A Little Bit of Mythology

2008-10-07T18:13:00.000-03:00

For this month on the origami forum (the english one), the challenge is Mythology. There is, as mentioned, very little difference between "fantasy" and "mythology". However, I still think there is a good challenge behind it, because fantasy can simply be made up recently, where mythology is something from stories from long ago. You have to find a mythological creature, but can make up one of fantasy.
Anyway, enough about the differences. Here is the CP that I used. Note the "trianglepleating" used to make the thin arms.

So what does it fold? I forgot to mention. While looking through Wikipedia's list of creatures from mythology, I found something called an "Amikiri", from Japanese mythology. It has a long plated body, a bird-like head and lobster-like claws. Its also known as a net cutter.
If you fold the CP right, you should end up with a base with the beak, arms with claws, and body. Then, with a little detail, you should end up with something like this:

Chess Boxing?

2008-09-28T16:39:00.000-03:00

Why not? It turns out that chess boxing has been going on since 2003, and is gaining in popularity. I can't help but wondering whether it would be hard to think of your chess moves after being hit in the head a few times... I decided to go with a somewhat random sport for this months challenge of sports on the english origami forum. Seeing as I hadn't participated in the sports challenge on the french forum, I had a second chance. He is my boxpleated CP, with a 16:16 grid.

It is mostly a simple human form, with some extras. The square in the head forms the cross on the king's head. The bottom point in the center becomes the color changed shorts, and the gloves can be formed by wrapping a layer around the end of the arms. Then only the head remains to be shaped.

Tessellation Application?

2008-09-23T18:09:00.000-03:00

Not too long ago, I was exploring an application for tessellations in representational origami. I intended on using a triangle grid, but I guess that I could call this a start. For some reason, I decided to fold some square twists side by side, and found that if you folded in between two of them, it looked a lot like eyes. At first, I had the idea of making a fish out of this, but found that there simply wasn't enough paper with the grid I was using (maybe I'll make a fish some other time...). I also noticed that the part beneath the eyes looked a lot like a triangular nose, so I added a mouth and eyebrows. I ended up with a Tiki Mask, a wooden mask from Central Eastern Polynesian islands in the Pacific. Here is my CP:

I didn't include a grid, but it shouldn't be too hard to guess. All vertical and horizontal lines are on a 16:16 grid. After you fold the base, all you need to do is fold in the sides however you feel like folding them. Enjoy!

Something Simple

2008-09-22T17:31:00.000-03:00

Lately, I've had a (only somewhat nasty) cold, and I can't really say that I've enjoyed it so far. However, when blowing my nose, I noticed that one time I folded it in a 22.5° angle. If that wasn't strange enough, I decided to just look at a kleenex (not used) that was folded in the same way. I then played around with it a bit and ended up with something that looked like a bear, made from only two folds. Its strange what can inspire you sometimes.
However, when I got home, I found that the bear really didn't look right because of the head color change, which I just couldn't avoid. So I considered what else it could be, until I ended up with two simple 22.5° angles making a man with a bouquet. The idea of making something this way came from Paula Versnick's bi-fold Santa. Here is my CP:

Not too hard, eh? And theres no shaping involved either! I shouldn't be too hard to figure out which way to fold it, just do the straight 22.5° first. If the color changes don't look right, just switch around the mountain/valley folds until you get it.

Rabbit on the Moon?

2008-09-18T21:46:00.000-03:00

Sorry for the "long" break there. It turns out that grade 11 teachers really enjoy the idea of homework...
I actually never though about the different things that you can see when you look at the moon, until I was staring at blankly at the french forum challenge topic at the start of this month. It turns out that this month is "Le Lapin de la Lune", which means (roughly) "Moon Rabbit". I soon found out that, in quite a few regions, people used to look up at the moon and see a rabbit (rather than "the man on the moon" often seen today). I couldn't really figure out what I should make to represent it. Eventually, I decided on using color changes to represent the rabbit. Here was my result:

The model is completely based around the ears. The rest of the model us simply pleats and folds, with another pleat to make it round. The pleat forms the rabbits cheeks, and you can then use the end of it to make a nose.

