Squirrel (Design by Michael LaFosse)

This weekend, I went back to browsing through designs in Michael LaFosse’s book – Advanced Origami: An Artist’s Guide to Performances in Paper – and thought I’d give this squirrel a try. I loved the final shaping given to this design in the book and wondered if I could get mine to look half as good.

I’d suggest a larger sized paper measuring 9 inches to 12 inches, really, I did my first fold with a 6 inch square sheet of paper, and it turned out miniature. I couldn’t get to finish most of the shaping and finer folds required at the end, too.

Paper to Use:
I used traditional Kami or the common origami paper to fold this model. I started out with a square sheet of paper measuring 6 inches in size and hence the miniature size of my completed model. My next fold will proably be in tissue foil, duo colored, that is; in order to take advantage of the color change technique in this design.

How to fold the Squirrel:
Tadashimori as recorded a great 2 part video on folding this model. If you do not have the book, you can attempt folding this model by following the instructions in these videos.

Origami Goldfish (Design by Michael LaFosse)

This particular goldfish design is from the book – Advanced Origami: An Artist’s Guide to Performances in Paper – by Michael LaFosse. It’s intermediate in nature and not for the beginners in the art of Origami. This model incorporates the ‘wet folding’ technique, rabbit ears and reverse folds in it.

If you are a beginner and are interested in folding pretty fish, you can try your hands at folding this simple, easy to follow video on folding Origami fish.

Folding this model:

I used a 8 1/4 inch duo colored origami paper for this model and wet folded it towards the end in order to shape it up a bit. I think using ‘Washi Paper‘ or other Asian made papers would make it a lot easier to fold, especially when it comes to shaping this model. This is because even if you try wet folding common origami paper, it tends to tear with the moisture.

It took me about half an hour approx to fold this model and another 15 mins to shape it.

Origamido Butterfly (Design by Michael LaFosse)

This design is from the book – Advanced Origami: An Artist’s Guide to Performances in Paper, by Michael LaFosse. He is known for his pretty butterflies and this particular one, I think, is his best design, in my opinion.

What paper to use:

You can use just about any kind of paper for this model – from wrapping paper to crepe paper to normal printing paper which you have decorated yourself (by painting, tye ‘n’ dye, etc). The thickness of the paper doesn’t cause any problems in this model since the number of folds are fairly few and easy.

I have used common origami paper which is colored on one side. A better idea would be to use duo paper of if you don’t have any, either stick a sheet of paper of a different color on the other side of the sheet you are using (in case it’s single side colored) or simply color it your self!

You can also use printing paper which you can decorate with splashes of paint or something creative. The only constraint is that you should be using a square sheet of paper to start off with.

Folding the origamido butterfly:

You would need to start with the side of the paper of the color you want the wings to be (in the end) facing you. The steps to folding this model is very similar to folding the Alice Gray butterfly albeit for the steps at the ending.

Cattleya Orchid (Design by Michael LaFosse)

This is an intermediate model taken from Michael G LaFosse’s book – Advanced Origami: An Artist’s Guide to Performances in Paper, which incorates wet folding for the shaping of the petals and the use of tissue paper / crepe paper to enhance the look of the finished model.

This is my first try with this model, and as you will notice there is room for improvement. I used tissue paper (from American greetings), which you normally use for gift-wrapping. This is because of the fact that this model required fine paper or crepe paper to be used to give it the final shape.

This is one of the models in the book for which the final result really depends to a large extent on the manner in which you use your imagination to shape the flower. So with my imagination on a roll, this is what I came up with.

The size of the paper suggested by the author is that it should be twice as wide as it is long. So I started out with a sheet of tissue paper measuring 10” by 20” inches in size. This paper made it very easy to fold the model, but however, when it came to shaping the model, I found that it is too delicate.

The section, which I am not entirely happy with, is the petals (top left and right), which are somehow not shaped as nicely as I would like them to be. Wetting the petals didn’t make it any better as the paper started to crumple up a bit too much. So I had to leave it at that.

I think the next try would be with crepe paper, which is usually used for flower making, in any case!

But overall, this is an ingenious design and the steps in the book are relatively easy to follow. The overall size of the finished orchid is about 7″ inches or so.

Horseshoe crab (Design by Michael LaFosse)

I folded this horseshoe crab this afternoon, but am not too happy with the end result. Maybe it’s the paper I used or some creases I messed up on the shell itself, but somehow I am not satisfied with the overall final model.

This design is from the book – Advanced Origami: An Artist’s Guide to Performances in Paper
– by Michael G. LaFosse and it took me about half an hour to fold. I found it to be easier than it looked on the book, too.

The paper I used was a single side colored Large Origami Paper by Dover publishing which is 9″ in size. The final model is about 70% of the size of the sheet of paper you use.

Folding this model based on the instructions in the book is quite easy as the diagrams and explanations are clear and the author has clearly indicated the colored and white side of the paper in the diagrams, too.

Although its not explicitly mentioned, you would need to start folding this model with the white or blank side facing you. Hence, even if you are using duo colored paper (with contrasting colors), the color which you want on the outside of the crab (or the color you want the crab to be in the end) should not be facing you when you start folding the model.