Gryphon Origami

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Flame_Kurosei
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Gryphon Origami

Post by Flame_Kurosei »

...I hope I posted this in the right area...
I found this diagram on a origami Gryphon on instructables.com
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to- ... n-origami/
I'm not sure how to do the 4th step, could someone please help me?
fueledbychar
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Post by fueledbychar »

I tried.. i too am lost. Sorry.
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Flame_Kurosei
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Post by Flame_Kurosei »

S'ok...maybe someone else will get it...thanks for trying though
jadylyon
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Post by jadylyon »

As best I can tell from the really terrible photos and the stunning uninformative description, this is the fold you're supposed to make.

base fold:

Image

pull out the flap underneath:

Image

bisect from the corner, valley folding up to corner of the first crease line only:

Image

invert these two folds as noted. since the original description was so vague, i am not sure if you're supposed to mountain fold all the way down to base or not - if you do and something later on doesn't seem to be working, you might have to come back to this step.

Image

you should now have something like this:

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tuck the flap back in, like it was at the start:

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pull the flap down. i approximated what i saw on the original screen caps.

Image

crease everything down:

Image

i think that's it! anyways, it's my best stab at it.
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Flame_Kurosei
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Post by Flame_Kurosei »

THANK YOU FOR POSTING PICTURES (I was a bit nervous that people would tell me how to do it and I still wouldn't get it).
I'm going to try it right now!
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Post by Flame_Kurosei »

It WORKS!!! :D
Thanks for your help jadylyon (and you're right about the instructions being uninformative..."fold the flap down and tuck it in"..yea..)
jadylyon
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Post by jadylyon »

picture = thousand words and video = a million. alas, i could not video and fold at the same time.

and wow, yeah, whoever the original person was, they really should have given way more photos and at least attempted to describe what each step was doing. it was sort of like saying well, "add flour, eggs and milk and you'll end up with cookies". How MANY eggs? Or in this case, WHICH corner, fold WHERE?

still not completely sure it's *right* but it has to be close. if you manage to get all the way through to the end of the gryphon, post a picture!
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Post by Flame_Kurosei »

It's alright about no video though..actually I don't really like videos (unless they're really good ones) because people's hands usually get in the way or the video's blurry and you can't see a thing..even so, I think if you made a video (amazingly clear images by the way) it would be a nice touch, but not required..
Here's the picture you wanted. I did it with some notebook paper to test it out...but for some reason it kept on crumpling on me when I tried to crimp the legs....(maybe I just don't fold gryphons well..<:)
A friend of mine said if I used some paint it could reinforce the paper and keep it from crumpling....I think works, but it doesn't make it look any better...
Well here it is...the crumpled gryphon..(hope I did this correctly)
http://flamekurosei.deviantart.com/#/d2tk80g
I think I should make it again with some nicer paper, what do you think? Is it worth the effort?
jadylyon
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Post by jadylyon »

...but for some reason it kept on crumpling on me when I tried to crimp the legs....(maybe I just don't fold gryphons well..<:)
well, you can't make sushi out of fish sticks you bought in the supermarket - or in other words, you're not going to get a good origami result from using lined paper out of a notebook. so i really couldn't say if you're bad at folding gryphons! the sheer amount of folds in this design defeated the paper and nothing really lines up.

then again, i'm impressed you actually figured out the rest of the disjointed instructions.

paint itself won't reinforce that kind of paper so your friend has a good idea, but it's not really going to help in this case. i will admit i use a combination of oil and paint to make "custom" paper to fold with because i simply don't have the time or resources to learn how to make paper from scratch. the oil soaks the paper fibers, and they remain very pliable for quite a few days before it finally evaporates out. the final result is a lot like wetfolding - the form is really very rigid and holds its shape beautifully. here's something simple but cute i folded from some "painted" paper.

