Eric Joisel's rat

[gshemar]

Hi everyone, I've recently started to try my hand at origami more complex than cranes and pigs etc (which I've been enjoying for 12 months now). I came across a photo of the rat by eric joisel and was blown away and ever since then I have been obsessed with it. The only diagram i could find is:

http://www.pajarita.org/aep/internacion ... ern3-3.pdf

which is in spanish so not ideal. I just can't understand steps 14 and 15 and its driving me crazy! Please pleasa help if you

(a) know of any other diagrams in english or
(b) can tell me what steps 14 and 15 (and later probably) mean

please help, i'm completely stuck and have been for months now.

Hopefully, my next profject if i ever finish the rat will be the famous kawasaki rose i keep hearing about but for now, i'm tearing my hair out!

[Friet]

When I folded the Rat I was stuck there as well. It was pure luck that I got it right after a while, and I could not remember how I did it when I had to repeat it on the other side
I'm kinda busy with my exams now, so if the question hasn't been answered soon, I'll fold it again and post some pictures of step 14/15.

[malachi]

14 is a sort of like a petal fold of the indicated corner along the indicated vally fold.

15 is in the middle of the process, where you sink the triangular section of paper as you make the fold.

[gshemar]

Atleast now i know it can be done and people have been stuck at the same point. Still frustrating though! Good luck in your exams and please please please get back to me after.

In the meantimre, anyone who can help, i would be so greatful for even the smallest bit of insight. Anythging really...
(even if only to translate the spanish bit for those steps in the link above. I tried putting the phrases through an online translator but they made no sense!)

I'm still lost for now...

[shawn]

wow...certainly is a difficult part to explain.....here goes. I can't translate the spanish, but I fold this thing in my sleep.

#14 is almost like a pre-crease. Make sure that it is a mountain fold. The idea here is that the two bottoms of that frog base are the rats arms. The bottoms of those points end up meeting at the top point that becomes the rats nose. The paper should fold up nicely if you get all the creases in there properly. Maybe you could start by folding the bottom tip of that frog base up to the top most tip, then try to get the rest of the parts to come together.....don't know if this makes any sense but I hope it helps.

[mleonard]

The rat is one of my favourite models to fold - I hope you persevere, because it's well worth it!

Curiously, the BOS mag has published the diagrams both in English (mag 189, April 98) and in French (mag 203, August 2000)

The instructions for the relevant step are as follows:

"Perspective vue: point C joint parts A and B. The dark-grey zone is sinked. Crease CDE already exist."

or in French:

"Vue en perspective des plis a realiser: la pointe C rejoint les pointes A et B. La zone en gris fonce s'enfonce suivant les plis montagne et vallee. Le pli CDE existait deja". (Sorry, don't know how to put in the accents on all those French words!)

"Crease CDE" might be a little confusing - there is no point E in step 15 of the Spanish diagrams, but it's shown in step 16.

I must have folded the rat dozens of times, but I don't follow the diagrams exactly - I use a slightly different method of getting to the same result. If you're still struggling, I'll have a go at describing my way of negotiating these steps.

[mleonard]

Don't know where the smiley face in that last post came from, by the way... it should read April ninety-eight

[Joseph Wu]

Don't know where the smiley face in that last post came from, by the way... it should read April ninety-eight

The number eight 8 followed by a closing parenthesis ) is the symbol for a smiley with glasses.

[gshemar]

Thanks for all the advice, i've been perseveering and i think i have made some progress. i think i am now at step 19 (fingers crossed although don't ask me how). Can anyone please tell me what happens to the extra bit that sticks out and isn't in step 20? i'll keep trying till then and hope that i can repeat the same on the other side which i'm not sure completely about yet but we wil see. Thanks again for all the help - keep it coming guys, its greatly appreciated. Today i feel closer than ever...

[mleonard]

The number eight 8 followed by a closing parenthesis ) is the symbol for a smiley with glasses.

So what do I do if I want to type an eight followed by a closing parenthesis?

Step 19 is a straightforward inside reverse fold. The crease lies along the line of the edge above. (With diagrams like these I find it helps to use the "magnifying glass" in Acrobat Reader to zoom right in on each step. At normal size, creases and edges tend to merge into one another).

Keep going! You might need the English for step 21:

"Fold point F to the right to stretch point C"

and then I think you should be OK until step 35:

"Separate the 4 layers of the crimp to keep the ear free. This will be used in step 37".

[Joseph Wu]

So what do I do if I want to type an eight followed by a closing parenthesis?

Check the "Disable Smilies in this post box. Or you can put a space in between the 8 and the parenthesis.

[gshemar]

Made it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I never thuioght this day would come! looks nowhere near as good as the pics i've seen but for a first attempt, its recognizable as a rat. Now i'm going to make a proper one with special paper and take care over each and every fold because in my excitement i definately rushed a lot of the folds just to see if i was heading in the right diection.

Thank you all for your help and advice in answering my questions and being pateint. really meant a lot to me that there is a great feeling of community here on this forum from all over the world.

Thanks again, i'll post my pic of the finished version when i can.

[mleonard]

Well done! Fold it another two or three times, and you'll wonder why you ever struggled with it. Two or three more times, and you'll find you can fold it from memory.

Scuse me a moment...

8) 8 ) 888)))

...just testing!

[Friet]

Scuse me a moment...

8 ) 888)))

...just testing!

hahahaha

[hoodsmommy]

I thought I was doing OK with the rat until I got to step 38, which calls for making a squash fold of a big triangle and I realized I had a tail but no triangle.

Addendum: OK, I figured out what I was doing wrong. I do have another ?, however. How do people get rats with such big ears that stand so far above the head if the ears come from the small flaps on the frog base? My rats ears just clear the top of his head.

And: what sort of tools do people like for handling v. small folds?

Thanks.