Timcanpy v.1.0

Merry Christmas guys!

Recently, I've started watching the anime D.Gray-man, a supernatural anime which is still being released from Japan. Of course, I've been longing to fold something from the anime, so I set my eyes on the golem Timcampy, which looks something like this. However, it turned out to be a little hard, so I aimed at something easier, a little golden ball with wings.

Well, most of the trouble came with the ball shape. Perfect spheres are never found in origami, but there are models that come close to one, like the waterbomb. As a result, Timcampy v.1.0 is simply a waterbomb with wings:



If you followed the last link, you'd realize that the above model is missing a tail. In future versions, I'll try to make a tail using grafting. I'd need a really long one...

This model is too simple to make a CP for, I'll try to make some diagrams instead. ^_^

At the very least I can put on a good face to a bad result and call this model the Golden Snitch!


Origami as Pure as Snow
shonen

Honeycomb

Hi guys

Here's the CP for one of my creations mentioned yesterday: the Honeycomb.



Haha... You guys should know why I chose to post an extra-large picture.

Don't be intimidated! The technique is much simpler than it looks! Once you've figured out how to fold the first cell, the rest are a piece of cake.

Good luck! I'm still trying to design a simple bee to go with my honeycomb... I can't just borrow one from a nearby exhibit next time, can I?

See ya!


Origami as Pure as Snow
shonen

Origami Exhibition in Clementi Community Day

Yo folks... once again I post after a reaaaly long break. It seems like my blog is only active during School Holidays! Well, today is an exception cos' yesterday was my very first Origami Exhibiton!!

Last week the members of the Origami Singapore group were gathered around some tables at the Clementi Students' Service Center. We were smoothing out the final details of the plan for our exhibition on 21 October. We decided on the table format and model categories and distribution. Much to my delight, I was going to have a whole section to myself as a Singaporean Designer for my creations. Of course, I have to fold them first, so for the next few days I was rushing origami models an hour a day... I also had to buy all sorts of paper for my models... On Sunday and Monday I was rushing to Bras Basah just to buy Elephant hide paper, Canson paper and Meta-cellulose paper which I didn't use at all in the end.

On the big day, I walked in to the room only to see tables and tables of Origami models from local and international folders. There were birds, insects, mammals, aquatic creatures, modular origami, miscellaneous objects,fantasy creatures, simple to intermediate origami and finally models from international folders and original designs from Singapore.


Kawasaki Rose, Simple to Intermediate Origami



Centipede, Insects



Yoda, International Folders



Cigarettes, Matchbox and Pentagonal Ashtray, International Folders



Ancient Dragon, Fantasy Creatures



American Lobster, Local Designers



Cuckoo Clock, Miscellaneous Objects



Five Interlocking Tetrahedra, Modular Origami

Of course, there are many more models in the exhibition, but this post is starting to get a little long. Wanna see more models? Just come to the real thing and see! ^^

Now for my models:

I had set up 5 of my own creations, namely:

The Dragon-Rider



Most visitors to this blog will have been familiar with this model, as this is just an up-grade of my Dragon. One of the spikes on the dragon's back has been converted into a hooded rider on the dragon.

The Knight on Horseback



Ah well... Use better paper!

A House



A 4 x 2 x 3 building block with a 4 x 6 platform perched on top as a roof and a set of doors.

Dragon-Skin



A sort of square tessellation, but in reality it looks really like dragon-skin. As seen from the top and bottom of the model, the scales actually stand out.

A Honeycomb



This is basically a hexagonal tessellation, with walls in between to make it a honey-comb. Actually it's sort of a brick-like rectangular tessellation, but if you let it curve in and lengthen the rectangles will transform into hexagons.

Heheh... I borrowed the bee from the insects section next door!

Within the few hours we had for our exhibition, Eileen Tan set up a small workshop to teach visitors some simple origami models. Some of the models taught were the magazine box, traditional crane, a stand-up heart and a pair of "talking lips" which would open and shut by moving flaps on both sides.


Eileen teaching some guys from SP how to fold the traditional crane


Some of the models taught in the workshop

But the star of the show has yet to come...

In every workshop there simple has to have a difficult model right?
Well, here goes!


Santa Claus

If you need any more clues to fold this model, here's a CP:



Two folds... heheh.
There can only be one model easier than this, and that's here.


