Medieval Commander designed and folded by me
117cm kozo paper  |  64grid with partial 128ths for the boots and 256ths for the torso  |  Medieval Commander Folding Steps  |  Medieval Commander Crease Pattern

This design started when @jkonkkola_origami posted his Warlord where I was struck by how representative and complex it looked. I quickly realized I was missing a detailed humanoid in my design collection and decided to create one with many features all over. The design ended up taking me a little less than 1.5 months but I worked on it for several hours on most days. Because I wanted to add so many features, I had to learn many new structures and transitions to integrate it all.

Some structural bits were inspired by other models. Juho’s Viking with the scales and phenomenal shaping and @adnkami ‘s use of angle ridge to add patterns were the main ones.

Making the crease pattern gave me a headache. I knew the grid would be somewhat big in the beginning but I originally had no idea how I would fill all the space. Later, I kept shifting the arms, torso and legs which caused me to lose track of proper placement numerous times. And during shaping, I had to figure out how to compact the scales in a solid position (so the figure didn’t look fat) and care for the connection of the front and back for a seamless connection.

It’s been nearly two years since I made my first design and less than a year since I’ve devoted myself to origami designing. I look back many times to see the progress I’ve made to try and understand how I got this far so quickly. I can see I’ve come a long way since but there’s still lots of room for improvement. The annual origami convention is also coming up and I’m excited to have an exhibit that consists of many of my own designs instead of designs by others.

@dexnamkung  July 2024

David’s Creation designed and folded by me
85cm kozo paper treated with mc | 56 box-pleat grid | 5 weeks to design and fold | 4/8

This was for two classes, one of them being for an ap government bureaucracy superhero/villian project. I convinced my teacher to allow me to fold something instead of having to see my poor drawing skills in action 🤡

Combining two subjects into one square can be a challenge. For one, how does one figure out how to elegantly pack two figures into a square without much inefficiency? And two, how can you design the structure so the two figures are elegantly connected? That’s what makes a design like this a fun challenge.

I drew four different packing iterations and did one testfold during the process. The first 2 packing’s just had a thick river connecting the two figures where it’s only purpose was to connect the two figures. However, one would be wise to try and figure out a way to connect the two figures where the connection can also be part of one of the figures. Because the xenomorph has a really long tail, it was a perfect candidate to become the connection. And so after wrestling with proportions and efficiency, I was able to find a way to have a nine unit river seperate the two figures while also adding one-unit flaps as the spikes on the tail.

This is the first time I actually spent time in the final shaping phase meaning I spent quality time making the model as solid as possible and trying to get it to stand.

@dexnamkung  January 2024