This Week In Origami...

I know I have not posted much during the week, but that does not mean that I have not been busy.   Well,  sort of.... I try to keep the larger projects to the weekends.  But during the week,  if I have any energy after working at ACT,  I try to fold at least a few easy projects to "stay in shape" as they say.  A co-worker gave me some paper made from recycled coffee filters so I had to give it a try.  I folded a few simple cranes in various poses to see how the paper handled wet folding.  I liked it!  But the small sheet size will ultimately limit what I can fold with it.  But for the basic simple designs, it should work well!
Then there was Valentines day!  I folded a few roses for the ladies in our group.   I had a few left over, so Cheryl suggested that I offer the remainders to the men......Er.   That was rather uncomfortable and awkward.  I don't know that it needs to be said,  but apparently,  females do not see the innate problem with men giving other men flowers.  So, for the few female readers that may stumble upon this blog,  I will share the ground rules for acceptable male to male contact.   One:  Shaking hands.  

This is the only form acceptable when greeting a stranger...and you only need to do it once!  After the initial greeting, a wave will be sufficient for the remainder of the engagement.  The only other acceptable male contact I can think of is in the army on the battle field pulling a comrade out of a burning vehicle or into a foxhole during a artillery barrage!  Everything else is, at best, frowned upon.   Men do not hug, braid each others hair, soap each other up in the shower.  So....don't ask us to give flowers to male co-workers and think that is "precious"!


Other than that,  I have been working on a few larger items for the weekend, but none of them are completed as of the writing of this post.   A Bulldog and a simple Dragon are in the works, as well as another ancient dragon. Hopefully I will have them completed by Tuesday and will have better pictures to show off.

  In the mean time,  A couple of things:  One:  a sleeping cat!  And two,  a fork the defies gravity!  It was one of those moments where something unexpected happens and you simple have to take a picture because you don't see something like that everyday.  Hope everyone is having a great weekend! 

My Little Monster..Anime review.

We just finished My Little Monster...A cute little anime for those girls who fall for the "Bad  Boy" in high school.

 Honestly, I'm not sure how the average teenage girl thinks when choosing a boyfriend,  but apparently this anime gives us a glimpse into the female mind and tells us that, apparently, they don't know how this happens either.
   I have heard that you can't control who you fall in love with.   This might be true in more ways than one.

 That is to say:  You can't control someone you love,  nor can you control yourself when it comes to those mythical biological attractions that cause love to blossom.  Anyway,  If I was this girl, I would have Dumped Haru the first time he "accidentally" smacked me while trying to "defend" me. (Which happens several times!) Or the time he dumped his beverage on me for offering him some help.  But, perhaps it is me with my "adult" brain doing the thinking.  I'm sure when I was enduring those "teenage" years,  I was just as dumb in my decision making skills. ( And I'm not an adolescent female!)  As we say at ACT, "  Developing skill"  Also known as a score of "3" .

  So enjoy My Little Monster.  It's not your typical high school comedy/romance anime.  In fact, that is one of the reasons I liked it.  There is no "missed opportunity  to confess your love"  that happens so many times in anime.  In fact,  they confess to each other a LOT!  But there is always that doubt that one has when they are first getting to know each other.   So give it a try!  You can find it on Crunchyroll. If you are a premium member, you can watch it without those annoying commercials. 

Wesminster Chorus...What Kind of Fool am I?

Enjoy! I can't get this song out of my head!

Origami Ancient Dragon Complete!

Remember when I started it last week?  It's tough starting a large project and not having the energy to complete it.  However,  Instead of 4 days worth of folding,  I'm proud to say I finished it in two!  The shaping of the final folding went fairly quickly compared to last time.

 And it was much easier than before since I did not wet the paper from the beginning.  I applied a thin paste mixed with methylcellulose just on the finishing touches and then clamped them and dried them with the heat gun before moving on.

 So much easier!  I wish I had figured it out earlier.  In the end,  I think it might have taken me 8 hours total.  I was even surprised that the paper worked out as well as it did.  

Tomorrow I want to try some of the two ply tissue paper to see how it will hold up to the design.  It has been treated with a  methylcellulose coating so it should be stronger.  I'm a little worried that the paper is , at best, a 20 inch square.

 The paper I worked with on THIS dragon started out as a 30 inch square with the final sculpture ending up being about 12 inches long.  I may reach a threshold  where it becomes too small for me to work with.  I guess I will just have to find out in the end.  in the mean time.


Enjoy the pics.   I tried to take multiple angles, but I'm not sure any of them do it justice.  It has become one of those sculptures I have fallen in love with.  I can't wait to fold another! 

Origami Bonzai Maple.

I can't believe how much energy ACT scoring takes out of you!  I feel drained, Drained!  Both mentally and physically.  I mention this because it has taken all week to finish my maple leaf bonnzai tree.

