Here’s a collection of experiments, mistakes, and other odds and ends among my origami photos

These were my first two attempts to make a tarantula (final version here).  I didn’t expect to get it right the first time, this is all part of the process.

I got a book of designs by Akira Yoshizawa, the father of modern origami. He started the practice of developing new models (rather than sticking to traditional ones), and developed the language of origami diagrams. That’s cool, although his designs aren’t really my thing, and the diagrams are difficult to follow. I picked one to try, and this is made of two sheets of paper, but they’re not actually attached? The instructions just say “attach”, and I have to conclude that it means glue them together. It was like a bobblehead, if bobbleheads are liable to lose their heads.

When you make origami for a long time, you learn that it doesn’t live forever. It probably doesn’t help that I just pile it all up in a box somewhere, and then the stuff at the bottom just gets squashed. That’s okay, I can just make more.  I’m pretty sure I’ve made more than one of these already.

As readers know, I dabble a bit in making my own origami designs. I have a textbook on the subject, but I still don’t know what I’m doing. Anyway, I set out to make a cake with a slice taken out and a candle. I couldn’t get a working prototype and then I moved onto something else. Although now that I look back at this prototype, it looks fine!

This is a collaborative art piece that I made with my niece.  Sometimes I make these waterbomb tessellations for kids, which they love because they’re fidgets.  My niece applied crumple techniques (very advanced!) to one of these, and declared it to be a grape.  I offered to make a simple leaf for her grape, and she taped it on.  Love it.  Why is this in the outtakes section?