Some Call it Sweet

2008-09-07T19:33:00.000-03:00

As some people may be able to guess from the title (although I doubt many people will), I recently turned 16. A birthday is never a big celebration to me, and 16 had no real importance but sometimes you hear of people turning 16 and getting a car for their birthday, before they even have a license. I have no plans of any driving just yet, but I decided to try my hand at an origami car, based on Robert Lang's and Joseph Wu's recent cars. I started folding, and it turned into an SUV instead. In fact, it looked an awful lot like a Honda Element, an ugly small-ish SUV that looks like a box on wheels. So that ended up as my name for the model. The CP is fairly simple, and even uses the same method as the podium to make the front and windshield.

As you can see, the model is made using simple pleats and locks. However, I didn't include some creases such as the wheels, which I made using 22.5° folds, as well as the doors and windows, which are simply creases.

K-Dron: Finally Finished

2008-08-28T14:29:00.000-03:00

After weeks of making the shape called a K-Dron, I finally managed to fold one myself. I make the shape again and again out of paper, finding out more and more ways to reduce the cutting and increase the folds. Eventually, I made a model that required only one small cut, which I knew that I could easily fix. However, there was ans still is a major problem with this model, one that I don't really know how to fix. No matter what you fold it with (unless you use sheets of thick metal, perhaps), it ends up not being able to stay closed on its own. This problem can be fixed in a non-purist way by using glue or tape, but I still would rather it done by folding alone. I didn't bother making a CP because of this.
To make the model, I first planned on how it would be done by making the faces connected to the correct places. Then I simply found a way to fold the basic outline from a rectangle, and added pleats to make slits so that no small cuts would be required. Here is a picture of my K-Dron:

I'm now planning on showing the shape to Tomohiro TACHI, because I am pretty sure that this model is possible using his origamizer program.

Podium

2008-08-18T13:23:00.000-03:00

I decided to stick with the Olympic theme for my next design when I was wondering what to fold next. I had been thinking before of making a podium from the center of the paper, but hadn't figured out how yet. I didn't really expect it to be as hard as it was. I based my model on Shonen's method of making 3D shapes. However, I couldn't simply make 3 blocks for the podium, so I added some of my own ideas. I started with a 16:16 grid and used the middle 4 squares as the top square of the highest podium. I decided that the middle would be the height of a cube, the left one would be 2/3rds that height and the right would be 1/3 the height. I then made a square 1/3 to the left of the middle square and another 2/3rds to the right. I used Shonen's building block fold to put them at the heights and folded them back out halfway to keep the outer faces. Then I simply finished the model with some more building block folds on the corners. All of that led to this:

If that isn't enough description, Here is a CP. It took me a while to figure it out, but I finally have it.

For the Olympics

2008-08-16T18:31:00.000-03:00

Lately, I had the idea of folding one or more things from the Beijing 2008 Olympics. I decided to start off with what had all the popularity lately, swimming (seeing as Michael Phelps has been winning all those golds, he is up to 7 as of now). I started off planning on making a design inside a square so that the model features the swimmer and the pool. However, after folding it, I realized that there was no color change possible for the swimmer, unless all of the side were folded in, making the model need a huge piece of paper. I was thinking that maybe I could get away with a little non-purism and adding a flesh colored square to the center for the swimmer. However, I remembered Bernie Peyton's Swimming Polar Bear which gave me the idea for my current model. I made the model from a full 16:16 grid rather than a grid inside of the square, and made the excess paper into the water behind the swimmer. Here is my CP:

The trick is to use the same color background as the water side of the paper. Because I used tissue foil, I put a sheet of tissue paper on top of a sheet of foil as the background. The bottom points on the CP make the face, and the two others are the arms. The top edge is folded over to make a color change.

The Cutest

2008-08-13T14:21:00.000-03:00

By that title, I don't mean to say that my kitten is going to win the Cute challenge on the english forum, I'm just saying that I think kittens are cute. I have quite a lot of barn cats, including a new batch of kittens every so often, so I've seen hundreds of kittens over the years. I decided that I should try folding a cat again, seeing as the last one didn't end up so well, and then just made a large head to make a kitten. I'm quite happy with the result, and hope to experiment a bit more with the model until I get four good legs. Here is the CP:

Even the finished base looks cute, although it looks more like a mouse with a short tail. With a few folds on the face, and a bit of tweaking to the ears and legs, it should end up looking like a little kitten, something like this:

A... Tessellation?

