ModelAtlantic Purple Sea Urchin
CreatorRobert J. Lang
DiagramsOrigami Sea Life (John Montroll and Robert J. Lang)
Folded12. and 14. July 2006
Paperabout 63cm square plain packing paper
Model sizediametre of base: 7.5cm, total diametre 17cm, height 10cm
So I bought packing paper - you know the stuff you sometimes use when sending away parcels, really cheap stuff. I went half crazy trying to cut a nice square and in the end did the cuts with a ruler. That kind of worked, although I didn't manage to get a perfect square.
I decided to give the sea urchin another try because I quite like the fold. It's very rhythmical and everything seems to make so much sense. As soon as you know what to do it seems the most logical thing to do. There's lots of repeated steps in this model, but I actually didn't have to look steps up twice (even the first time I folded the model). Once you know what to everything just seems to fall in place. I'm not saying that the model is easy to fold, just that it is very rhythmical.
Anyways - I almost gave up on the paper because the easy folds were a bit harder than with the paper I usually use. I thought "You'll never make the hard ones if you already have problems with the easy ones!". But after a 2-day break I resumed, fixed a mistake I had made (the reason why I stopped the other day) and completed the fold. The funny thing is - although the first (easier) steps were harder with this paper the later (harder) folds were much much easier. The paper almost automatically went where I wanted it to go and I didn't even have to concentrate much to assure that the paper didn't rip.
Well, of course it might be that I first had to get used to the feel of the paper - and probably it was a big help that I started with an enormous sheet (the reason why I bought the paper). Anyways, this time I did do the rabbit ears for each of the points and it I have to say does give it a much more sea urchiny look, don't you think?