Image

but since the base paper i use isn't that wonderful in and of itself, I don't think my rendition of the gryphon would be that much better than yours, simply because of the amount of folds - at least not in the sizes I normally make. i think you SHOULD do it again, with better paper or at the very least a larger, white sheet so the splay/paper creep is not so pronounced and try and do your best to keep all the edges aligned.
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Flame_Kurosei
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Post by Flame_Kurosei »

then again, i'm impressed you actually figured out the rest of the disjointed instructions.
I really enjoy diagrams that are a bit off (just a bit, like blurry images, or rough sketches, not total failure, mind you :) because you have to figure out how the model is made by yourself, kind of like you're the person designing the model. However, I don't really like ones that have bad instructions (I just don't mind the bad images, that's all). Like your comparison of the instructions to baking cookies, it really is hard to understand something with vague instructions. For example, the step I didn't like was the one he said to "fold like a bird base". I assumed he meant "petal fold" because that is a commonly used fold for bird bases, but I could have been wrong, and many of the people who tried the diagram thought it was a different sort of fold he was talking about, such as a squash fold or some kind of preliminary base (I'm glad I verified it for them).

Thank you for the tips about the oil and paints, I will try that with some simple diagrams some time (though I have no doubt that they work, I can't paint a square to save my life :) Also, did you mean using oil paint onto the square, or should I use kitchen oil and brush it on and then paint it on top? If so, which type of oil should I use and which type of paint?

I wasn't sure if I could fold the model in the first place, so I decided not to use nice paper at first. That way, if I could, then I would use good paper and try again. Don't expect me to post anymore pictures though...my camera broke this morning >:( and it will be a while until I can get a new one..(not that the camera was good anyway..o well)

Sorry about the HUGE post....I'm kind of a rambling sort of guy :)
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Post by jadylyon »

I don't really enjoy models where either the diagrams or instructions are vague enough to be frustrating, instead of challenging. it's okay to get really far into a model and then get stumped - that happens to me all the time as I try and tackle things I've never tried before. I don't mind getting to step 113 and simply being unable to figure out how to do the swivel/fold/invert/sink/pleat combination. i try it two or three times just in case the solution comes to me, or i ask as question here and hope for a concise answer, but if it can't be done at my current proficiency level, I add to the pile of things "I'll try again later".

But that gryphon instruction you found was so badly done, I don't think I'd even bothered starting it. I kind of find myself wishing some that model designers took into account that not everybody that folds origami is a mind-reading telepath.

Well, there probably as many ways to paint a piece of paper as there are types of paint and the people who use them. In my case, I've been happily experimenting with oil resists and acrylics paints. Acrylic is water soluble, which means it won't mix with oil so you can get some very interesting streak or dotting effects.

I never thought to use kitchen oil, probably because I don't particularly like the smell and in the back of my mind I wonder if it would eventually go rancid and start to stink. I've been using baby oil because its 1) clear 2) cheap and 3) smells nice. The last couple of batches I tried, I've alternated between putting the oil on the paper first and then painting the "wet" surface with a variety of small and large brushes, to mixing the paint and oil together and dropping the paper on top of the streaky oil puddle to let the paper soak up what it can, in whatever pattern I've created. I put them on paper towel afterwards, gently, to let the oil soak away. You have to be patient here because if you press the paper into the towel to force it drier, faster, the paint has a tendency to want to to stick to the towel which is no good.

If you had a little clothes rack and tiny little clothes pins, I guess you could pin them up like little clothes, or little photographs from a dark room!

My next experiment will be with shaking the oil and paint in a small squeeze bottle and applying the mix as a "jet". I am also wondering if an aerosol (like a perfume bottle) with a sufficiently large atomiser would let me "mist" the paper with a very fine grain pattern.

.... Yes, I get artsy. And I also like to ramble. Maybe get a friend to photograph your next couple of gryphon attempts, even if its just using a smartphone camera.

PS. One thing I did forget to mention, that I meant to. The oil makes the paper more forgiving, because it feels like the fibres are bending, instead of breaking. That means creases and multiple creases where the paper is being bent back and forth is less likely to tear. So while I wouldn't use this trick on "expensive" origami paper, it's actually a really good solution for when you want to use cheaper copy type bond papers. It has the added advantage of making the paper somewhat translucent which is a nice effect and when the oil evaporates off, the model becomes very rigid. If you've curled any edges (like rose petals or a mouse's tail or the wings of a bird) they hold beautifully.