2008-08-09T21:06:00.000-03:00

Yes, I finally dove (dived?) into the strange world of tessellations. I decided to have another go at folding a puff star, and this time I was much more successful than the last, and I started folding a whole bunch of puff star variations by adding closed sinks. Finally, I got bored of that and decided to try making my own unit. I started with the hexagon twist, made three open sinks, three closed sinks, and a squash to form a smaller hexagon. Then I repeated the whole thing again, and finally folded the sides of the third hexagon towards the center radially. This resulted in the following tessellation.

I decided to name this the Starflower Unit, because no only does it resemble a star and a flower, but also a tiny white starflower.
I don't think I'll be doing much more in the way of tessellations, mainly because I don't have nearly enough large pieces of paper. However, I hope to be able to use tessellations as textures on realistic pieces in the future.

Jellyfish

2008-08-06T13:55:00.000-03:00

Last month, I visited plenty of places during my trip to Vancouver, such as the Vancouver Aquarium and Science World. Seeing as this month's challenge on the french origami forum is Postcards from your Summer Vacation, I decided to stick with something simple. My original ideas involved "Raven and the First Men" by Bill Reid, The Celebration of Light and the Planetarium. I didn't get anything for my first idea, and my second idea didn't really work. The Planetarium was possible, but rather boring and messy to fold. So I decided on a simple idea, which lead me to fold a jellyfish like the ones in the aquarium. Here is the (somewhat incorrect) CP that I used:

I didn't put in all the lines, but you can see that the middle point (after the 11.25° lines are collapsed) is squashed into an imperfect octagon. Then the many points become tentacles.

Its Raining, its Pouring

2008-08-05T12:58:00.000-03:00

After a two week break of (mostly) not folding while I was in Vancouver, I'm back at it again. As soon as I got back, we had some fairly rainy days, and yesterday was the worst. Yesterday morning (while it was raining on and off), I decided to fold a rain cloud using pretty much the same idea as my lightning model, except much simpler. Here is the CP that I used, which can also make a mushroom.

The top shape folds over to form the cloud, and the bottom rectangle can be divided in 16 (or whatever else) to form the rain. The pictures were taken during the brief period of sunshine yesterday.

Moth

2008-07-15T12:01:00.000-03:00

After folding Penrod using Jun Maekawa's devil base, I wanted to try and make my own base using the same method of 22.5° angles. I decided to fold a moth, seeing as I recently saw a Common Clearwing Hummingbird Moth which was at my house. However, I didn't quite get the same proportions or color changes, so my model is just a moth. The CP turned out very well, better than I had expected it would. At first, it only had 4 legs and I couldn't figure out how to get two more. Eventually, I ended up using the unused paper in the top corners to add a flap to each back leg. Here is my CP:

As far as I know, this CP is unique which makes me all the more proud of it. Hopefully I'll be able to use this again for future models. The bottom corners are the wings, and the legs are on the middle and the top of either side. The antennae are located close to the middle. The model is fairly hard to collapse, however with the right folds it should end up something like the following pictures. I hope to make diagrams as soon as I figure out a better way of folding it.

Penrod the Pirate

2008-07-13T19:34:00.000-03:00

Seeing as this month's challenge on the english origami forum is Pirates of the Caribbean, I decided to fold something (someone, in a way) that not many people know by name. One of the crew of the Flying Dutchman is Penrod, half man half lobster. At first, I worried about the CP and had no idea what to do, but eventually I decided to use the CP for Jun Maekawa's devil with a few minor changes to the hands and tail. Here is my CP:

The CP may take a while to fold, but it does have the same reference point as the devil: fold a 22.5 degree angle from the corner where the 22.5° angles touch on a fish base to the center diagonal, and where that line and the diagonal cross is the point above the tail.

Pelican Swallows Pigeon...

2008-07-05T17:03:00.000-03:00

I recently read this article, which I guess made me think a bit about pelicans. Yesterday, I started to doodle, and lo and behold, I folded a pelican. Perhaps later on this month I'll try out a pigeon in a pelican's mouth... This model is actually fairly unique, because it is based on 11.25° angles, which I think I've only done on my squid before. Here is the CP:

There are quite a few details, but most important is wrapping around layers to get the right colors. Sadly, I wasn't able to color change the lower part of the mouth because of where it is located on the paper. That'll be something to improve on my pelican eating pigeon.

