Hummingbird (Design by Gregory Knesner)

This is an intermediate model of a Hummingbird from the book by Robert Harbin – Origami 4. This book, might I add, is a very old and rare book, which is now difficult to obtain. A friend of mine sent this to me sometime ago and I thought of trying this model out, from it.

As with most of Harbin’s books, only the main steps or instructions are used and each of these are a combination of successive simple steps. It takes a bit of getting used to and makes even the simple models look a tad bit complicated.

For this particular hummingbird, I used construction paper of A4 size cut down into a square sized sheet of about 9” or so. I am not all too pleased with the manner in which the wings of the hummingbird turned out, but that’s the best I could do with it, after half on hour of struggling.

My guess is that this book by Robert Harbin, is no more in print and the design might not be on the Internet, too. I have come across many designs for the hummingbird, but I liked this one the best of all.

Maybe the next time I try it, there will be an improvement on the wings

Scorpion (Design by Patricia Crawford)

This model by Patricia Crawford is from the book – Origami Step by Step, by Robert Harbin. This is a very old edition and most of the designs in it have been improved upon since. However, there are a few designs, which are still captivating, and one of them is the full rigged ship for which Patricia is famous.

Patricia is also known for her intricate and complex folds and this is just one of the designs of hers which incorporates them. The book has a lot more complex designs as well as other really simple ones by other origamists, which are unique and very interesting.

This particular scorpion design is one of the earliest and I daresay that Robert Lang and John Montroll have done a considerable job on improving the design for it. However, since I wanted to try out one of Patricia’s intermediate models before attempting the full rigged ship, I chose to fold this. Also, this is the first model I have folded in the insect / arachnid category. I normally stay away from folding any creatures from the insect world as half of them give me the creeps!

What you need:

You would need a square sheet of paper (preferably dual colored – on both sides) of 8” or more. You can also use foil paper (such as maybe – Color Foil Origami- 18 Sheets 9-3/4 Inch Square) here of an appropriate color. Please bear in mind that the paper you use would need to be as fine as the origami paper you normally get. This is because there are many intricate folds and if a thick paper is used (such as construction paper) it will become difficult and the model will not form well.

I used an animal print origami paper of 8 ¼” size by Tuttle publishing which I had with me. As you can see, the end result is a scorpion of 4” or so. Hence, larger the paper size you choose, the bigger your scorpion.

As with most of Robert Harbin’s books (and as I have heard, too) he chooses to combine multiple folds in a single diagram when depicting the steps in folding intermediate and complex models. What I found tricky in the model depiction, is the section which details out the legs of the scorpion. Folding the scorpion, takes a bit longer because of the time required to understand the combined folds. You will find the steps depicted on pages 55 – 57 in the book.

The end result is pretty cool…. but in no way would I be hooked onto folding more insects or arachnids, I guess. I still have the aversion.