Origami Designs/Creations - Femininity and the Princess with a Stick

Femininity is the theme for the challenge and I have a week left to make up something.

Lucky to receive inspiration from my wife as she talks about the little kids in her school and the troubles she encounter when sending them to the toilet.  Eureka!

Here is my entry:

It's a signage for the little girls toilet or for your little princess bedroom.  It can also serve as a badge.  Aside from posting it on the door, you can make it stand-up on a table too.

Making the arms and the head was a big challenge but still quite satisfied on how it turned out.  I got my daughter's opinion and she sees a girl holding a stick to defend herself.  Hahahha ... at least I got the girl right and "No Entry" or else you'll be dealt with a big stick :o).

Enjoy your week!

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Origami Creations - Cool Emoticon Origami

Just happen to see another cool color change design from a friend in FB by the name of Hadi Tahir.  I personally am quite impressed by his style of designing origami works as I am unable to do such smart color changing technique.  

Fortunately, he has freely and generously shared the diagram for this cool piece.  

What do you think?  Very impressive piece, right.  

Hope you like it as much as I do.  Have a wonderful week!

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More Info.

Emoticon Wikipedia Meaning

The Beauty of Inkscape Drawing

As I went about starting to learn how to diagram my origami works, I have grown very fond of this free software - Inkscape.  Though it's not that relatively easy to use, the more practice and application of tutorial tricks can get you a long way.

Inkscape is a drawing software which uses SVG (scalable vector graphics) format for its files.  These files are based on XML and can be edited with any text or XML editor.  Besides SVG, it can import and export several other formats (EPS, PNG).  For me, its very useful to save my work in PDF format so to easily share my work.

I am writing this blog to point you to the different areas which would be very useful in learning this software.

1.  Main Inkscape Site

This is where you can download the software and do the tutorials under the LEARN tab.

2.  Short-cut Keyboard Keys and Commands 

I am very fond of finding the short-cut keys rather than going through the pull down menu or clicking though icons.  Print this and keep it handy.

3.  Origami specific diagramming tutorials/videos.

I recommend this Guide from Neorigami website.

Hope this information will be very helpful.  For samples of inkscape origami drawings, let me route you to my "Diagrams & Tutorials" tab for reference and enjoyment.

Till then.

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Paper Creations - Toilet Cardboard Tube Face Sculpture

I was fascinated with toilet cardboard tube sculptures which I have seen from the web lately and decided to give it a try.  The art form is more to wet folding and drying them up with a hair dryer.

The first try was a disaster as I tore open the tube from constant pinching to create face detailing. The second try was a success as I decided for a simpler face.  I called this "the scream" as taken from the famous painting of Mr. Edward Munch.

Here is my interpretation:

A loud scream

I enjoyed the raw texture and emotions reflected by the piece.  My daughter liked it too but suggested that I should try painting some color for more dramatic effect.  Hmmm ... that would be fun!

With the same piece I made another photo which I am calling "The Yawn".  Now that is my original!  

The Yawn

It was great entertainment but too bad I had only saved two tubes.  Well, art has to wait for life!

Have a nice day!

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More Info:

The Scream Wikipedia

Origami Creations - Asiatic Elephant by Kamiya Satoshi

It is very nice to have joined a group with regular folding challenges.  At least, I am able to occupy my time with something I enjoy doing without having to think too hard of what model to fold next.  Furthermore, the models chosen are quite interesting with very clever folding sequences.

The chosen piece for this paper challenge was the Asiatic Elephant by Satoshi Kamiya.  He is one of the most advanced origami master from Japan who has created mostly complex models.  Check his wiki below for more details.

Now, here is my creation:

Nice and lovely shaping

I used copy paper to do this fold so it was a bit difficult to do.  I would love to do this again with better quality paper.  

Added some more photos using some of my elephant figure collections.

With a baby elephant made from Jade stone

With Dumbo

Have a great weekend!

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More Info:

Satoshi Kamiya Wikipedia

At the HK Flower Show 2014 (香港花卉展覽 2014)

The Hong Kong flower show started from the 7th of March to end until the 16th at the Victoria Park in Causeway Bay.  It is to promote horticulture and a greener environment.

Surprisingly, this is my first time to visit the event.  And, had a wonderful time enjoying the sights ... enjoying the different flowers, learning floral arrangements, the beauty of landscaping and gardening.

I took a lot of photos and videos to share with my family and friends here and around the world.