Haiz... Wasn't this exhibition fun? Looking at all those models almost made me drool... :) I just feel like folding all of them!

I really hope I can take part in another Origami Exhibition with this fantastic origami group!



Origami as Pure as Snow
shonen

A Grand Entrance

Yo folks!

Here's the new sub-model i promised in the last post!



The doors are actually made from the "extended flaps" in the picture below:



It's actually very simple to make; just create a raised platform with dimensions 2 x 4, and x = 1.

To include these doors onto a building, you must create the door right in the space where you are going to create a building block. You will have to plan out the position of the door, and if the building block is big enough, you can actually move the door higher up to make a window.

Just as the dimensions of the platform can be changed, the size of the doors can also be varied, so you can make a set of tall, narrow doors or short, wide ones.

This is only one example of the many possible functions of the raised platform sub-model. Curious folders are free to explore and come up with new ways to use the platform in their models.

This a short post, cos' I'll be meeting Wolf and gang in the afternoon. See ya!


Origami as Pure as Snow
shonen

Cottage Roof II

It's the holidays again!

In the past few months, I was bogged down by homework, projects and exams. Sorry if you've been disappointed by the "hibernation" of this blog. To make it up for it all, here comes the tenth post!

If you take a look at the previous post, you will notice that the cottage roof shown there seems to be a little incomplete. A true cottage roof just has to extend beyond the top of the building, doesn't it? After days of thinking and planning, I decided to use this sub-model, which just might help things out.

The whole idea of the new roof is just to create a "platform" and create a cottage roof right beneath it. The edges of this platform will extend beyond the roof and make it look more complete.



This certainly looks familiar, doesn't it?

However, I've added all the correct creases to this CP, and if you compare this CP to previous ones, you will realise that this CP looks a little different. I usually avoid putting all those minor creases there to avoid confusion, but I realised that many of you might have been stumped by their absence.

This is what the platform looks like:



In this sub-model, a 6 x 6 platform with x = 1 is used. Work out how to make one yourself!

A zoom-in to the corners of the platform:



There! Hope you can understand the CP better now.

These are the "extensions" I'm looking for:



After folding it, you will realise that this sub-model has a lot of room for variation. Indeed the size of the "platform" can be changed, but it has to follow a set of rules:

1. The width of the eight "columns" extending from the raised platform ("x") have to be equal.
2. Any dimension of the platform cannot be smaller than 2x.

The next step wil be to create a simple cottage roof right under it.
This is a little complicated, but so long as the tip of the roof touches the middle of the platform, you are done. By now you will realise that a whole new roof has been created, one that extends along the edges of the simple cottage roof.



You can see now that the 6 x 6 platform has been stretched over the top of the building to extend the roof.

Finally, all you have to do is to continue stacking building blocks under it and make a house!



Wait... there's something extra!
What's that at the bottom of the house?
Could it be... a set of doors?
Only one way to find out...... wait for the next post!

Good Luck!



Origami as Pure as Snow
shonen

A Simple Cottage Roof

No building is complete without a roof, so why don't we make? Here's a really simple one that's actually derived from the Building Block itself. After making one, you can stack it on a building block to make a simple house.

Roof first, then:




This CP bears a marked resemblance with the Building Block, doesn't it?

After a little experimentation, you should get this:



Sorry about the messy background.

Note the pleats on the right:




The roof is pretty loose and needs the help of a building block under it to lock the flaps down into a house:



Nice and neat.

As mentioned in the previous post, you must experiment with the model yourself to get it right.

By now, you should have realised the absolute importance of the heavy precreasing. Saves a lot of trouble, doesn't it? (Well actually it brings all the trouble to the front. As the chinese say, 先苦后甜.)

I apologise for the apparent lack of text in this post, I'll try to make it up in future posts...

As usual, good luck!


Origami as Pure as Snow
shonen

Preparations for Demonstrations

The only reason why this became a post is because it took me a lot of effort.
And, of course, I forgot to post it before the one on Building Blocks.

Well, to show you guys what my techniques will probably result in, I decided to demonstrate to you all on a huge sheet of precreased paper. Well, I got a really gigantic piece of paper from the stationary shop, so it wouldn't make sense if I precreased too little on the paper. Thus, I decided to precrease a 64 x 64 grid, certainly the most I've ever done. It took me quite a few weeks, partly because I was lazy, but the end result was great.



You may want to compare this to other pictures in this blog and speculate about the size of the paper yourself.