Year 2

2008-07-03T20:55:00.000-03:00

Well, it comes the time to announce what I have achieved over the past year, mainly because two years on this date I started designing. Its kind of like a birthday, except without the presents. My list may not be nearly as impressive as last year, seeing as I didn't attend the OUSA convention. Lets see...

This year I have:
-Taken part in over 23 challenges, that I know of
-Changed my design style and started using 22.5° angles instead of boxpleating
-Designed 78 more models, totaling 111
-Drawn diagrams for five of my models using Inkscape
-Won an monthly design challenge on the english forum (11 months ago)

Hopefully I'll have plenty more next year, as I am planning to attend the OUSA convention and whatever else.

In real life, I managed to raise my grades by 2% to a 93, went to France but ended up not meeting Eric Joisel, and am hopefully going to see Quentin Trollip and Joseph Wu while in British Columbia this month.

Spider

2008-07-01T12:43:00.000-03:00

Once again, I'm working my way up to another good design by making lesser designs to test things out. This time, I'm working on a certain species of spider that lives in my house. I started off with the design by folding a simple spider using 22.5° angles, and I'm quite happy with the result. I divided the paper into 3rds one way, and folded the two inside 8ths for the pedipalps. Here is the CP that I used for the model:

I'm quite happy with how the model ended up, although at first it didn't look like a spider at all to me. All the details to finish the model involve the legs and pedipalps, and are fairly easy. However, this model isn't very good for very thick paper because there are a lot of layers around the legs towards the end.

Yet Another Frog

2008-06-24T16:44:00.000-03:00

Once again, I've folded a frog. Although the name of the model is Frog 2, I have also designed a pureland frog. After trying Peterpaul Forcher's Fox (Link to PDF diagram), I've wanted to try the head again elsewhere. I was originally thinking that it would end up as a dragon or something along those lines, but instead I ended up with a from after I squashed the ears and ended up with froggy eyes. I had seen eyes a lot like this before, on Tanaka Masashi's frog. However, his model turned out a lot better and the eyes came from a different part of the paper. Here is the CP that I used:

The body ends up a bit long after folding the CP, but it can be shortened up with some crimps. Some detail needs to go into the legs to make them frog-like, and the head needs to be made 3D in the same way as the fox.

"Ice Age"'s Best Character

2008-06-19T17:41:00.000-03:00

My favorite character on the movie "Ice Age" would have to be the little saber-toothed squirrel named Scrat, and when I decided to fold a character with cartoon eyes, I decided that he would be best. I folded this model for the challenge on the english forum, "Movies". It took a draft or two to get the right idea, but in the end it came out fairly simple. I decided to use the same cartoon eye approach as the Yip Yip, and went from there. I also managed to achieve a bigger tail than the first draft, but also ended up with shorter front legs. Here is the CP, which I made with Inkscape instead of CadStd just because I like the look, and it makes 22.5° angles a lot better.

I then made color changed teeth, use the paper by the legs to make a tail and shaped the entire model. I didn't exactly achieve everything that I wanted to, such as toes and a lower jaw, but I am happy with the result.

Banana

2008-06-14T13:02:00.005-03:00

I had some ideas for fruit to submit to the Fruits and Vegetables challenge on the french origami forum, and I decided that its probably best to fold one more thing before exams begin (two days!). I decided to try folding a banana, and to base it on other origami bananas that I've seen, such as this one by Francisco Javier Caboblanco. I start off with excessive and complicated model, and eventually gave up and used a simple kite base. Even when the model is folded flat, it still has the "curve" of a banana.

The only real details needed are mountain folds behind on either and and by the peeled part, as well as rounding for the whole model. Good luck!

Because I just had to change the CP, and it may have been confusing some people, here are some diagrams.

What are Yip Yips?

2008-06-13T17:06:00.000-03:00

Seeing as this months challenge on the english origami forum is Movies, I've decided on folding a certain animal from a children's movie, and I'm not going to say what just yet. I decided to start off small, so I tried making the cartoon eyes that I want for the model, and then decided to test them out on something else. My decision came when I noticed this picture of Yip Yips from the children's show Sesame Street while looking through origami cat models. Although the eyes are a bit big, I'm still happy with the result. Here is my CP.

