THE VIOLINIST

I continue with Joisel’s Jazz Band. This time I want to show the whole process to make the dwarf: the documentation process to learn about the model, how I faced the technical problems sometimes arise when you make a model from a CP, the collapsing process and finally, the modeling. This time I chose the violinist. Here is the end result:

 And this is the violin:

After my first musician, with ‘classical’ clothes, I decided to fold the dwarf with the skirt of diamonds. It is probably the most different one and, at least for me, the greatest challenge. The CP was deduced and released by the master Montecinos in his web page: 

The first difference with the ‘classical’ model is the grid, 28x28 for the classical vs 32x32 for the dwarf with diamonds. That means that the dwarf, once folded will measure 9% less than the first one. I have assumed that this height variation is acceptable for dwarves (¡!) and I have used the same paper size, 60x60 cm.

The second difference are the zig-zag lines at the bottom of the CP that will form the skirt. I knew this crease pattern because I had used it in a former model I designed last year, my ballet dancer. It uses a 16x16 square grid.

The third difference is the CP area of the hat. There are two small triangles whose reference points were not clear to me. I solved the problem in a very straight forward way. I ‘cut’ the hat area and substituted it with Joisel’s hat CP. The end result for the folded model is nearly the same. This is the new CP:

And finally, one last difference, only evident when you collapse the model. The arms turn to be too long. You can see it in the proof model I made before the final one (folded from a 35x35 cm square of Tant paper):

I found out two possible solutions. The first one, the obvious and simple, hiding part of the arm down the sleeve and the second one, more elegant but also more complex, trying to modify the CP. Again, if you compare the classical CP with the darf with diamonds CP you can see that there is one extra square in the face area (4 vs 3). We could remove the two horizontal lines used by this square and one vertical line in each side of the square. The grid becomes 30x30, the head grows and the arms shorten. Let us see the new CP:

The CP doesn’t work in the area around the red circles. The creases don’t reach the end of the paper. We have to remove an even number of divisions on each side to make it work. That means 2 on each side and 2 more at the bottom. Let us see the CP now:

If we remove the colored rectangles, and obviously move the fingers on the top right and left corners to the center area of the hat we get a valid CP with a 28x28 grid. The drawback is that we have shortened the legs in two units. But, instead of shortening the legs we can shorten the long shoes and hopefully make a nice model. I may try it with another dwarf. For this one I used the first modified CP with a 32x32 grid.

The collapsing process is not difficult but it is long, especially to make the skirt. Let us see some images.

Precreasing:

The collapsing begins in the head area:

Continues with the skirt:

And comes up with the final collapsed base. The skirt is three dimensional.

In order to close the back we put one edge of the skirt inside the other edge:

Here you can see the result. In this phase of the folding you don’t have to worry about closing the model yet. We will do it later, using, if we want, a drop of glue. Strictly speaking we don’t need to use glue because we are wet folding the paper and you can get the proper shape easily but, if you want to have a hard model that can withstand the passage of time I recommend using it.

We begin the modeling of the face helping us with clothespins to hold the model and tweezers for the small details:

In this case, instead of a hat we will model hair:

When we have finished the dry modeling, we dampen the dwarf for the first time with a water spray or simply splashing some water with the hand. We let it dry helping us with strings and clothespins so that it keeps the desired shape.

Here you can see the result once it has dried:

Then, we start folding and modeling the small details. I use a tiny brush to dampen the face and tweezers to help me model nose, mouth and eyes. Small clothespins are also a good help to keep the shape of these small details before they dry. In this phase of the modeling you can begin to use methylcellulose as a help to keep the shapes. It also acts as a soft glue that, for example, helps to close the sides of the mouth perfectly:

And finally, we get to the point in which we can glue the model to the base (I use carpenter’s glue). Most of the modeling is done but there are still some details remaining, especially in the arms area.

As you can see in the model, I have taken special care to bend the model a little bit to the right so that it seems to be moving. A straight model is not as dynamic as a bended model and it is more boring.

On the floor you can see the violin that I painted and folded in the idle time I had when waiting for the dwarf to dry. It was designed by Gen Hagiwara. Its folding diagrams were published in the 143 number of the Japanese Tanteidan Magazine. I will talk about violins, both this one and Joisel’s one, in my next post.

We put the violin in its place using carpenter’s glue and clothespins to hold the arm in the right position.

A little bit more modeling and we get the final violinist. You can see the four sides of the model. Its height is 17 cm and it is completely closed. Compared to my first dwarf (26 cm) it is smaller but most of the difference is due to the long hat the first dwarf wears.