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. 😀
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.
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.
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.