Origami Creations - Modular Flowers for Kinder School

I had a special request from the boss.  She is my lovely teacher-wife who needs to have paper blooms in their classroom.

I started to make a difficult 5-piece flower unit and got bored.  So I decided to search for a more simple modular flower in youtube and was lucky to find one and added my own twist:  1.  Instead of 5 units, I reduced it to 3;  2.  Added twirls/curls.;  3. Use staples rather than glue to connect them :-).

Adorable blooms with curls

Lovely pointy center petals

Here is the video link for your reference.

Here are all the flowers I made for my wife and so delighted that she and her students like them!

Beautiful decorative flowers

Hope you like these simple flowers too!

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Origami Creations - Simple Giraffe for Tiergarten Schonbrunn Zoo

In support of the world record attempt by the Tiergarten Schonbrunn Zoo in Vienna, I have folded this simple origami giraffe.  

Baby Giraffe with parents :-)

Their goal is to be able to receive 1,828 or more folded pieces.  Why 1.828?  This was the year when they had their first giraffe in the zoo.  For more details and a simple origami diagram, check this link.

Have a great week!

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Origami Design and Creations - My Muttley Dog Earrings

Due to insistent public (my daughters) demand, I was requested to make "Muttley dog" earrings.  This is actually the origami design I made and blogged here.  

I haven't made earrings before but seems quite an interesting challenge.

After a weeks of viewing "how-to" youtube tutorials, I set-off to buy me my tools and materials.

And here is my finished product ...

Cute, huh?

So very glad that the public liked it.  They said its fun, unique and adorable.

Well, they should like it as it is limited edition and made specially by their loving and cool Dad.

Have a wonderful day!

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Origami Creation - Beautiful Ballerinas

Just got a new cool and generous japanese friend in FB who makes very interesting origami pieces and freely shares them with everyone.  His name is Shunichi Ashimura.  You may view his works here.

I love the simplicity of his creations and their unconventional folding sequence.  The first one I folded was his ostrich design with the photo diagram can be found here.

Cool, huh!

Then, he showed his ballerina design which is pretty awesome. 

In dance and in a sitting pose.
 

Actually, the model is missing an arm (dancing) and a leg (sitting) but the beauty of the piece overshadows these deficiencies.  What do you think?

If you might be interested to try the dancing piece, here is the link.  The sitting ballerina was my re-engineering which you may easily get by looking at this photo.

Hope you enjoyed my folds and have a great week!

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Origami Design/Creations - Cat on a Mouse

I love a challenge and decided to make me some cats.  Initially, I decided to make a "Cat on a Mouse" on one square sheet of paper.  

Here is the cool result:

First rough draft

Second rough draft

I did find the model cute but only to my taste/liking.  So I decided to make a single subject fold instead and here it is.

Simple Furry Face Cat Bust

Simple Furry Face Cat 

Not really an outstanding model but exudes cuteness and quirkiness which I enjoy.  The cartoony face and unconventional form makes me happy!

Have a nice day!

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Healthy Steam Fish Meal for the Family

Spring is here and it's time to cook my wife's favorite food - Chinese steam fish.  It's very simple, healthy and flavorful complete with the garnishing and top with rice wine and the special sea food soy sauce.

Here's the mouth watering meal that I have prepared.

  

I made a short photo video here for those who maybe interested to see how easily it's done.

Enjoy your meal and have a great day!

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Origami Creations - Simple yet Challenging Dragon Models

My first time to reverse engineer an interesting model in Flickr and quite happy with the result.  Even more happier when the original creator was delighted with my folding and photo.

These are the sleeping and baby dragon design by the unassuming origami artist David Donohue (A.K.A. David Wires).  You may check his other beautiful and interesting designs here.

Really quite tempting to use his bases to proceed and make a more detailed dragon.  Probably one of these days, I will surprise him.

Got me one more photo here:

Have a great weekend!

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Origami Creations - Maekawa Seahorse (海馬)

I chance upon another wonderful design by the famous japanese origamist Jun Maekawa.  It is his seahorse.

I am very impressed by this artist as his works are very fun and exciting to fold.  I have wrote about him before here.  It was with regards to his wonderful squid design.

Same with the squid, his seahorse design is simple yet surprisingly unique and beautiful.  

With awesome ear flaps.

Now with the real thing!

Please do try it.  You may find the diagram on the 19th Tanteidan Convention book.

Have a great week!

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Simple Pleasures - The Wonderful Friendships We Keep

I have been fortunate enough to be blessed with new talented friends who share the same passion and are very generous and kind hearted.

It is with great joy to design and create art but even greater joy when it is shared and appreciated.  In origami, the penultimate happiness is when you see people folding your own creations.  Quite humbling and overwhelming feeling!    

Here are the latest folds made by friends:

Happy Baby Whales - Details here

My most favorite as it is being taught and shared by a wonderful origami teacher by the name of Hisako Tanji to kids.  The photo was for Children's Day.  A lovely and wonderful soul indeed!  She's a living angel to me!

The other model is my Wind Swept Tree.  Details here.  It is very nice to see how they individually express themselves and uniquely applied their own flair on my design.

Hadi Tahir

Barth Dunkan (a.k.a Magic Fingaz)

Rui Roda

Natalia Romanenko

My sincerest gratitude to all as it has continually inspire me to do more and pursue bringing simple pleasures for me, my family, friends and to the world!

Have a nice day!

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More Info:

Hisako Tanji FB Page

Hadi Tahir Flick Page

Barth Dunkan Flickr Page

Rui Roda Flickr Page

Natalia Romanenko Flickr Page

Origami Design/Creations - Minimalist Easter Bunnies (復活節兔子)

It's the Easter Week and I've challenged myself to do something for this occasion.  An obvious choice is making an easter bunny.

As I have done 3 simple origami competitions (sadly without gaining any win :o(), I have decided to try my skills on making these lovely critters.

Tada ... my minimalist Easter Bunnies.

At first thought, I was a little bit doubtful because of their short ears.  But when I ask the expert opinion of my daughters, they said that they are babies so they will need time to grow them. 

Lovely Babies

Other than this, there are indeed rabbits that have short ears.  These breed is called the "Netherland Dwarf Rabbit".

Super short yet Cute

It was great fun and hope I was able to justice on my Easter Bunnies.

Video tutorial can be found here.

Have a great Easter week!

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More Info:

Easter Bunny Wiki

Netherland Dwarf Bunnies

Origami Design/Creations - Paper Airplane from a Rectangle

I made and extra entry for the "It's a Windy Day" origami competition which I have joined.  This one is inspired from the short animated movie the Paperman.  It's an endearing love story with a paper folding twist.  

Here is the link to the movie.

I folded a simple piece still within the rules of the number of folds with no cuts and gluing.  

Here is my entry:

From a rectangle

This model uses 12 steps to make plus pen rolling of the tail to make the wind effect.  

T'was a great joy to make as it reminds me of my carefree younger days ... well, who don't?

Enjoy your day! 

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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 - 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