Shell Ginger (October, 2009)

Base Crease Pattern

I took the picture of the real shell ginger shown to the left at the San Diego Zoo this summer.  Since then, I have been pondering ideas for designing an origami version.  My idea was to start at the corner and arrange circles in concentric rings from there - the resulting base seemed needlessly difficult to pre-crease since the axial folds were all at different angles.   I decided to use concentric wedges instead, and the axial creases magically lined up.  Not only that, but the vast majority of hinge creases for the gusset molecules come from neighboring rabbit ear molecules.  Even though this drastically simplified the pre-creasing process, this was still an extremely complex and time consuming model.

Wishbone (September, 2009)

Base Crease Pattern

I folded this model after receiving an email from a biomedical engineering professor regarding my origami.  He said that the wishbone was part of his lab's logo, and he wondered if I had any ideas on making an origami wishbone.  I folded this one from a traditional fish base after about 10 minutes.

Pseudoscorpion (September, 2009)

Base Crease Pattern

Also known as a Book Scorpion, the Pseudoscorpion is a small, harmless (to humans) arachnid that derives its name from the resemblance its claws bear to a more well-known and sinister member of the arachnid family.  Like spiders, they spin silk from their mouths, but they use it for a distinctly different purpose - making cocoons.  When deciding to create a new model, there is usually some distinctive feature that I am inspired to focus on - in this case, the pseudoscorpion's pedipalps caught my eye.  Capturing the delicacy of these appendages and contrasting it with the bulbous nature of the pincers was my primary goal with this model.

Sea Urchin (August, 2009)

Base Crease Pattern

This model was inspired by Robert Lang's Atlantic Purple Sea Urchin, but is different in two significant ways.  I chose to give my Sea Urchin 81 points, and I preserved the waterbomb molecules rather than convert them to birdbases.  I have been trying to fold this model for awhile, but was only recently successful.  My original attempt was with regular tissue paper treated with Methyl Cellulose, but when I tried to make a piece of paper big enough, I could not avoid major wrinkles.  I also had trouble managing the collapse with so many points.  For this attempt, I used tissue-weight mulberry paper (still treated with MC), which does not wrinkle nearly as much, and I was better able to collapse the base using what I learned folding my Blue Passion Flower II.  This part of the folding process was not particularly challenging, although it was extremely time consuming.  The part I found difficult this time was shaping the collapsed base - even though all 81 spikes theoretically come from a common point, the shear number of layers meant that they were significantly spread out.  My usual painters tape was not sufficient for the final shaping stages - I was forced to use 22 gauge wire and needle nose pliers in order to force the spikes to stay where I wanted while the model dried, which speaks volumes about the remarkable strength of this type of paper, even though it is tissue-weight.  This has easily been the most time consuming model I have ever folded.

Secretary Bird (July, 2009)

Base Crease Pattern

In June, my family went on vacation to San Diego, mainly for the purpose of taking my kids to Legoland.  While there, we couldn't pass up the chance to visit the famous San Diego Zoo.  As we meandered around the beautiful exhibits, I came across what has to be one of the strangest birds I have ever seen - standing four feet tall, it looked like a cross between an eagle and an ostrich.  The plaque identified it as a Secretary Bird, and I was sure to remember the name because I knew instantly that this would be my next design.  I quickly looked it up on Wikipedia (what did we do before the internet...), which had some fascinating information on the bird - apparently, this bird of prey is highly unique, earning its own family in the classification system (if you want to know more, read the afore-mentioned Wikipedia page).  Since I favor designing origami models of subjects which have not been done before, this was a perfect choice.

Tarantula Hawk (June, 2009)

Base Crease Pattern

This particularly large variety of wasp is named a "Tarantula Hawk" because it hunts and kills tarantulas.  Not only is this one of the world's largest wasps, its sting is also rated as one of the most painful of any insect (according to wikipedia).  From a design standpoint, I am not really sure this is distinguishable from other species of wasps because the defining characteristic is the size (my model is approximately the same size as the wasp on the hand), but I named my model after this one because I felt that any wasp which kills tarantulas is so cool that it deserves an origami model named after it.