Its a very long one so I broke it down as follows:

1.  Animals dressed with flowers:

2.  Vegetable and floral gardens.

) 

3.  Flowers.

) 

4.  Landscaping and Floral Arrangements.

Enjoy!

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More Info:

The HK Flower Show 2014

Origami Designs/Creations - Simple Wind swept tree

A challenging origami theme competition titled "it's a windy day" has just started. This is a tough one ... google images to the rescue!

Most photos are showing trees swaying from the wind.   The "swaying" part would be hard because I've only done dry folding i.e. hard straight crisp folding.    Other than the theme, there is also another important rule to contend with - fold must be less than 15 steps.

So without further ado, I came up with this - a 7 step model using color change for trunk and leaves.

Wind swept tree

It's a very easy piece using no base fold but just creative (trial and error) ingenuity (heavily leaning on my nuclear science background).  :o))))).

Finally the finished model was born:

Curling using a pen and made the trunk 3D

The back side view of the model.

Crease Pattern (CP) - Really easy!

Quite interesting.  I may try to do one or two more.  Onward to Google images!

Have a nice day!

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Origami Creations - Simple Military Tank by Charles Esseltine

The playful child in me kicked in when I saw the military tank model of Charles Esseltine.  To me, he is the origamist very much well known for his car (VW bug) model.  This brought back fond memories of my addiction to this very cute model.  Other than the car, he does have a lot of wonderful designs readily available from the internet.

Fortunate that he has generously shared step fold instruction for this new model here.  

Below is my rendition.

I had some difficulty on some of the steps and had to tweak a little bit to match the photos.  But it is nice to know that Mr. Charles Esseltine gave my finished product an approval with kind comments on my photo background.  Way to go!

Time to make the little boys happy!  Have a great week!

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Origami Design/Creations - Penguins (企鵝) for Mini Reto 19 Pinguinos Contest

I have participated in an origami challenge to design and make penguins.  It is indeed an interesting subject but later I came to realize that it is actually one of the most commonly folded bird in origami.  This will be tough!

So I decided to give it more thinking and come up with something unique.  Thus, two stars were born, my "Father and Son" cartoon penguins from a square sheet of paper.

Back to back to face the icy cold weather

During my quest to submit a more realistic piece, I made a chubby penguin.

Looking seriously full

It was an enjoyable journey ... hope this guys can make it through the cold weather in Hong Kong as I am really struggling with it!

I'll try to find the time to make the diagrams and tutorials for these models to share with the world soonest.

Have a nice day.

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Origami Creations - Love for Butterflies (蝴蝶)

Among the insects in origami, the butterfly is the one that I love to fold the most.  Aside from having so many easy models to choose from, it is the most beautiful and an elegant piece.

The butterfly model that I enjoyed folding a lot was from a japanese origamist by the name of Jun Maekawa.  I am very much impressed with his models as their structure is spot on and the folding sequence and measurements are clear.  

Here is my Maekawa butterfly:

Diagrams from Tanteidan 15th Convention Book

Though no color changes are made on the wings, I like its shaping and the inclusion of the head and its antennae. 

Just this past week, I have encountered some unfamiliar japanese origamist and was attracted to the color changes on their butterfly models.  First up, is Mr. Yoshi Tsuda.

Second one is Mr. Tomiyo Fukuyama.

Below is a combined photo of the two butterflies to include my earlier fold from my ori-friend Dimitris Dalas (Dida).  They are all so attracted to my luscious banana for breakfast.

Hope you enjoyed the display of beauties!  Enjoy your weekend!

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More info:

Jun Maekawa Wiki

Origami Design - Easy Whale for the Youth of the World

Life's simple pleasures ... such a joy to be able to share your work and see them being appreciated by your peers.  Even more so, if your pieces are fortunate enough to be use in teaching kids.  So heartwarming and very humbling feeling.

I have posted my minimalist model (easy 5-step baby whale design) in one of my origami group and an ori-friend of mine was kind enough to fold it.  Here is his fold:

Folded by Dida (Dimitris Dalas)

I am also very delighted that a teacher nicely asked my permission to use this model for teaching her students.  A great pleasure and honor to be able to contribute to the youth of the world!

I am re-posting the CP (crease pattern) + step diagram here for everyone's enjoyment.  You may fold using the CP to challenge yourself or do the step diagram for an easy route to making the model.

1st frame shows the CP

Here is the video tutorial:

Have a nice weekend!

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