Roman Diaz's origami owl was a delight to fold, so this year, I wanted to try more of the origami from the book "Origami Essence". The origami Wren (Ratonera) is the third origami from the book and a little more complex than either the panda or the owl.

The suggested paper size is 5-6 inches but since I had some foil-backed origami paper of 4.5 inches size, I decided to go ahead with that. A colour change is seen near the neck of the wren and at the legs.

I enjoyed folding this little bird and am delighted that I started the year with this origami, even though origami life-forms are not generally my cup of tea. I loved the colour change, the shaping of the beak and the tail. A very lovely model to fold.

I hope I get the chance to fold more models from the book.. Hopefully the cardinal, provided I get red/black kami paper!

Model Details:

Model: Wren (Ratonera) 

Creator: Roman Diaz 

Book: Origami Essence

Author: Roman Diaz

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 4.5 inches

Model Size: ~3 inches in height

After completing the origami owl designed by Roman Diaz last month, I realised that the book "Drawing Origami (Tome 1)" has another of his owls. This owl is a little more complicated and more realistic than the last one. But I must admit, the first owl that I folded is more dear to me than this one ♡♡

As for folding this one, I used the same animal hide paper that I had used for the previous owl. While the recommended paper size is 15 * 15 cms (6 inches) kami, I used a 12 cms (5 inches) square, which worked out quite well. The instructions in the book are fairly clear, though I faced some difficulties the first time I folded it.

The book is very colourful with plenty of models. Among them, I still want to try Ekaterina Lukasheva's Rubin, Mindaugas Cesnavicius's Swallow, Quentin Trollip's Bambi and Patricio Kunz Tomic's Joe Cocker. I think the other ones might be a little too complicated for me! Well, these are all projects for another day!

Model Details:

Model: Owl 

Creator: Roman Diaz 

Book: Drawing Origami

Author: Halle, Pere Olivella, Nicolas Terry

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 5 inches

Model Size: ~3 inches in height

Tutorial: Youtube

When I had started my origami journey, one of the first life-forms that I had folded was Roman Diaz's panda from his book "Origami Essence". Since then, I hadn't attempted to fold any of the other models in the book because they were a little too difficult for me.

Anyway, in recent days, I decided to revisit the models and decided to try out the owl, which is the second model in the book. The owl or the buho requires a square sheet of origami or kami paper, preferably duo-coloured. A square of at least 15 cms (6 inches) is suggested.

Since I wanted something small, I decided to try with a 10 cms (4 inches) square. I used some lovely duo-coloured kami paper, with an animal hide print on one side. I must say, when I saw the final owl. I was delighted both with my choice of paper and with the size I had used. The final owl was about 2 inches in height.

Model Details:

Model: Owl 

Creator: Roman Diaz 

Book: Origami Essence

Author: Roman Diaz

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 4 inches

Model Size: ~2 inches in height

Tutorial: Youtube

These cute little sheep, designed by Roman Diaz, would make a great addition to an origami nativity scene, apt for Christmas!

The model works best with paper that is black on one side and white on the other. I initially tried out with brown/dark brown paper that had a 4 inch side. The second one I tried was the brown/yellow one, using 2 inch squares. So in the end the models turned out like a mother and her baby!

The folds are slightly tricky but doable and the end result is pretty realistic.

Model Details:

Model: Sheep 

Creator: Roman Diaz 

Book: 4 Esquinas

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 2 - 4 inches

Model Size: ~1.5 - 3 inches in height

Instructions: 4 Esquinas 

Roman Diaz's book "Origami Essence" is a very cool book with a number of origami animals and birds. The first of them is this panda, an easy, geometrical version.

The diagram is easy to follow. The suggested paper size is 15-20 cms and I used 15 cms square. A smaller square, I thought, would have resulted in a smaller and more appealing panda!

Model Details:

Model: Panda 

Creator: Roman Diaz 

Book: Origami Essence

Author: Roman Diaz

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 6 inches

Model Size: ~3 inches in height

Tutorial: Youtube Part 1 and Part 2

I found Roman Diaz's house a unique design to fold and enjoyed folding it! The design is such that the height and width of the house can be changed, so I guess it is possible to make houses in an ascending order of size! Instructions can be found in Volume 17 of the Origami Tanteidan.

The lock that holds the roof in place is quite interesting.

Single sided paper might not give you a very good result, since part of the house would end up in white, with the rest of the house in colour. Solid colours on both sides or print and single colour, like what I have used, would be good.

Altogether, a very good origami to fold :)

Model Details:

Model: House 

Creator: Roman Diaz

Website: Dosis Diaria de Origami
 
Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 6 inches