Western Pond Turtle (Design by Robert J. Lang)

This is yet another model from the book – Origami Design Secrets: Mathematical Methods for an Ancient Art, by Robert J. Lang – which I have chosen to fold. It uses the technique of pleating to make the “shell” design on the shell of the turtle. It is advisable that a large paper be chosen to fold this model, as the pre-creasing requires a lot of folds and patience.

I started out with a duo-colored tant sheet of paper measuring 35×35 cms which I had purchased on Origami-Shop.com. The first 20 steps of the diagram constitute the pre-creasing and has a lot of small folds to be done. This pre-creasing turned out to be the most irritating part of folding this model.

The Shell - Western Pond Turtle

It took me absolutely ages to fold the pleats! Robert Lang in his book, lists out 2 options for creating the creases:

Option 1 – Folding the complete set of folds in order to pleat the shell. this would mean your paper will have numerous creases which will not be used in the end.

Option 2 – Folding a portion of the set of creases and marking out the rest using a pencil or pen.

Front View - Western Pond Turtle

I went in for option # 2 as I didn’t think I wanted to deal with ‘extra’ creases. I am quite happy with my first attempt at folding Robert Lang’s Western Pond Turtle, even though I can still improve on the limbs of the turtle.

Back View - Western Pond Turtle

I chose this model as I was pretty intrigued with the ‘pleating’ technique used by Robert Lang in folding this model, and I wanted to see if I could fold one which looked half as good as his exquisite version. Hence, I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out in the end and am looking forward to folding more from his book.

Murex (Design by Robert J. Lang)

This weekend, I thought I’d try something from John Montroll and Robert Lang’s book – Origami Sea Life. I ended up selecting a design from the mollusks section, designed by Robert J. Lang.

This particular design is known as the Murex and they are really pretty and therefor the most sought after by shell collectors. These shells are identified by their spiky projections and frills; this particular model is called ‘Venus’ Comb’ and has a single row of spikes or needles on the opening to it.

I have used a 9 inch square sheet of paper single side colored and started folding it with the white or blank side facing me. There are approximately 55 to 60 steps in folding this particular model. Some of the steps are repeated in the middle. It takes around an hour to fold this model and some more time to shape it, if you will.

The part which you need to pay special attention to, whilst folding is the ‘legs’ section which has a lot of reverse folds incorporated in it. Hence, it can get a bit confusing at this point. The rest of the steps are pretty easy to follow. One point worth noting is that your folds should be crisp and smooth without any ‘crumpling’. This makes the folding a lot easier when it comes to the legs section.

The finished model is about 70% of the sheet of paper you have initially started off with, so based on this you can experiment with smaller or larger sized paper. Using sheets smaller than 6 inches will pose a real problem in my opinion, as there are a lot of intricate folds involved. So it’s best to start off with 6 inches or larger as you would like.

The legs section certainly has room for improvement in my case, which I will definitely address the next time I fold this model.

Origami Owls (Designs by Hideo Komatsu & Stephen Weiss)

Hello everyone! I am back from a short hiatus I really did miss posting on this blog. I was away in Indianapolis for the long weekend – 4th July…visiting my fiancé. It was a good little holiday; it’s a pity the rains dampened the 4th of July fireworks, though.

Anyway, back to origami. I have been experimenting with different designs of owls these past few days. I tried my hands at folding the Stephen Weiss model from the book – Origami Zoo: An Amazing Collection of Folded Paper Animals – and the Hideo Komatsu from the book – Origami Tanteidan magazine Issue #49 (Volume 9, 1998).

Stephen Weiss’ Owl

This particular model of the owl is relatively easy to fold and can be categorized in the lower intermediate category. One point to be noted here is that the folds you make should be crisp and firm. This model also makes use of the “pivot fold” which is something I have rarely come across.

For folders who do not have access to this origami book – Origami Zoo: An Amazing Collection of Folded Paper Animals – a YouTube contributor, Marigami, has uploaded an excellent video on folding this particular model.

All the steps are clearly depicted along with areas / folds you need to watch out for. The best paper to use for this model is a brown shade of origami paper, square shaped and approx 6” to 9” in size. Ideally, it should be single – side colored paper, so that your final model will have the ‘back’, head and tail of the owl in brown and the ‘chest’ of the owl in white. Even if you do have duo colored paper of brown and yellow (or something very similar to the color of an owl) you can use such a kind to fold this model.

You need to start off with the light shade or the white color side of the paper facing you.

Hideo Komatsu’s Owl

This model of an owl is slightly trickier than Stephen Weiss’. It took me a lot longer to fold this one too, but that more got to do with the fact that I had to redo a few steps towards the end in order to correct a few things. The folds I found most tricky were those in the 2nd video (the links to which I have posted just below this post’s text), which were to shape the owl in the required form. I was quite pleased with the fast that the paper didn’t crease all that much inspite of the rework in a few places.

How to fold Hideo Komatsu’s horned owl:

A youtube contributor has recorded and uploaded 2 very detailed instructional videos on folding this model. However, some folds in the 2nd video (the link below) needs to be understood and followed properly in order to avoid crumpling the sheet of paper. I hope you find these videos helpful:

How to fold Hideo Komatsu’s Horned Owl - Part 1

How to fold Hideo Komatsu’s Horned Owl - Part 2

For both of the models in the image above, I have used single side colored (orange) origami paper which is square shaped and measures 9″ in size.

Dolphin (Design by John Montroll)

This model by John Montroll is lower intermediate in nature and is from the well-known book – Origami Sea Life, which he co-authored with Robert Lang.

Type of paper:

I have used a square sheet of paper measuring 9” in size (large size), which is colored black on one side (with the other side being plain white). This is from the origami paper pack by Dover publishing.

This model takes around 15 to 20 minutes to fold and the diagrams in the book are relatively easy to follow. The steps are detailed out clearly and the standard symbols in origami have been used in this book, too.

The best part of this design is that even if you use single side colored paper, you can’t really see much of the blank or white side. So this makes the model look really neat.

The step which I found a bit tricky to fold is that of the tail, which is a combination of a reverse fold and a subsequent squash fold. It’s however, easier said than done..is what I found out, especially when it came to the squash folding. I then had to ‘form’ the tail with a slight fold upwards to each side of the tail, once I was through with the squash folding.

The centre or middle of the model gets a bit “thick” due to the numerous folds which are tucked in, at that location. Therefore its advisable to use the usual origami that you can buy online through Amazon.com or from your local craft shop. Using packing paper material or any other kind of paper such as construction paper will make the model too thick and the folds difficult to set in place.

Turtle (Design by Robert J. Lang)

The well-known Origamist – Robert J. Lang, has designed this Origami Turtle model; it can be categorized as intermediate in terms of level of complexity. The crease pattern / steps for this model is detailed out in the book – Origami Design Secrets: Mathematical Methods for an Ancient Art
– by Robert J. Lang.

What you need:
You would need a sheet of Origami paper measuring 7” or 8 1/4”. In this image, I have used Origami Paper Animal Prints 8 1/4″ 49 Sheets which is, by Tuttle Publishing.

However, one can also use single – side colored paper as well as wrapping paper (which is not foil like or very thin).

How to fold this model:
YouTube.com once again is the source for an instructional video for Lang’s Turtle. Mari Michaelis has taken the pains to record and share a very helpful and detailed video on folding the Turtle.