So if you're using notebook paper (not the lined stuff) and want to get better results without spending a ton more money, just add oil to it (no painting required). Let me know if you try it, particularly if you opt for kitchen oil which I'm not brave enough to attempt.
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Post by Flame_Kurosei »

I have a HUGE pile of "try again later" models, mainly ones filled with horrid instructing...it's not online anymore, but there used to be a model with just instructional text that I found while searching for a good human based model.

Here was the second step, after folding the square paper in half: take the corner and fold it down like that corner on a fish base, and then "e-fold" the corner. Is there really a type of fold that's called an "e-fold"? I emailed the person who made it and he/she (didn't tell me gender) told me that it was supposed to be a rabbit ear fold...yar...>:(

As for guesswork, I do basically the same strategy as you do, working the step over and over until I get it..and recently learned that I could post it here as a question. I might actually ask a few more models that I've had trouble in the past with here...if anyone can take horrid instructions/pictures without passing out hopefully :)

I want to try the baby oil idea and rub it on like you said in your post, because I think I have some in the attic (baby oil doesn't go bad does it?) from my cousin's baby shower I never went to....don't remember why..hm

It's awesome to be artsy, so don't feel embarrassed about it. I've just never heard of the idea of baby oil and acrylic paint..that's new. Maybe you could post it as an idea in some origami tip forums. I like trying new ideas that people give me, so I'll try the oil idea. I was thinking the same idea about the kitchen spray though....or maybe spray some air fresher spray (in an aerosol can) onto paper? There are some types that have oil in it, and that would mean they smell good, and they can be used to have a nice, even spread....could you try that for me? It should work, but you never know...

By the way, canola oil does NOT work. I tried to just make a simple duck and the paper tore on me :( It was a bit messy too...I don't think I'm going to try again
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Post by jadylyon »

No, I've never heard of an e-fold either. Nice that the design creator was able to reply and tell you what they really meant! I find myself hesitating before contacting designers, simply because I'm pretty sure I'd be imposing and since other people have successfully folded the thing, the lack is obviously my understanding of origami folds.

As far as I'm aware of, baby oil doesn't have a shelf life - it's made of mineral oil and a little bit of perfume. I wouldn't TRUST it to last years and years to be honest, but at the moment I'm not folding anything that I'd need to still be around in my dotage.

I would SO not recommend air freshener spray! If the ingredients say there's oil in there, it's only a minor component in a slew of others, some of which are likely water based and lousy for paper. There's no reason not to try maybe on some inexpensive paper just to see what the result is but I'm pretty sure the results would be less than spectacular.

Not surprised at the lack of success with canola oil, to be honest. These are the kinds of results I got on my last batch of test paper. The first image is some green paper, one untreated and one treated. I'm hoping you can see both the deeper color and the translucency effect after the baby oil is added and then dried off. The second image is some of the different streaking patterns I was able to get.

I'm actually getting really interested in being more methodical with the color application, in order to make folded flowers more detailed and appealing.

.... have you refolded the gryphon yet?

Image

Image
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Post by Flame_Kurosei »

Not yet....-sweatdrop-...I tend to test a diagram out to see if I can do it and then leave it at that most of the time, unless it's for a present or a special occasion that is...but if you want me to, I will refold it soon. :)

Origami to me is like doing puzzles. Once I get it, I move on and try new things, but somewhere along the line I'll refold the models I know just to make sure it's all in my head. That way I'll have something to do in my spare time.

Thanks for the photos, I really like the blue one with the painted streaks (Maybe it would resemble fur if you folded an animal out of it?). Is it possible to make a feather-like pattern for the gryphon if I try splattering the paint horizontally in long dashes? I want to make a really nice one for a friend of mine, she likes mythological animals.
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Post by jadylyon »

well, if you wanted to make a "feather" result, i would probably fold the gryphon as best possible and then make some careful and light notations as to what to paint. then i'd unfold the model, paint it, let it dry and fold it again. either that or use a "scrap" version to scribble all over and use it as a reference for painting the same general area on the "real" paper.

as for actually painting the feathers themselves, i would probably put in the quills first and then paint the barbs on, in a couple of colors to give depth. depends what sort of result you're trying to end up with.

i think you should fold it again. yes, you got all the way through from the diagram but your result was very sloppy, likely due to the paper you used and the fact that you probably weren't being careful since you just wanted to get it done. you really don't get better if you don't practice!
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