A Song of Ice and Fire

I've recently finished reading the first installment in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, and since then I have been trying to avoid spoilers like the plague, what with the show now in its fourth season and all. I have not had the time to get into a good fantasy series in a long time, so I thought I'd do a House Sigil series as I get into the second book, A Clash of Kings.

I start with House Stark because they are the coolest/least dysfunctional, and House Targaryen because dragons.

The Great Houses of Westeros

House Stark

Winter Is Coming.

Origami Wolf

House Targaryen

Fire and Blood.

Three-Headed Dragon by John Montroll (five-part tutorial)

House Lannister

Hear Me Roar.

Origami Lion by Robert Lang

House Baratheon

Ours Is the Fury.

Based on this origami reindeer

House Tyrell

Growing Strong.

Evi Rose by Evi Binzinger

House Greyjoy

We Do Not Sow.

Origami Squid

House Martell

Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken.

Origami Sun by Jo Nakashima

House Tully

Family, Duty, Honour.

Origami Fish by Davor Vinko

House Arryn

As High As Honour.

Origami Moon designed by Fernando Gilgado and Origami Eagle

Use Less Paper This Earth Day

The amount of brochures and flyers I have received since coming to this country hurts my heart. It seems to me that we can do without all of the paper we waste every day. It pains me to throw a portion of it away, because let's face it, I'd drown in it if I didn't. And recycling is not always available.

Or is it? It is in the very spirit of origami to reuse paper when you are done with it. In ancient Japan, paper was not as cheap as it is today, so people made pretty things out of used paper so as not to waste it. 

So this Earth Day, try to use less paper, and instead of your expensive patterned origami paper, why not try reusing some old flyers you have lying around? All those extra sheets and leaflets you've accumulated would be perfect for making a kusudama or other modular origami that requires several pieces of paper. Check out my Earth Day kusudama from last year.

You can also use it to make your 1000 paper cranes. Honestly, who has the money to buy special paper for a project like that? Or simply try these nice Earth Day-appropriate models!

Lizard

Origami jumping frog by Toshikazu Kawasaki

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Groundhog Day!

I had never understood what a cool little holiday Groundhog Day was before I came to the US. In honor of the colorful folklore behind it, I made this little guy. The resources I found were not very useful, so I decided to make my own tutorial. It's a quick and easy model, and I haven't made a video in a while. Enjoy!

 

All photos were taken on location (in the yard).

The Chinese Zodiac: An Origami Story

Now that we've celebrate, rested, and adjusted our brains to the new year (well, sort of. I just dated a check "January 2013"), it's time to get back to work. I don't believe in New Year's resolutions, because if you were going to do it, it would not require all the theatrics and fanfare, would it? But I have concocted some new origami projects for 2014. To kick it off, I have summoned forth the twelve animals of the zodiac in a glorious procession to tell us the story of the Chinese Zodiac.

Origami Buddha in zen meditation
by Claudio Maranta

One day, God, Buddha, or the Wizard, whichever you prefer, invited the animals to a banquet. During the feast, they would decide which twelve animals would become the signs of the zodiac.

Origami Cat Tutorial

The Rat and the Cat were very excited. They decided they would go early to secure their places. The Cat made the Rat promise to wake him in time for the banquet. (If you are not bothered by the fact that the animals can talk but find it odd that the rat is bigger than the cat, then...too bad.)

Cat Nap by Philip Shulz

But the next day, in a fit of squeaky excitement, the Rat forgot his promise and rushed off to the banquet, leaving the Cat asleep. By the time he woke up, it was already too late, for twelve animals had arrived before him, and the Cat was excluded from the zodiac.

So there were the twelve animals for the twelve zodiac signs, and the lineup was complete. Buddha announced to the animals that there would be a race across the river to determine the order of the twelve signs. 

When the signal was given, the animals all rushed to the river. Each wanted to be the first to make it across, probably not realizing that after a few millenia it really wouldn't matter whose year came first in the cycle. 

Right before they set out, the Rat jumped up onto the back of the Cow (or Ox if you prefer) unnoticed by anyone. That's right, I said unnoticed.

They all ran and jumped into the river and swam as fast as they could. As the race was nearing its end, the Cow was ahead of all of them and was almost at the finish. Even though there was like, a flying dragon in the race. But whatever. 

Paper Moon Is Back!

After a very long leave of absence, I am happy to bring back Paper Moon! This time from the deep south of the US of A, in Athens, GA. It's been a very busy few months, getting acquainted with the town and my new university.

Georgia is very big on American football, something I still don't quite have a handle on. I am not a big sports person, as readers of this blog may already know. I'd much rather stay home and play with paper. Still, being here has certainly been inspiring. We here at Georgia wear our colors proudly, but instead of painting my face red and black (our colors) and standing under the hot southern sun for four hours, sweating and waiting for someone to kick the illusive oblong ball, this is my tribute to my new alma mater.

