The Origami Forum

This is my first gallery post, so if I'm doing anything wrong, please let me know.

This is probably what I would term my first real origami design attempt, though it might be better labeled as an integration of the traditional crane with a modified version of the base for the leaves of the Kawasaki rose:





It is four cranes in flight. While certain bits are a little clunky (the excessive amounts of paper attached to the crane and forming the base), I think the color change ameliorates a lot of the problems and makes it fairly clear what it is supposed to be. Also, note that this is only the second time I've folded it, so hopefully I'll be able to produce a not-so-crumpled version in the near future.

I'm going to document the folding process, just so I don't forget. If there is interest, I might put together something fit for public consumption, though perhaps it needs some refinement first.

All feedback is welcome and appreciated.

WOW this is great

Cool! This is interesting. Looks like another approach for making connected cranes (Rokoan Sazanami). This method of connected cranes is more than 300 years old (Senbazuru), but usually requires making cuts in the paper. You can look up pictures by Googling the terms in parentheses. Your design adds a nice twist.

HankSimon:
Thanks for the info. While I enjoy this design, my original goal was to have the wings connected at a very small square (preferably one that could, in theory, be reduced to a point). I think I may have even come up with a folding sequence for it, but it results in so many layers that it becomes quite unwieldy, though I haven't tried it out of particularly thin paper yet. In some ways, this model is nicer anyway, as it gives the feeling of flying.

Also, originally I had folded this out of paper that was the same color on both sides. A friend suggested I try duo paper, and lo and behold, the colors lined up without any changes to the model! Which is good, because I don't have very much design experience

OrigamiGeek:
Thanks, glad you like it!

i don't like it... I LOVE IT

I've cleaned up my connected cranes. Here is the final result:




Now on to documenting how I did it so I don't forget!

It looks so much better in black

I also like this version, looks much cleaner.

A color change might be interesting - black base/white cranes or green base with red cranes.

HankSimon: Agreed, there isn't enough contrast in this model under normal lighting conditions. It should be much more apparent out in the sun, as one side of the paper is metallic dark blue and the other side is black (though, I live in Portland, Oregon, so it might be a while ).

OrigamiGeek: Thanks

Better pictures of my four cranes design:

whoa! i love the shiny blueish blackish one.

GWB: Thanks, me too. It is made out of 'shadow paper', which I recently discovered at a Japanese market/bookstore. It looks all black (or at least very dark) until you get a bright light on it, then it really pops

I'm going to try my hand at diagramming it, but I'm a bit nervous and feel kind of daunted.

So it has just been pointed out to me that Jeremy Shafer has very, very similar model already :-/

http://ori500.free.fr/authors/Jeremy_Sh ... fer%29.jpg

I'm rather bummed out. I'll have to see if I can get ahold of his book, as I'm curious to see if the folding sequences differ much.

Ah well, on to other things.

i have folded jeremy shafer's model and it is not that similar. i am quite sure they are different.

GWB: The idea is certainly similar, even if the models are different, but I'm glad to hear they aren't identical. Not sure I would be contributing a lot to the community with the current version... so I have a new challenge to myself: eliminate the base.

Along those lines, I present a significantly reduced base:







Please forgive the fact that they are poorly folded from inappropriate paper

I think with some super thin paper (perhaps O-Gami), I might be able to really reduce the base and make it look pretty decent. And, I suspect that with infinitesimally thin paper and an infinite number of folds I could make the base go to zero

In any event, due to the additional and (worse still) asymmetric layers I'm not sure it'll ever look better than the other, but I'm going to give it a go!