Year of the Folded Horse

With Origami Sculptures now out of print, diagrams for John Montroll's Classic Horse is now found in his recent book, "Horses in Origami", which came out last year (I think as early as last summer), just in time for 2014- the Year of the Horse.  There are 27 wonderful, diagrammed models by Mr. Montroll and other designers, from high intermediate to simple. 

I haven't made time yet to fold the other models presented in "Horses in Origami"; but I've long wanted to know how to fold some of these, like Hatori KOSHIRO's Ponytail Pony.

Read Patsy Wang-Iverson review

My all-time favorite daily fold...the Montroll horse is what first inspired me into going more complex.  Before seeing it, I was unaware that origami had evolved beyond childhood traditional models and elevated into the world of playful and serious art; that new designs and techniques were being formulated by modern designers all over the world.

 It was turning point in my own life, and hooked me onto origami as something a lot more than just a passing fancy and childhood past-time.

At my very first WCOG meeting (2002?), Terry Hall (group leader, who has only since been to about 3 meetings in the last 7 years) had folded a beautiful 3-dimensional, elegant Montroll horse for a young girl. I went to Borders and immediately picked up Montroll's Origami Sculptures and a few other books.

One of these was David Brill's "Brilliant Origami".  That one influenced my thinking in how I should fold the head to the Montroll horse.

I obtain nostrils by denting the center and pinching the sides together

The model lends itself well to personal touches of artistic self-expression.  The model itself starts out with Montroll's "dog base", and a wide array of animal forms can be had from there.

Over the years, there has been some interest in my method of folding the classic horse.  So I sought and received permission from John Montroll to show you how I shape the head.

I don't show it in this video, but for the tail, I like to fan-fold it to give it the look of a "wavy tapestry".  

The hooves are obtained by opening up the layers and spreading them out.

 

By spread-squashing this section of the double sink (just the triangular part shown), the inside layer of the tail section will now lay in the center.

There are a couple of other minor touches I didn't think of showing until just now (like rounding out the belly).  




FYI:  For those using single sided paper and who don't like the color on the inside hind legs, there are a couple of ways you can get a color-change to keep the horse all one color.  

I meant to get this up by the beginning of the Chinese New Year.  Obviously, that didn't happen.  I guess I was just too busy horsing around; sometimes with my neigh-bors.  But that's a tail I'll save for another time.  Hay, what can I say?  This post is manely about the Montroll horse, of course.

Ok, I'll stop now.