Blue Passion Flower II (May, 2009)

Base Crease Pattern

The Blue Passion Flower is so named because its shape has become linked to the Passion of Christ - the three stigmas symbolize the three nails, the five anthers represent the five wounds (two hands, two feet, and His side), the ring of many small points symbolizes the Crown of Thorns, and the ten petals represent the Apostles (except for Judas for betraying Christ and Peter for denying Him).  After folding my first Blue Passion Flower, Robert Lang suggested that I change the orientation of my design so that it would be cylindrical (book symmetry) rather that radial.  This model is the result of that advice, and it has turned out to easily be the most challenging thing I have ever folded.

Whip Scorpion (February, 2009)
 

Base Crease Pattern

This is the second of my designs which was inspired by something Bear Grylls ate on Man vs. Wild (or the third if you count both of my Camel Spider designs).  While the Whip Scorpion is an arachnid with eight legs, the fore-most pair is more antennae-like in function, and only three pairs of legs are used for locomotion.  I originally thought that this would be an easy alteration of my second Camel Spider design, but the interaction of the claws and spikes on the pedipalps with the main central flap that creates the body resulted in some subtle layering problems that proved a challenge.  I discarded two failed designs before completing this one.

Because the complexity of these models creates the need to "constrain" multiple layers of paper to hold their shape, they are all the product of either tissue-foil or wet-folding.  The former relies on the aluminum foil sandwiched between two layers of tissue (hence the name) to keep the layers compressed, while the latter makes use of water, dissolving the glue already present in the paper which dries and sets the model in the desired shape.  Tissue foil is a handmade paper (for instructions on how to make tissue-foil, visit the paper section of Robert Lang's website) which I have almost entirely stopped using due to two negative side effects - the end product almost always looks at least a little wrinkled, and the foil washes out the color of the thin tissue paper.  Even though I have abandoned using it, this material did serve its purpose at the time - through its use, I dramatically increased my manual folding abilities and created many of my favorite original models, most of which I have since re-done by wet-folding.  Wet-folding is the technique of choice for most (if not all) of the worlds best origamists (instructions can also be found on Robert's website), but I find a more accurate term to be wet-shaping, since I dislike folding wet paper and tend to dry-fold as long as possible and only apply water at the final shaping stages (painter's tape is a wonderful thing - it can constrain the paper without sticking to, and tearing, it).  Suitable paper can be difficult to come by, which is one reason why I originally avoided this method - one solution I have found is treating paper with Methyl Cellulose, a glue used in book-binding.  I purchase it at Paper Source, which also has an instructional video on preparing the MC.  A readily available paper for this method is standard tissue paper, which I originally learned from Bryan Chan's website, specifically from his Praying Mantis design.  Using a foam brush, I apply the Methyl Cellulose to the tissue paper on a mirror - a trick I learned from Robert Lang, which he, in turn, learned from Michael LaFosse.  The glue-soaked-paper does not stick to glass.  The trick is to apply it without wrinkling or tearing the tissue - I can offer no advice on this other than try it many times - there is no substitute for experience.  The resulting paper is extremely strong and durable, while staying remarkably thin.  The only major problem I have found with this material is that it has a tendency to wrinkle - this applies both to the final wet-shaping stages of a model (especially if the model has large, flat features) as well as the original application of the MC to the paper (especially if the application is to paper of more than 12" side length).  Using other types of paper can solve this problem - I have most recently become fond of mulberry paper, which can be found in many varieties at the Handmade Paper Superstore.

The other artistic skill represented here is photography.  My goal in this area is to enhance the folded model by using light and shadows - if the photograph looks better than the actual origami model, I feel that I have accomplished my goal.  I have no official training in this art, but my brother, Steven, does - some of the pictures have been taken by him but, more recently, I have been trying to learn the principles for myself (since he lives 5 hours away, it is not expedient to rely on his notable talents in this area).  My skills are improving, along with the quality of equipment I own, so most of the pictures are taken by me.  I have also provided pictures of the real thing I was trying to re-create, along with (when necessary) links to the websites where I found these pictures. 

I also have many more pictures of models designed by other artists, but still folded by me.