The top 1/16th and the four 1/16ths on either side are all used to make the eyes. Only a little shaping has to be put into the body and the eyes, and the mouth can be made from a simple pleat.

More Cartoonish Than Ferocious

2008-06-06T17:46:00.000-03:00

Yesterday, I surprised myself by actually getting what I wanted on the first try. I had finished my test on Shakespeare, and had a piece of looseleaf left, so I decided to try folding a Saber-Toothed Tiger, because of this years OUSA Design Challenge (I only just found out that it's "Toothed" not "Tooth". I can't really pronounce Toothed, anyway). The body of the original model didn't satisfy me, so I refolded it at home using a much simpler approach using less shaping. I ended up with a nice tiger, but the back legs were too long and made it slouch forward, so I had to add a pleat to make them shorter.

This CP doesn't even include the back legs, because they aren't really made using any reference. They are actually made from a double crimp to fold the tail end forward. With the right folding, and a squash to make the nose, the model even has eyes.

Ammonite

2008-06-04T16:51:00.000-03:00

I had been thinking of folding something for the OUSA design challenge this year, even though I won't be attending, but I only just got around to trying out models. Seeing as it is a limit of one model per person, what I would do (if I were exhibiting) would be to fold however many ideas I have, and then choose the best for the challenge. The rest could go on my personal exhibit, if I had one. I've decided that I won't bother sending models from now on, and that I'll only exhibit if I'm able to be there, mainly because of bad experiences with wrinkles and shipping.
I decided to base the model on 5ths, so that there would be 10 tentacles. I mainly just added 22.5° angles and squashed some parts from there, to get the following CP.

Then I figured out a way to make a color changed shell, and used the extra tentacle flap to make the eyes. The shell doesn't really stay together well unless you're using some way of making it stay, such as foil or glue.

Simple End to the Month: Rabbit Head

2008-05-31T18:40:00.000-03:00

Having just head Districts and Regionals for track (I didn't make it to provincials, I was four places away in the 3000m, in other words 8th), I didn't exactly get much time to fold. However, I still managed one model in there somewhere. Its quite simple, just a combined boxpleating and 22.5 degree angle model on a 4:4 grid. The CP made me laugh a couple of seconds ago when I noticed that I had made the whole thing upside down.

The ears are on the bottom and the nose is on the top. It shouldn't be too hard to get the details, only the nose needs to be widened and closed, the ears opened up and shaped and the bottom corners of the head folded behind.

(And for those of you still wondering: I was 12th in the 1500m, and last in high jump because of back pain, which means around 15th)

And Another Repeated Subject

2008-05-17T15:37:00.000-03:00

This model came as a doodle, which I haven't done in a long time. I started off trying to folding something for the french forum's challenge, "Folds in Mouvement", or action models, but I didn't really have any idea where I was going with it. So I ended up randomly folding the model until I came up with this CP, somewhat based on a bird base.

At first, I had no idea what to do with it. I inside reverse folded the fin sections, and then I knew what the model could be. All I had to do then was fix the tail and curve it, as well as make the fins smaller. I based the form loosely on Fumiaki Kawahata's Shachihoko (which turns out to be a carp with a tiger's head).

Le Petit Prince

2008-05-14T18:22:00.000-03:00

I recently read the book "Le Petit Prince" by Antoine de Saint Exupéry for the first time.I don't know about the english version, but I was greatly confused by the french version (and I did understand). It is possible to read it online, if you search, and you may want to go and do that now. I might give some spoilers by accident.
The whole story seems to be about a hallucinating man that can't draw (or so he says, although I like the drawings). I decided to fold the little prince simply standing, and wearing his scarf. You may notice that his scarf is almost always blowing in the wind, except for in one picture. For the CP, I used boxpleating (this doesn't mean that I'm returning to folding everything using it) and a grid of 16:16.

The legs are the bottom left and center, and the scarf is at the top right hand corner. The arms is where it starts to get weird. One arm comes from right below the scarf, and the other comes from the hair section. The hair has to be crumpled around to resemble the princes short and somewhat spiky hair.