If you do the math, I will have created 4096 little squares and folded 126 creases by the end of this project.

I even played around with the finished paper, forming a cute sort of spiral:



I hope this teaches you a lesson about the causes and effects of paper drift.

Enough now, let's fast-forward to Demo No.1: Building Block!



A solitary building the the midle of the desert.
If you can't imagine how the CP evolves into this, here's a useful picture of each of the four pleats going in the four directions:



That ought to help.

I mentioned about stacking building blocks on one another, so here goes:



I hope this picture helps you understand how the blocks are stacked on one another.
The blocks can even be made into towers by stacking equally-sized blocks on each other.



Wow. That's got to be the clearest picture I've taken...

Picture of pleats of the tower:



That should be enough now.

This CP is not exactly one of the hardest ones, but it requires plenty of self-exploration and a vivid imagination, and there is only so much I can instruct you without folding it in front of your face. Good luck!

(Subsequent CPs will include their demos in their own posts.)


Origami as Pure as Snow
shonen

Building Blocks of a City

A very long time before I consorted with crease patterns, I had played with precreased (albeit heavily) paper, and I found out what I thought and still think is a new type of folding: Creating structures and other buildings from a simple piece of paper, with the folded structures sticking out of the paper. No sides/edges are to be used, such that several structures can be linked together (with the remaining paper form the floor) to form something like a city.

The first sub-structure I chanced upon was the Building Block. It is a way of creating a cuboid shape rising above the paper. The building block technique can be repeated upon itself again and again, so a tall building appears.

Here's a CP depicting the building block technique:


The raised platform (the black square in the middle) can be of any rectangular shape. To repeat this technique on the same structure, just make sure the original raised block is within the new raised platform. Take note that although the technique can be repeated, it does not allow for the new raised platform to be smaller than the original raised block.

This technique is rather similar to boxpleating, the difference being it has a 3-D result. In the next few posts, I will introduce more techniques to you guys so that you will be able to create a whole virtual city by yourself!



Origami as Pure as Snow
shonen

My First Dragon

As I was studying the different bases that appear in Origami, I realised that bases could be a quick shortcut in the process of creation. At that time, I was trying to create simply (and rather vaguely) a monster, and thus I fiddled around with the paper until I arrived at a cute little base derived from the waterbomb base. Here you go...


Upon further analysis, I found out that this is essentially a blintzed bird base.

Subsequently, I folded my monster out of it, but it wasn't terribly satisfactory and thus I have forgotten how to fold it due to lack of practice.

It wasn't long, however, when I strove to improve on this base. It appeared that bases could evolve into more advanced ones with many more points through the process of blintzing, which invloves folding the 4 corners of the square to the centre and using the new folded square to fold the base. The flaps that come from the blintzing can be pulled out abd after some reshaping, a new base emerges.

Well, I tried the blintzing method on the Monster Base and it worked well, transforming my boring little base into a much more interesting one: the Super Monster Base. (Please do not criticise my naming, I'm just sticking to the name I gave it literally years ago. =)



Okay, so it looks pretty but it also looks pretty different from the monster base. However, with a little experimentation, you'll find out that it is indeed a blintzed monster base.

Of course, I simply must find something good to fold from the base, and my first choice was Monster mark two. It turned out really nice, with claws and wings and many other things and I was very satisfied with it. However, I still forgot about it.

So, quite naturally (many other folders will agree with me), my next choice was a dragon. It was grand and majestic, with claws and wings and many many many other things. Here's a photo of it:






Just look at those huge spikes. Wow.

Admittedly, the head looks more like one of an eagle or griffin than that of a dragon. But with those huge wings and big spikes, what could be better?

I bet you're itching to fold this beauty, so here's the CP:


Just to help, the edge grafts are as wide as 1/8 of the side of the starting square.
Unfortunately, I'm a very lazy guy and I neglected to put any creases on the edge grafts. Just treat the paper as unfolded after the edge grafts, it'll work out right.
Stretch your imagination when folding the squares allocated for the head and tail!
Just for an interesting challenge, can you reverse-engineer from the photos to find out how I folded my head and tail?

It looks horribly complicated and doesn't seem to have a connection with the super monster base at all... Still, I would encourage experienced folders to try folding the dragon from the base.

Even the CP looks beautiful...
Good luck folding the CP!


Origami as Pure as Snow
shonen