 It's cute, and not bad for a first attempt.  I think there are things that I can improve on, however,  I'm a little short on the red cardstock now.   No worries,  I have other colors in mind that might turn out pretty contemporary cool!  (Is that worth a "6" in Language skill?)  An inside joke using ACT jargon. 

 Anyway,  the project at ACT s winding down and frankly, My brain is welcoming the break.   I still will have things to do...just not things that will make me any money.   I guess there is always "filling in the gaps in our stocking supply. "

 Not to mention Cheryl has been deeply involved with the writing of her book.  I'm very excited for her because it has taken 15 years for her to come up with something to write about.  And now that she has found her muse, she has become this tidal wave of determination that can't be stopped!  I'm her biggest cheerleader.   I know what it is like when you finally have the tiger by the tail and you just don't want to let go until you are finished. 
 Perhaps I'll finish that dragon this weekend.  My paper turned out pretty good from last week, however, some of the color ran,  producing interesting color patterns.  I'm not sure what I will be able to fold with them,  but we shall see...Hopefully I will have more pics for tomorrow!

Poyopoyo...An Awesome Anime for Cat Lovers

If you have ever owned a cat, then you will probably like these short 3 minute anime episodes of Poyopoyo. o He is an endearing round cat with quite the personality.( It's an ongoing joke that he is mistaken for a ball...)  It's cute!  It's sweet.  It's Funny!  So enjoy a couple of episodes on Crunchyroll ( without commercials!) He reminds me of Old Orangy, our third cat... but Poyo is a little bit more temperamental....Enjoy  the opening, and follow the link for the episodes!

Walrus, Dragon, And Carnations....Oh My!

I forgot about the Walrus!  One of my better ones, the paper was larger and it turned out a little more realistic.

 I still think there are better designs out there, but for now, I will have to continue to tweek tis one to make it better....or at least where I want it to go.  I guess it must have been a big hit at the ACT because it did not last long.  Hopefully, someone gave it a good home instead of the Janitor throwing it away.

   I'm actually a little curious what the maintainence men think about those things randomly placed around the building.   Do they like them?   Hate them?  Or simply throw the away without a second thought.   I'm not sure, but I'm fairly certain that most of them are not left around long enough for the maintainence staff to even consider the various options.  Ah well,  If it became a problem, I'm sure someone would tell me. 

As mentioned before,  I started the Ancient Dragon this weekend and had to stop around step 80.  I did not get a chance to work on it today, But I know I'll keep plucking along at it just like I did with the last one.  I always think I can complete it all in one setting, and so far,

 I have not been able to stay focused enough to finish it in less than 4 days!  No worries.  I've got plenty of time and no one is waiting for it.  As you can see,  the folds are rather complex as you have to collapse them over and over again.  So there are very few simple folds once you get the precreasing done. 

So what do you do when you are at your limit for the super complex models?   Why,  Fold flowers of coarse!  I had a few pieces of paper left over that did not have a mate,  so I thought this was the perfect time to fold some carnations.  I think they turned out pretty well.  After that,  A simpler version of a dragon.

 This one is made of cardstock and is not as elaborate as the ancient dragon.  It has no horns or claws.   The cool thing was that I was able to sculpt it  quite a bit with the wet folding.







  I'm not sure how this week is going to pan out.  We had overtime hours on Saturday and the Project may be winding down at the ACT.  I'm not sure if there will be another project coming up in the near future either,  But I may actually welcome the time off if we get it.  There are always stockings to sew up and books to write, and, of coarse, Origami!  Hope everyone has a great week since this weekend was WAY too short!

Another Origami Horse, With Hellsing Ultimate!

I liked the previous one better.   I don't know what it is about this one that didn't turn out the way I had hoped...perhaps it is the head, or the hooves.  

Well, regardless, I decided to post the pics because they are on my computer and I have to post something for the weekend.  I started an ancient dragon this weekend, but I stopped around step 80.   The last one took me 4 days to complete!   It's not that the model is so complex ( well,  technically,  it IS!)  it's that after several hours of wrestling with the paper, my brain is fried!

 I just have to take a break from it!  I'm not sure if I will complete it this weekend, but at least I will post some progress pics.   Last time I took two days just to shape it after it was I finished the folding!
 Other than that, Cheryl and I have been watching Hellsing Ultimate. An Anime that is more true to the Manga.  I got it as a gift for Christmas, and just now am getting a chance to watch it as we are taking a slight break from Crunchyroll. We just finished Episode 4 and one of the speial features on the recent DVD is the "war" speech.

  I got to karaoke it with a heavy german accent.   What fun!   Cheryl says it is rather Ugly,  but hey!  It's about vampires...who are not cool high school kids with chiseled features. They are blood thirsty monsters...and Hellsing ultimate does a good job showing that.   So...if you are not into Monsters, blood, Gore, Crusades, and Nazi's...( Seriously, who doesn't like vampire Nazi's?!?! ) then you might not like Hellsing Ultimate....but that is ok,  More for us!