Old Subject, New Model

2008-05-11T16:53:00.000-03:00

Some may remember that the first model that I posted on this blog was a kiwi. Well, the kiwi is back, and this time he stands up on his own and he actually looks a bit like a kiwi! I decided to refold the kiwi because this months challenge on the engligh origami forum is "Life in Oceania", which is a challenge to fold one of the many special species from Oceania. Sadly, only Gauthier has actually folded anything for the challenge yet.
This model took me three tries to design. First, I tried it with a 3/4 blintz, and then twice with the feet from opposite corners. My second try with feet from opposite corners ended up being the best, even though the legs were massive. I just folded them underneath to deal with that problem. Here is the kiwi CP:

As you can see, my reference point this time is a 22.5° angle along a line folded from the corner to the center point. The tail part has two parts on the CP, but it doesn't really do anything. The head comes from the top corner.

And Then Comes the Diplopod

2008-05-09T16:28:00.001-03:00

As mentioned before, I recently did a large project for Biology class. At the end of each project, everyone had to have an evaluation to see whether everyone actually understood, and my partner decided to make a game called Arthropodapardy (like Jeopardy). I got to make the prises for this game, which consisted of an ant (Class Insecta) and a horseshoe crab (Class Merostomata). I didn't have enough time to make the last, a millipede (Class Diplopoda) but I ended up doing it right after my presentation. It ended up really basic, but also accurate. The legs are just the ends of each body segment. You can see what I mean by looking at the CP below, from a 4:1 rectangle.

The leg parts are just crimped body segments that are separated from each other. This model can actually be made out of whatever rectangle you want to make it out of, although I find that 6:1 or 8:1 works best. It should be made with proportions in multiples of two, for best results. The model actually wont curve without thinning unless you pull one side of the body segment for each spot that you want to curve.

This is my 100th design! Amazing what one can achieve in two years (minus two months).

One of the Stranger Arthropods

2008-05-08T08:15:00.000-03:00

I recently had to do a very large project on kingdom Arthropoda, which came out as 7 pages and 2 more pages for the reference list. Insects alone took up two pages! However, during the project, I realized what I want to fold: a horseshoe crab, of course. Horseshoe crabs are interesting animals, not being crabs at all. In fact, they are closer related to arachnids then to crustaceans. They have ten legs and their mouth in in between all their legs. I decided that I want to fold the full thing, complete with the legs, mouth, and gills. However, I had to start simple otherwise I wouldn't even have the shape. So I started with a kite base and made only the cephalothorax, abdomen and telson (tail). Here is the CP that I used:

It is a fairly simple CP, and doesn't require that much shaping afterwards. The cephalothorax needs to be shaped, and the abdomen needs spikes. The telso is better if thin, too. As mentioned above, I'm going to try and make a second horseshoe crab that is much more detailed. However, it might take me a while...

Eddie's Guitar

2008-04-23T20:31:00.001-03:00

For my english class, we had to make a piece of art or poetry (or a song) that had to do with symbolism in the book "Losing Eddie" by Deborah Joy Corey. It wasn't a particularly good book, but I did think of one part that I could possible fold. I decided to fold Eddie's red electric guitar which he received from his father after getting back from reform school. The guitar didn't mean much to Eddie, but to his father it was a way of trying to fix his sons wild ways.
I first tried to fold the model diagonally, but that turned out messy and too small. I then went on to make the basic shape out of a 4:1 rectangle, which is how I decided on how I would make the color changes. I ended up doing the same thing as when I only made the shape of the guitar, plus some squashes and color changes.

The color changes on the body and head are done by squashing the bottom two corner flaps irregularly and by the valley fold at the top. The model does take a look of time to shape, especially on the color change on the body.

Moo!

2008-04-22T17:11:00.000-03:00

This month, the french forum gave a very interesting challenge. The challenge is called "Chauvinism" (which is believing that your group people, such as race or gender or whatever else, is better than another group of people). Normally, chauvinism isn't usually very nice. However, the point of this challenge is to fold whatever makes your country, province (state), city or wherever you live special.
I may need to explain why I chose a cow. First of all, I've lived my entire life in a house beside a farm, which is owned by my family. It is a dairy farm, so there are a lot of cattle, and also some cats which I'm responsible for. However, cats aren't really what makes where I live special. The "place" that I live in is known regionally for being small, too small to be considered a village. There are quite a few farms in this tiny space, though. That is my reason for folding a cow, because of all the farms that are nearby.
The CP, as you will probably notice, is a bit weird. The top left-hand section is made by folding a 22.5° angle from the bottom corner, and the bottom right-hand section is made by pinching from the bottom corner to the corner of the top section, and then from the bottom corner to the pinch.

