"but every vessel pitching hard to starboard / lay its head on summer's freckled knees"

[larryhammer]

While I continue convalescing, some origami photos -- because I've being working my way through Jun Maekawa's Genuine Origami and there's some very nice models. Like this whiskery oriental dragon and her BFF frog:



(Click to embiggen ETA: embiggening code fixed.)

I knew about the "Bug Wars" of the 1990s, in which origami designers one-upped each other with the complexity and realism of their insect models. (Thus my interest in this book out later this year.) But was there a time when everyone rushed to add fingers and toes to every freaking model? Because they're all OVER the place lately.

Anyway, here's two proud and dapper birds -- without toes:



This is the simpler version of the peacock -- the full one has many more, smaller pleats in the tail, and I haven't finished it yet. What it really wants is two-sided paper, like this lotka used for the triceratops:



But all of this is distraction from what I really wanted to post: evidence of my obsessive tendencies.




Waaaay cute model. Just way. Too. Cute.

---L.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

You do pick the best lyrics for subject lines!

The whiskery dragon is lovely, and the cute mice really are to die for!

Hope you're feeling better each day.

[larryhammer]

The most adorable mice in the world. And they're the first model in the book, which means they're easy to fold.

I have turned into a snot-factory, as my sinuses attempt to drain out All The Phlegm Of A Lifetime in one huge flood. *honk* Also, I can get up and do things for only about half an hour before needing to collapse for a while. At this rate, I'll probably miss work tomorrow as well. But at least I'm coughing much less.

---L.

[kate_nepveu]

Correcting you to be polite: it's "let every vessel."

Your animals are adorable. What are the mice looking at?

[larryhammer]

Okay, that makes MUCH MORE SENSE. I keep hearing it as "but" and many lyric sites have that as well.

I wish I knew. Maybe someone's dangling cheese just out of reach?

---L.

[kate_nepveu]

The Decemberists actually have lyrics on their own website, though they have the occasional typo ("yolk" for "yoke" in this song, for instance).

[larryhammer]

I can almost forgive that tyop ...

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

The images load in situ for me, but they're not linked, FWIW. End-of-post link works fine.

The dragon is awesome. "The mice look up"?

[larryhammer]

You're right -- LJ seems to have stopped linking through by default. Fixed.

"The Mice Look Up" sounds like a dystopian picture book.

---L.

[janni.livejournal.com]

"The Mice Look Up" sounds like a dystopian picture book.

Ooooh. (ponders)

[larryhammer]

Your dibs.

---L.

[taigerchily.livejournal.com]

the dragon and the peacock are awesome. no, all of them are awesome. but those two are of pure awesomeness :)

[larryhammer]

:-)

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Your mice are adorable. The models are brilliant, insouciant. Happy folding!

Nine

[larryhammer]

I must memorize the folds, to practice at odd moments for gifting people.

---L.

[gwynnega]

Wonderful!!

[larryhammer]

:-)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Awww! They're all so cute, I can't pick a favorite!

[larryhammer]

My favorite is the tiny sakura-blossom mouse.

---L.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

Steve and I are particularly fond of penguins, so I am delighted to see a penguin in the crowd.

[larryhammer]

It's one of the better penguin models I've come across, especially in the portly round tummy department.

---L.

[janni.livejournal.com]

It is a particularly charming penguin.

[larryhammer]

It even looks waddle-y.

---L.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

They are all lovely, and the mice break the needle off the cuteness meter. I think the peacock might be my favorite, but then, that might be on account of the color you used . . . .

[larryhammer]

I've done the peacock a second time, in a darker green with shiny threads worked through. I need to get a photo of that, if I can get it to stand up -- possibly once I finish the (extremely long and tiresome) full version with four times the pleats.

ETA: Forgot to mention that I've memorized the mouse, which is simple enough I can fold it standing. I spent my time at this weekend's book festival (only a few hours) making them serially and handing them out.

---L.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I've done the peacock a second time, in a darker green with shiny threads worked through. I need to get a photo of that, if I can get it to stand up -- possibly once I finish the (extremely long and tiresome) full version with four times the pleats.

O_O That sounds absolutely amazing.

I spent my time at this weekend's book festival (only a few hours) making them serially and handing them out.

"How to Win Friends and Influence People" would have been a much shorter book if it had just said "make adorable origami mice and hand them out."

[larryhammer]

:-)

I am thinking, if we make Sirens this year, of proposing a workshop to teach how to fold the mouse. Even if I can't find a thematic excuse.

---L.

[janni.livejournal.com]

It doesn't fall under "monsters"? :-)

[larryhammer]

Hmm.

Folding from a diagram is a retelling ...

[jennifer-j-s.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the mouse you made for me at the Tucson Festival of Books. It is just so cute!

[larryhammer]

Yer welcome.

I should take a picture of the growing Mouse Brigade on my desk at work.

---L.