The Origami Forum

Hi guys,

I am involved in a uni project where I need to make several large origami zoo animals. Does anyone know of this being done before and if so what material/patterns were used.

My sculptures need to be waterproof and the more beautiful the better.

Any advice would be massively appreciated as I am a real novice.

Thanks

DanBan

I don't know what a uni project is, but one suggestion is (attempthing) to contact Robert Lang. He has a section on "monumental origami" on his site here:
http://www.langorigami.com/art/monument ... ental.php4
That might be able to bet you started. With regards to paper, I have no idea about what you should use, because paper in general is not waterproof, but I'm pretty sure someone can figure something out.

Thanks,

It's a university art project that I'm working on. With regard to water proofing, I have had tetra pak suggested - I have seen the guy with the boat made out of this - was not sure if there are other ways to achieve this with paper. Or come to think of it any other material that can be folded in the same way as paper ie plastic sheets or foil.

You can try to email Micheal Lafosse at the Origamido Studio... His second book touches on Large models for display... He may be able to help you out.

I've done a couple of time a big origami. Not in real size but quite big (more or less half of real size)

The main problem is that paper is not able to stand its weight.
I've used fabriano paper to do a Yoshizawa Iguanodonte.
It was place indoor, so I had no the problem to make it waterproof, but I had to look up it for all the exhibition beacuse it tent to collapse under its weight (it was 1.40 meter height)

It was many years ago.
If I have to do it again surely I'd use self made laminated paper.
I mean, I'd try using paper reinforced with foil on one side. (like the technique used on tissue paper.
More foil it is surely waterproof, so you could add foil layer on both sides, or even better you can go a little further using a sandwich material composed by three layers: foil, paper, plastic film.

Regarding plastic film I was thinking about the film used in kitchen to envelope food (as the same as the aluminium foil.

But you should have to find the appropriate glue to stick all the layers together in best way in relation also to your final target, an origami model.

This solution is very similar to tetrapack multilayer material, but I think it wuold be easyer to find and to do.

Bringing back an old topic : )

Now, I just sat on the couch watching TV when I suddenly felt the urge to make a life-sized-something. i do not have the space or the paper or anything, but before I go and plan all that, I'd like to ask If anyone of you would know:

1. What kind of paper? I haven't tried contacting Lang or LaFosse yet, but I'd like to know if any of you had ideas?

2. How to keep that thing standing? I was thinking of some kind of a cardboard/wood/metal-stand plus some kind of a glue to make the paper stiffer. Foil and MC sound rather tedious on a gigantic paper so I'm looking for other possibilities.

It's really going to depend on what you want to make, since life-sized is relative. But I guess one important thing if we're talking about something over 3 feet high is, you're going to need to be impure, so don't let things like wires and cardboard scare you off. Or even multi-sheets, like that Lafosse pegasus.
You'll have to make your limits based on your goals.

there is also an older topic here with some links to people who've done it:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=8116

So, we have some spiders in our ZOO...