From there, different parts of the model can be color changed with a simple wrapping around of some layers. Sadly, I didn't get any color changes near the back, and I wasn't able to include udders either.

The phone of tomorrow?

2008-04-19T13:54:00.000-03:00

This month, the challenge on the english forum is "Folding Out of Time", or in other words, folding something from the future or the past. I decided that one of the easiest things to fold would be a cellphone, and it would also be one of the smallest things. However, this model can just be a normal cellphone if folded from the right size of paper. Here is the CP that I ended up with, based mostly on thirds.

It may be hard to figure out, but the top corners make the color changed screen and the X around the middle on the right makes the antenna. Most of it is just mountain folds and valley folds.

More Color Changes

2008-04-17T17:36:00.000-03:00

Another thing that I discovered recently using the same idea as my Tetris model is that you can make a color change spiral using the squash-and-valley-fold color changing technique (like on my Christmas Tree model). It is a rater boxy spiral, with all of the angles at 90°, but it is nevertheless a spiral. The CP for this model wasn't too hard to draw, mainly because it is a pattern, but that pattern might somewhat hard to pick out. I've used a red line to show the main part of the pattern.

As you can see, the red line runs diagonally starting at the corner, and then it turns 90° at the center and goes half as far, and then half as far as that, and so on. It also connects to a box, which is one quarter the size of the last one each time. The way to fold this is to start with a preliminary base with 3 flaps facing one way, and then a valley fold through the flat part to make the color change. Then all you need to do is use the corner flap that is sticking out and do the squash-and-valley-fold color changing technique. Then repeat again with the corner flap that comes out of doing that, except be sure to squash in the top space. I hope that helps!

Home on the Range

2008-04-10T16:34:00.000-03:00

I recently started off trying to fold a bull, but I ended up with something that could pass as a bull, but looks more like something else: a bison, commonly mistaken as a buffalo. The shape of the head and the large hump on the back was what led me to name this design. The CP started off as a common animal CP- four legs, a head and a tail. Then I worked more on the head, and ended up shaping the back in the process. Here is my CP for the bison:

It ends out a bit long, so you need to crimp the end to make it shorter. The back is make from thinning the front legs. Good luck!

Quack

2008-04-08T18:55:00.000-03:00

My friend in school has been asking me to fold him a duck for a long time now, mainly because he likes ducks. I had forgotten for a long time, until about a week ago when he reminded me. I told him that it would go on my list of things to fold.
So today I tried it in school (that hasn't happened in school, not since the Igloo) and the first time I ended up with something that looked vaguely like a duck, but quite ugly too. So, I tried again with the same base, but this time made it more like a cartoon duck. Here is that CP that I used:

The model shouldn't be too hard to fold, just be careful of the color changes The feet and legs can be color changed, and the beak probably can too.

Color Change and Counting

2008-04-01T17:46:00.000-03:00

To be honest, I never thought that I'd see the two combined. I've seen the origami numbers, but never something that changes numbers with one simple fold. I was recently playing around with color changes, basing it on the square of color change in corners (as seen on my Christmas tree). I ended up having a model that has 5 parts that can be changed with one fold each, and a really confusing CP. Lets start with the CP.

As you can see, it may be a bit hard to figure out, but I'm sure that it can be done. That CP should fold this:

No try unfolding some flaps. There are 16 possible combinations, and most of them look like Tetris pieces, so I decided to name the model Tetris. Here are minimum and maximum amount of shown squares:

Holding a Crane

2008-03-21T17:03:00.000-03:00

Today, I checked on the design.origami.free.fr web news, and saw that there was something that I hadn't really expected: A video by Brian Chan and Jason Ku, called "Origami Ultimate Challenge". I might give some spoilers, so you may want to watch the video before reading any further.
Anyways, the very ending of the video inspired me to fold what I did, without realizing it. I started off by trying to fold a hand, and then I tried making that hand hold something. The first thing that came to my mind was a crane. I got to folding, and ended up with the following CP. A 4:1 rectangle works best.

As you can see from the CP, you can't add anything to the "end" of the arm, because the end is really the middle of the paper. If you fold the paper that leads up to the crane inside the arm that leads to the hand, you will get a better result.