Showing posts with label Akira Yoshizawa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Akira Yoshizawa. Show all posts

This month's theme at the Origami Society of Madras is a little different from usual. This month, we are working on a theme author instead of a theme object. And the author we have voted for is the grand-master of origami - Akira Yoshizawa.

The beauty of Akira Yoshizawa's models lie in the simple, elegant lines of his fold. His genius is evident in the way he captures an animal or an insect with the fewest folds possible! Ofcourse, there are a number of complex models to his name but his simple ones are the ones that capture the attention of even a beginner origamist.

His most popular model is the butterfly. I love this butterfly. When I first started teaching my Little Miss some basic origami, this was among the first models I taught her. And she became quite famous in her class, because she could fold a butterfly while most of her classmates folded only boats :) And inspite of the butterfly being an easy model to fold, it still looks amazingly like a butterfly! No wonder Akira Yoshizawa is credited as an origami grand master!

So today, what I folded was the origami shrimp from his book "Origami Museum Animals". Though the model is called a lobster, I think it resembles the shrimp more than it resembles the lobster. Again, with the fewest of folds, the grand-master has beautifully helped me fold a couple of cute little shrimps! Each shrimp is folded from a triangle formed by cutting along the diagonal of a square. In the notes, he has said that if the paper is thin enough, we can fold the square along its diagonal and then proceed with the shrimp, but I preferred folding it from a triangle. It helps that we can fold 2 shrimps from a single square which is what I did.

Model Details:

Model: Shrimp / Lobster

Creator: Akira Yoshizawa

Book: Origami Museum Animals
 

Author: Akira Yoshizawa
 

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Triangle

Paper Size: 9.5 inch square cut along the diagonal

Model Size: The body measures ~ 3.5 inches and the antennae measure ~ 3.25 inches
A few days back I read a joke that 90% of people using Google.com, use it to check if their internet connection is working and only the remaining 10% use it for searching! Well, it looks like most people I know were busy checking their internet connections today, cos I have got endless messages, pings, calls informing me that today is Akira Yoshizawa's birthday, thanks to the Google doodle today :) I have got suggestions on what I should post and what I should make!


I did take the suggestions to heart and made a little something with Akira Yoshizawa's very famous butterfly. The Yoshizawa Butterfly is, I think, one of the most beautiful yet simple butterflies that I have tried. It starts with a waterbomb base and is very quickly turned into a butterfly!

What I did with the butterfly, was to make a whole bunch of them in rainbow colours (or at least most of the rainbow colours) and place them randomly to a while background to form a collage of sorts.

If you notice closely, you will see that the butterfly wings are not completely flattened and the butterfly itself does not lie flat. This was a small variation I picked up from Nick Robinson's blog, where the wings are folded but not creased and a mountain fold holds the butterfly shape well.


Model Details:

Model: Butterfly 

Creator: Akira Yoshizawa

Difficulty Level: Simple

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 2 inches

Tutorial: Youtube

Instructions: Sanrio Town

Akira Yoshizawa's butterfly is one of the prettiest butterflies I have folded. The butterfly starts from a waterbomb base. There are precisely 4 folds following the waterbomb base and voila! You have a beautiful butterfly.

The beauty of this butterfly lies in the simplicity of the folds. This was amongst the initial origami that I folded and I assure you, if you are a beginner origamist, this is a must-fold.

Have a go at it :)

Model Details:

Model: Butterfly 

Creator: Akira Yoshizawa

Difficulty Level: Simple

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 4 inches

Tutorial: Youtube