Here's one for our team, the Georgia Bulldogs. This little fella was designed by Jack Chan.

I love how the seasons change here. I don't believe I've had a real autumn before. Trees in Lebanon usually keep their leaves most of the year, so seeing the streets lined with yellow and orange and red was quite delightful. Here are a couple of design ideas for your leafy needs.

Begonia Leaf by Peter Engel (tutorial by Sara Adams)
and an autumn leaf (the tutorial is in Dutch).

And now, 'tis finally the season. I thought what better time to come back than Christmastime? (I don't really know why this seemed appropriate, but I've got a case of the holiday spirit again.) I didn't go all out like last year, but I did make some nice origami ornaments. If you're not into trees, just make them and hang them somewhere anyway. Here are some favorites for this year.

Star ornament by Ekaterina Lukasheva and a simple ornament by Gay Merrill Gross

The other ornament seen in this picture is a traditional model.
Here is a useful tutorial by happypuppytruffles. No post is complete without her.

It's almost Christmas! It's going to be over way too soon. I miss the extra week of merry-making and good cheer we get in Lebanon for Orthodox Christmas, but I hope you have a great one wherever you are, and whether you celebrate it twice or not at all. And here's to good New Year hopefully full of paper folding! There's so much paper out there, and I've got a lot of catching up to do.

Much love from Paper Moon 

at our new offices in Georgia, USA.

Happy Easter/ Revenge of the Fifth!

The good thing about Lebanon, as I always say, is its diversity. We have so many sects and confessions that sometimes it's hard to keep track, but whenever one of them celebrates a holy day or has some kind of commemoration, everyone gets a holiday. If you miss Western Easter like I did this year, then you can still have your chocolate eggs on Eastern Easter. So Happy Easter to whoever celebrated today!

Here are some fun models you can try with your kids.

A little candy basket.

Bunny Basket

 

And here are some slightly more complex ones. 

A rabbit by Jun Maekawa. I thought the face
looked more like a fox's. I guess I did
something wrong...

A hatching chick by Peter Engel. If you look closely,
you can see a little beak popping out.

 









This last one may look simple, but you'll be surprised to know that it was the most complex model in this whole post.


On another note, it also happens to be May 5th, so if you missed May the Fourth (as I did), then there is always the Revenge of the Fifth! What does Star Wars Day have to do with Easter? Nothing. But that's what happens when I get behind on current events.

I made this little guy last year.

Fumiaki Kawahata's Yoda

I like doing "Fan Origami" so much, or as I will henceforth call it, Fanigami (because it's late and I've been listening to an audio book of the Iliad all day), that I couldn't let Star Wars Day pass by without posting a few clumsy models that have been on my list for a while. Here are some of the space crafts from the beloved saga, now in kami paper!

A simple X-wing

 

A clumsy Naboo Starfighter

TIE Fighter by Jeremy Shafer

Simple TIE Fighter

And finally, I am embarrassed to even post these, but they go well with the collection. Note: this is not what they're supposed to look like.

Shu Sugamata's Millennium Falcon

I also made a lightsaber, but I can't possibly post it as it turned out thoroughly inappropriate.

Earth Day 2013

We are nearing the end of April, and it's still cold and rainy here in Lebanon. Some people in Canada are still  snowed in, and winter just does not seem to want to leave. It makes me think, today especially, how bad we must have been to our Earth to make it so confused. 

It is no tragedy when thousands of people die in an earthquake, hurricane or flood; it's just nature fighting back. The real tragedy is how we turn a deaf ear to her desperate cries for help. Winter in the middle of spring, and summers which stretch out well into autumn should be a sign that something is terribly wrong. Or is it just me?

To put my conscience at ease, I decided to make today's origami out of reused paper.

This frog looks nothing like the original design.

There is always used paper lying around, so why not make something out of it? That is after all the idea behind origami, and this blog for that matter.

I made my very first kusudama following this tutorial. Kusudama often require a lot of paper. This model for instance uses 30 units (no wonder I'd never had the courage to make one before), so try putting all that paper you were going to toss out to good use and make something decorative and neat (those of you who have read this blog before know that when I say neat, I mean "cool", "cute", "interesting", not the other thing, which my models very seldom are.)

 


And if you don't have anyone to impress, or if you've already snazzed-up your living quarters enough (seriously, are your parents/roommates starting to complain?) you can make something useful out of scraps of paper.

We use these little boxes around the office sometimes. Pages from magazines and flyers printed on glossy paper work best and are often colorful. For instructions on how to make this origami box, visit this older blog post.

As a child, I wanted to be an environmentalist/conservationist/zoologist. I later realized that it was a lost cause, and that Mother Nature was beyond help. Maybe if I had gone through with my dream, the Earth would have been saved by now. The thought will forever haunt me!