Author: zingblog

Here’s another new model, and origami Astronaut. It’s based on a half-remembered box-pleated frog someone showed me once. The base, human or frog, has the limbs in the right place and the box-pleating technique results in limbs that don’t taper, as with a traditional base. From there it was mainly a matter of sculpting. One nice detail is the use of a spread-squash to form the visor. It’s funny, in my focus on simpler models I’ve been going back to alot of old and traditional forms and moves, looking for new ways to use them and finding they can be really expressive. It’s a bit like in my jazz group I’ve been getting away from Coltranesque sheets of sound, and more into a blues-oriented hard bop approach, a la Hank Mobley.

I tried to make an origami Hang Glider too, but had some trouble with the human figure part. Now with the astronaut I have an approach I can use; I just have to have a square suspended from the glider and I can take it from there.

Here’s a couple more new origami to round out the back half of my book. They’re my Space Shuttle and Flying Wing. The Shuttle came out very nicely, with the color change on the nose and the 3-D shape and proportions. The Flying Wing, like the Rocket Plane was inspired by some of the experimental aircraft I saw out in Ohio this summer. That brings me up to 11 completed models with about five more to go, and I have over that number as works-in-progress.

On same day as the Google interview I had a meeting with my publisher about the new origami book. Long story short, the new concept is a go. A kit book aimed at low to intermediate folders rather than intermediate to advanced. We’re also looking at adding custom paper for the models. I figure this is cool as long as the models work on their own and the paper is just an enhancement, as with John Montroll’s new DC Comics superheroes book.

So I’ve been continuing to make new designs. I’ve perfected two more in the last two days. One I’m calling the Space Pod. It’s based on the frog base and is only twelve steps or so. The other is the Space Probe. It’s a simplification of my Radio Satellite, down from 60 or more steps to maybe 20 or 25. It’s funny cuz it follows the same general pattern, with solar panels and a radar dish and a boom antenna, but with an 8×8 grid instead of 16×16 so the proportions are different, and instead of developing the radar dish from the center, which requires pulling out alot of layers, I use a corner, which in the old version I didn’t know what to do with anyway. This brings me up to ten models, with six more to go from a list of 10 or so ideas I have right now. Hopefully another tomorrow!

You’re probably wondering, hey John wazzup with your origami? Have you finished the Metallic Lokta Flowerball yet? Well I’ll tell ya. It’s about three quarters done and sitting on my table. I got distracted by a conversation with my publisher and I’m back to folding spaceships and airplanes again. He’s encouraging me to shift the focus to a simple-to-intermediate book, with the intention of having a smash hit that sells alot of copies. I like the sound of selling lots of books, but on the downside I’d have to let go of the more complex ones, some of which are my favorites, and maybe put them in another book down the line or find some other outlet to publish them. On the plus side those models are a real pain to diagram anyway.

In any event I’d need to come up with some simpler models, ideally under 30 steps. First I looked at my UFO, which is about 50 steps and admittedly fairly difficult to fold. I taught it to a fan one late-night folding session at Centerfold and it took about an hour. I came up with a new Flying Saucer that uses traditional 22.5 degree geometry instead of 15 degrees, and has a much simpler way to develop the center dome. It’s takes 10 or 15 minutes to fold and is probably about 20 or 25 steps. Score one!

Then I looked at my Rocket Ship, which is about 55 or 60 steps, including lots of prefolding. I came up with a kick-ass substitute rocket, an evolution of my Retro Rocket, which about 18 steps. I’m calling it Rocket Ship III.

I was on a roll, so just came up with another model I’m calling Rocket Plane. It’s based loosely on a plane I saw at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in the experimental hangar. Three for three here. Woo-hoo!

Next I took a look at my Biplane. This is one of faves at the moment, having taught it at two conventions, but at 50 steps it’s probably too complex. In any event it’s hard to make it look good unless you use foil paper or wetfold it. So I came up with a model I’m calling the Monoplane. It’s got alot of the same look and feel, but without the bottom wing, and without the accompanying complexity. I can probably take this idea and make two or three cool planes out of it, maybe even a helicoptor.

Lastly I took a look at my Zeppelin. This is one of my hardest models, and would probably be at the end of the book, close to 100 steps. I did come up with a vastly simplified design that has it own cool look. It’s based on 8ths rather 12ths for the geometry, and has 18 rather than 32 facets in the main part, and has far less prefolding. As an added bonus there’s enough paper at bottom to give the gondola some thrusters, although I haven’t decided if this is the way I want to go. Also I still am working out how to close up the tail nicely; don’t wanna hafta make ‘em wetfold to make the model work. Can it fit in 30 steps? I dunno, but Imma try.

Still a couple others to consider, notably my Radio Satellite. I’ll bet I can make some kind of Space Probe that looks just as cool but not so complex. All in all it’s a really good exercise.

Inspired by Meenakshi Mukerji’s work in modulars, I set out to make a single sheet flower-ball while I was in Ohio for the Centerfold convention. I began with a simple pentagonal flower, which on it’s own is a nice, low-intermediate model, and you can fold a bunch of them and make a nice arrangement. From there I folded a cluster of six flowers from a single sheet, which formed a hemisphere. I spent the rest of the convention doing the prefolding for a full ball.

Once I was well into it I realized I already had something similar, my Penfractal Dodecahedron Tessellation, which was an evolution my Penfractal Tessellation. I always though the dodecahedron needed something, and the flower idea turned out to be just the thing to bring it to life. The main change to the design was to add a course of pleats between the main pentagonal faces. This gave me enough extra paper to separate the flowers from one another and puff them up to be 3-d.

I folded it from a ~15” (35cm) sheet of “Grainy” paper I got the Brian Webb’s Origami Shop. This turned out to be a great, high-performance paper for a demanding model. Grainy is tough like Elephant Hide, but a soft like money. Very workable and holds its shape very well. I didn’t have to wetfold the piece.

The only thing I don’t like about the model is it’s made from a square, although the model uses pentagonal geometry. This means that the tabs at the bottom are all different. You can’t see them anyway, but I’m thinking of making another larger one from a 50cm pentagon. While I’m at it, I’ll make the pleats a bit deeper to try and get more separation between the flowers. I don’t have Grainy paper that large, so I’ll probably use Metallic Lokta. If that works out, next up will be a Lizard Ball!