The Origami Forum

Blue Dragon
by Daniel Brown
2011



I wanted to break away from the Neale dragon formula of putting head and tail on opposite corners, wings on opposite corners, and legs in between. So for this one I'm using a similar base to Mario Netto's Dama, seen here.
He could use some more body and 3D-ness, but he looks good in profile. The head is slightly abstract, as in I'm not sure how the horns actually come off the head the way they do, but effective. The wings have an extra-long finger that curves around, maybe in the future I'll split that point and give him more smaller fingers instead.

Heart Card
by Daniel Brown
2011



I'm happy with the various technical specs of this model, made from one uncut square of course:
-The heart doesn't have pleat lines going through it
-The inside that you can write on also has no pleat lines
-The edges and corners are all closed off with flaps and pockets

So it's a very clean design overall, though it gets pretty thick in places. The method used to make a heart design can be modified without too much trouble to make other shapes that might show up as the seasons change. Christmas trees for example. Stuff like that.


On the inside I wrote an ancient Japanese poem that you can read about here.

Dozen Roses
by Daniel Brown
2011




This one's hard to take a good picture of, it looks much better in real life.
Anyway, it was designed for my wife on Valentine's Day, as was the Heart Card. I've never seen a whole dozen roses from a single square, and however elegant it may or may not look, I did manage that in some form. And my wife likes it, so there's that.

It's made from a bird base with the four points split into three each, a bunch of sinks to thin the points, then a bunch of pot-shaping and rose-making. It does extremely reduce in size by the end of it all, the paper was about 24 inches square and the final model is maybe 3 inches wide. So maybe that's something to work on in the future. I'd also like all 12 points to radiate from the center, but I couldn't figure that one out in time.

The folding method also lends itself to being made with a four-stem variation out of a bird base without splitting the points. I'll do one of those soon, I'm sure.[/img]

Love the roses!

like all your designs, kareshi, the roses are quite clever.

you may or may not be aware, but OUSA is now selling a flame retardant paper. just a hint for your jack-o-lantern next year!

Flower Pot
by Daniel Brown
2011



Made from one uncut square. It's related to my Dozen Roses design, but uses a simple bird base instead of the 12-pointed distortion of a bird base like the Roses.

The pot is much easier to shape in this version, just look at it compared to the Roses up above - they are made the same way but less layers to deal with means I could make a decent rim for the pot this time.

The flowers come straight out of the four corners - spread open to a flat octagon and then you sort of make opened-up preliminary folds out of them.

Your flowers are extremely amazing!!!!

Wow! I might want to try to reverse engineer that soon...

Don't go through that trouble! Just ask me for diagrams and I could give you a few sketches!

Your designs are really cool!
Would be possible to ever diagram yor pumpkin? It's one of the most amazing models i've ever seen, and would love to fold it! No matter how long it takes, i am willing to wait!

It's been 3 months since I made an original design. Here's what I came up with today.

Spine Dragon
by Daniel Brown
7/19/11

Modification of the standard dragon base, the one from a bird base. Has a strip graft running diagonally that allows for the 3-point splitting of the wings, and also I used some extra paper from the strip to make the dorsal spines. The head has two horns and two fangs and a lower jaw. There are also four small vestigial spines on the underside.

His shaping is a little too 3D to be able to get the full effect from a flat photograph. But you get the idea.

wow that is coool

Amazing!!

Bonsai Tree
7/27/11



Somebody said I should try to grow a bonsai tree. I said I don't have the patience for that, but I can make an origami one. So I made one up when I got home. One test fold, then this one from tissue foil. It's just a bird base with the points split, really. Two flaps split into five, one flap split into three, and the fourth flap is color-changed to make the base. A lot of aesthetic shaping involved, I feel I'll need to study real bonsai trees a little better if I make it again.

Really nice design!