Origami Articles

Lifesized Dolphin

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 11:33:26 GMT

Folding a Life-sized dolphin

I was commissioned to fold a life-sized dolphin by a compamy that produces pension fund literature. The dolphin and I were going to be displayed at 2 pensions conferences, one at the SECC Glasgow and the other at Excel London .

Click here to see how I adhered to the fire regulations at both venues

This was the sheet of paper I started with.

It was the proportions of a lengthwise half of a ISO 216 rectangle (1xroot2) 11.2 Mts long!!

I started folding...

The tail is complete.

Getting inside the model to sort out flaps.

The dolphin is complete and now needs to be hung up in its final position.

Here I am assisting myself to get the dolphin positioned correctly.

Inside the dolphin are a number of bamboo canes for support.

The dolphin in situ and yours truly performing for the visitors to the conference.

I was teaching visitors how to fold the Talking Fish

Photographs of the folding process taken at SECC by Gaye Woollard.

Ghost

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 13:15:04 GMT

Woo-oo-ooo-oo!

You might like to fold a few ghosts for Halloween. This design of mine is very simple and effective and has the advantage of always producing something unique – no 2 ghosts will be the same.

I have used the crumpling technique developed by Vincent Floderer (in this YouTube clip he is making a mushroom). The secret to success is to crumple it up backwards and forwards many, many times.

If you wet-fold it with a dilute solution of PVA it will set hard, becoming much less fragile.

I remember on one occasion I put an LED bulb on the top of a thin stick which went all the way up into the ghost's head to illuminate it from within. It looked pretty cool in the dark – imagine a whole room full with different coloured LEDs brightening and dimming gently at random!

Chinese Dragons Smell of Chocolate

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 12:56:59 GMT

Well, mine do anyway :)

We were having a family meal in a large Chinese restaurant just before the Chinese New Year. The restaurant was decorated with large red and gold paper dragons to celebrate the upcoming Year of the Dragon. My partner's mother asked me if I could fold something similar. So, while we ate I messed about with a bit of paper I had in my pocket, trying out a few ideas and, later at home, I folded the first draft - it looked promising so, over the next few days, I tweaked the design and folding sequence to something I was happy with.

Now I had to fold a good version for her mum. And this was where I hit a snag - paper that is red on one side and proper gold on the other is rare. I couldn't find any apart from some 50mt rolls that only come in packs of 10. Which seemed a trifle excessive. Then fortune smiled down on me. I had purchased a bar of Lidl own brand plain chocolate and on opening it I discovered that the chocolate was wrapped in gold foil with a white paper backing. Unfolded it was nearly A4 in size and I could easily paint the white side red. Which is what I proceeded to do.

Here are the diagrams for you to fold your own Chinese dragon. It's too late for the start of this year of the dragon but, if you wait 12 years, it will come round again.

And, for some inexplicable reason, all of my dragons smell faintly of chocolate.

Safety Knife for paper cutting

Sun, 05 May 2024 10:14:41 GMT

Slice Safety Knife

I have used a variety of craft knives over the years to cut paper to size before folding. And over the years I have cut myself a few times. This is never a good idea - it makes a mess of the paper.

However, I have recently discovered a knife that can cut paper and card but not fingers! This sounds too good to be true doesn't it? Watch the video and you will see me successfully cutting elephant hide paper and failing to cut myself.

In the video below you can see me cutting 2 squares of elephant hide quite normally with the Slice Safety Knife and at the end taking a few swipes to the front and back of my hand with no damage at all - not a scratch.

The science behind this cut-no-cut magic seems to be remarkably simple: The knives have a zirconium oxide blade which is significantly harder than steel and therefore has a much shorter cutting zone than a standard steel blade which makes them much safer. The video shows this clearly.

https://www.sliceproducts.com/

https://uk.sliceproducts.com/

The links above will take you to their sites and you can also purchase them from Amazon if you think Jeff Bezos actually needs any more money.

And not only are they very good knives but,

“Slice was founded by TJ Scimone as a way to fund long-term care for his autistic son. Slice donates a minimum of 1% of worldwide corporate profits to various autism research programs that have global ramifications for families and individuals that live with autism daily.

We also encourage corporate and individual donations directly to our key research benefactor at the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.”

So you will be helping to make the world a slightly better place by getting one of these knives.

Frog/Duck

paperdragon17@gmail.com (Rikki Donachie) — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 17:13:35 GMT

Frog/Duck

This delightful model is not one of mine - I wish it was. It was created by my partner's son while he was supposed to be revising maths. He was also trying to get a better jump from a frog and used the only paper available to him - the revision card. Which is why it uses an unusually proportioned sheet. Something about the proportions means that the weight is just right to turn the frog into a duck :)

Diagrams for this lovely model can be downloaded from here.

Creating your own duo paper

paperdragon17@gmail.com (Rikki Donachie) — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 13:53:29 GMT

Treating paper before folding

How many times have you wanted to fold something and discovered that in your secret stash of paper there is nothing that quite fits the bill? Wrong colours, wrong sizes, wrong everything? This is fairly easily rectified with the minimum of equipment. Allow me to show you how. I wanted a sheet of paper, about A3 size, that was pink on one side and blue on the other. First, I got hold of a sheet of lokta of each colour.

