Two can Toucan

Here are some more birds for your fancy....

Both of them used designs by John Montroll in the book "Teach Yourself Origami". The canary uses a double blitz base, and the toucan uses the fish base and several sinks. Both are adorable!

Beary easy Bear

Here is a design for an origami bear that I found. It's an intermediate model; not too easy, nor too hard.

Success!!!

My triumphant (though terrifyingly tricky) Tarantula:

After almost a week of working on this, the tarantula by Robert J. Lang is finished!
It is by far the most difficult piece I have made up until now. Again, if you want to try it, the link is on the right.

...And the Queer

Just in time for Halloween, I made a three-headed crane. The design was based off that for a six-sided square (a square with extra paper) and each flap was folded as needed to form the two wings, tail, and three heads.
It was designed by Jun Maekawa.

Robert J. Lang: Origami Extrodinaire

Robert J. Lang is a pioneer in everything origami. He has designed and folded over 500 models over the past 40 years, written numerous books and articles on his designs, and given many lectures all over the world about the intersections between math and art in this art form.
The link to his website is on the right under "Origami Links"

Here are just a few of his impressive models:

Tarantula Trouble

I am in the middle of folding THIS monstrosity here, to great difficulty. If anyone can complete it (besides the person on the tutorial of course), I would be most impressed. The link to the tutorial is on the right under origami links.

This model was designed by Robert J. Lang.

Note: Tissue foil is recommended, as the complexity of the folds makes the paper become quite thick in places using normal origami paper.

Can you Camel?

The most interesting part of making this camel (which I call "Molly") is the diagonal sink in the middle to make the humps and the depression between them. There is also an arbitrary fold (meaning you are not folding to a specific point) in the first step, which gives Molly her proportions.

This design was published in "Teach yourself Origami" by John Montroll.

Cats Galore!

Being fond of cats, I tried these three (two, really) designs.

This cat I named Sierra. She was not made from any particular base, but by folding opposite edges of a piece of paper to the middle crease and then forming legs, tail, and finally head. Like most animals, she is uses "book" symmetry because you fold her in half down the middle to create her.

The design was published in the book "Teach Yourself Origami" by John Montroll.

This Leopard was created by virtually the same design as Sierra, but I made some adjustments to make him more Leopard-like. I reverse-folded the tips of the ears so they would be more rounded, and I crimp-folded the legs forward to give him the appearance of laying down. I also fixed the tail so it was thinner and curved more.

This Persian cat used a very different method. For one thing, she is not completely symmetrical, as her head is tilted to one side. She also does not have distinct legs, which make her more than an ornament than a creature that can move around.

The design was published in "Origami Omnibus" by Kunihiko Kasahara.

Cranes and variations: Snowen and Fin

(I often like to name my origami models. I think it gives them a little bit more character, instead of just a piece of paper.)

Snowen was an original style derived from a traditional style. It is made from the bird base, which, being so simple, allows for a lot of creativity when it comes to details and finishing touches. Snowen's back had 2 sinks, one on top of the other, to create the concentric squares. His head and beak were formed from a couple reverse and crimp folds.

Detail of back:

Fin is the style of a "flying crane" in the book "Origami Omnibus" by Kunihiko Kasahara. This style folds a length of the diagonal over itself to create a smaller square, and then the crane is folded the traditional way. By putting more paper at the front of the wings and in the length of the tail, the crane takes on a very different shape, and indeed looks like it ought to be flying.

Welcome!

These photographs are of two of my favorite models.

This dragon was designed by Kade Chan. This is an extremely difficult design, as many of the folds require three-dimensional intermediate steps. My first try on this model took an hour and a half. Here's the link to the tutorial by: Tadashi Mori

This waterwheel was designed by Fred Rohm and published in "Teach Yourself Origami" by John Montroll by Dover Publications, Inc. in 1998. This model, while difficult, utilizes many squash folds and three-dimensional intermediate steps. These folds are repeated over an over for each corner, so the entire piece, once mastered, is quite easy to memorize.