You need a large sheet of plastic and two of those plastic strips that snap onto trunking. These can be bought very cheaply from your local hardware/do-it-yourself store. Make sure that the large sheet of plastic is larger than the paper you nwish to treat by about 150mm (6").

Next prepare 2 "Bulldog" paper clips with some wire to provide a bendable hook.

And, finally, that origamists' best friend - glue! PVA (Polyvinyl Acetate) . This can be obtained from the same place as the plastic sheet and electrical trunking. You can also buy it from artist supply shops at ridiculously inflated prices. A 2 litre tub will last you for ages. Put a few spoonfuls into a small plastic tub and add cold water. Mix it thoroughly and keep adding cold water until it is about the consistency of milk.

We are now ready to go: Lay one of the sheets of paper onto the plastic and brush on the PVA mixture. Try to spread it evenly. When this is done, carefully lift the paper, turn it over and repeat on the other side. Then take the trunking strips and place one underneath the edge of the paper and the other on top of the edge of the paper, clip on the clips.

... and hang the paper over the bath.

If all you require is single coloured paper, stop here.

When the paper is dry leave under a heavy weight for a day or two to completely flatten out, trim to size and fold.

If you want duo paper. repeat with the second colour and, while the second sheet is still a bit damp, take it down, brush on another layer of dilute PVA and apply the first sheet on top. Remove as many air bubbles as you can. Hang that up to dry and, when it is only slightly damp, take it down and iron it flat and smooth with a steam iron. Taking care not to scorch the paper.

Fire Proofing Paper

Tue, 10 Nov 2020 11:49:18 GMT

As I am sure you are aware, paper is flammable. It ignites and burns easily. There is a solution.

Some years ago I was commissioned to fold a life-sized dolphin for a trade show in the SEC Glasgow and then to repeat the process a few months later at the ExCel London .

Both venues insisted that all exhibit materials must be fireproof. After searching around the interwebs for a short time, I discovered FireCheck .

It describes itself as "a flame retardant spray that will treat anything that will absorb water. Simply apply a fine mist to all exposed surface areas of the article requiring treatment."

And I can assure you, dear reader, that it works a treat. See the pictures below for visual proof.

1. This is the basic set-up. A sheet of paper suspended above a candle.

2. After 1 second the untreated paper is well alight.

3. After just 10 seconds the untreated paper is nearly completely burnt.

4. After 1 second the treated paper has a small blackened area just above the candle flame.

5. After 10 seconds the small blackened area is only slightly larger and is still not alight.

6. Detail of total damage after 1 minute. The paper itself never caught alight.

FireCheck is very easy to apply - just spray it on and allow to dry. One word of warning though, the stuff smells strongly of urine. That is because it contains uric acid and ammonium bromide, which are constituents of urine. However, the smell dissipates quite quickly and is soon unnoticeable unless you put your nose right up to the surface of the paper.

The Hoodie & The Butterfly

Mon, 10 Aug 2020 10:49:18 GMT

It has been said that music hath charms to sooth the savage breast, so does origami.

Picture the scene. The East End of London, an area of urban decay and inner-city deprivation. Poor quality housing, high unemployment, over crowded schools and all the social problems one could expect from such a bleak set of circumstances.

As part of the general rejuvenation and upgrading of the area, an Arts & Crafts Fair had been organised. I was there to demonstrate, introduce and teach origami.

I arrived with a large box of finished models and loads of sheets of paper. I arranged my examples on my designated table and looked around. This was Chrisp Street Market (That has been spelt correctly). A fairly standard Saturday street market with stalls selling fruit & veg, kitchen wares, mobile phone covers, designer label clothing copies and all sorts of other stuff. The Art & Craft people were all together at one end. Opposite me was a local artist with a selection of her paintings. Next to me was an excitable group of young children waiting to have their faces painted and beyond them was a slightly less noisy queue of mostly young Asian girls waiting to have henna tattoos carefully painted onto their feet, hands, faces or wherever by two women in very brightly coloured salwa kameez. There was a caricaturist wandering around doing pictures of anyone who sat still long enough and a long table covered in paper, paint, pens and pencils and surrounded by noisy children also covered in paint, having a great time.

Origami is sufficiently unusual as to attract interest and comment wherever it comes into contact with the general public. I soon had a small and constantly changing group of children and adults around my table. Asking questions and folding the simpler designs. It is interesting to note that the older the people were the more convinced they were that they couldn’t possibly fold anything, I proved ‘em wrong though!

After about an hour and a half a gang of the local youths approached,

“Wot’s that?”

“Origami! Innit?”

“Wot?”

“Or-i-ga-mi, plonker! Paper-folding innit!”

“’Ere, That’s a lizard!”

“Seen this elephant ‘ere? That’s good innit?”

“Cor! That’s wicked mate! Show me summin’.” This last was spoken by a lad of about 15 or 16.

Dressed in the standard hooded sweatshirt, baseball cap on backwards, tracksuit bottoms, designer trainers and with 2 mobile phones swinging around his neck, this young black kid was a stereotypical example of “The Hoodie” that the rightwing tabloid press love to hate and have vilified until recently. Their xenophobic attentions have now been drawn towards people of Muslim background.

Darren, as the young lad’s name turned out to be, and his gang were a fine example of inner-city feral youth, black, white, Asian, Chinese and a smattering of “other”. Although Darren wished to make the lizard, a Robert Lang design, I persuaded him to start on something simple, namely Lerlin Woodrow’s wonderful flapping butterfly. 5 to 10 minutes later each member of Darren’s gang had a flapping butterfly. Darren and a pretty girl called Ashley stayed for more while the rest of the gang wandered off in search of food. The shirt, a jumping frog, Paul Jackson’s elephant and my swallowtail butterfly were all folded successfully before Ashley and Darren went off to find their mates.

About 3 hours later it was time to pack up. Into the box went all my examples and paper and I made my way to the local DLR station. There, leaning against a lamppost and surrounded by his gang was Darren. As I got closer I could see that he was happily flapping his butterfly.

I approached him and said, “Hi Darren. It’s good that, isn’t it?” indicating his butterfly.

“ Good? It’s f***ing wicked, mate!”

It is incidents like this that make origami worthwhile.

Origami for the Blind and Visually Impaired

paperdragon17@gmail.com (Rikki Donachie) — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 13:34:06 GMT

Origami for the blind and visually impaired

One of the many joys of origami is that it is an art form that can be practised and enjoyed by people of very different capabilities - including the blind and visually-impaired.

A dear friend of mine has been blind from birth and, when introduced to origami, took to it like a duck to water.

She prefers to fold the more complex 3D models and tessellations. To help her remember folding sequences she takes notes in her braille reader - these notes form the basis of the detailed scripts that follow.

If you have screen reading software you should have no problems viewing this site's pages. I have tried to make the whole site as accessible as possible - if you do have any difficulties with readability, please let me know and I'll see what I can do about it.

If you have a braille display, you can click on the links at the foot of this page to download a simple text file.

The scripts I've put together here are all written in English. If you wish to translate any or all of them, please do. And then let me have the translations to put up here for everyone to access.

At first we had to define a few terms in order to allow all folders to at least start at the same point. These may seem a little dry and boring but, it is important, when describing a folding sequence, to be as accurate and unequivocal as possible.

It is no good using phrases like;

"fold this edge to here"

or

"open this flap and squash it down like this"

When working on these scripts, we found it very useful to have fairly detailed descriptions of what can be expected after one step and before commencing the next - a verbal version of looking at the next diagram to see what it should look like.

If you are a visually impaired origamist or teach the visually impaired origami and you have scripts of your own that you use or find useful - please don't keep them to yourself.

Contact me and we can start to build up a library of origami for the visually impaired.

Click on the links to be taken to a page with the script and a downloadable text file.

1. Origami VIP definitions web page or Text File

2. Preliminary Base VIP web page or Text File

3. Waterbomb Base VIP web page or Text File

4. Bird Base VIP web page or Text File

5. Fish Base VIP web page or Text File

6. Sampan VIP web page or Text File

7. Masu Box VIP web page or Text File

8. 4-Point Star VIP web page or Text File

9. Box in One VIP web page or Text File

And, meanwhile over in France, Michel Lucas is running a project that aims to teach origami to the blind and visually impaired:

h ttp://www.aveuglami.fr /

The pages are all written in French but Google does a pretty good job of translating.

This video of a very simple model is an example of the level of descriptive detail that is necessary to convey all of the information needed for a blind person to understand how to succesfully fold the model.

A transcript of this video can be downloaded here.

The Railway Mice

paperdragon17@gmail.com (Rikki Donachie) — Sun, 10 Nov 2019 13:29:38 GMT

The Railway Mice

Most of the stations on the system have a resident population of mice. These rodents live in the walls and scurry about the corridors and platforms when it is quiet. They survive, and indeed thrive, by taking advantage of the vast amounts of litter that the humans casually throw away.

These mice also run around on the tracks. They seem to be fairly unconcerned by trains thundering overhead. Again, it will come as no surprise to regular users of The Tube that, occasionally, one has to wait a fairly long time between trains. When this happens the mice come out and run around the tracks fighting, fornicating and going about their everyday mousey business.

Sometimes when this happens the mice are seen by children who have become bored waiting for a train. Excited by the sight of the mice the children shriek, rush to the very edge of the platform and lean over pointing......

This is a frightening thing to see as, the rails are live, with 640 volts DC, the suicide pit might be as deep as 6ft and the trains when they come into the platform are travelling at about 30mph and weigh over 150 tons - the trains are not easy to stop.

I have used origami as one solution to this dangerous situation. Everyday while at work in the station I would fold a number of my "La Petite Souris" which I would then store in my hat for safe keeping. Whenever I saw children leaning over the edge looking at the mice, I would suggest to them that, smelly, old, disease-ridden rodents were not as nice as these....

Producing a handful of brightly coloured origami mice from thin air always impressed the kids and they soon lost interest in the track mice when they realised that, yes, they could choose and keep one of the origami versions.

A nother potential tragedy averted!