THE SAXOPHONE

When I saw Eric Joisel's Great Jazz Band in the Joisel's exhibition in Zaragoza back in 2013, one of the instruments that caught my attention was the saxophone.

Eric Joise's saxophonist in the Zaragoza Exhibition in 2013.

Since the moment I decided to create my own Jazz Band I knew the saxophonist would be one of the first musicians I would fold. In Joisel's web site there are a couple of photos showing a CP and the folded instrument:

Saxophone CP in the upper part

Two different saxophones folded by Joisel

The idea behind this design is simple and relatively similar to the clarinet I had already folded a few months ago. It is a rectangular paper divided in 9 stripes all along. It forms the keys with a square tessellation. Joisel also reduces the diameter of the tube from the bell to the mouth.

I was thinking about trying to replicate this model but in the end I preferred the idea of making the keys similar to the clarinet's keys. This is the end result:

My own design for the saxophone folded from kozo paper and painted with acrylic deep gold

In the CP you can see the nine stripes that will form the four sides of the square tube and the keys of the instrument. The ninth stripe is just for closing the model. Only the first row of keys is detailed in the CP. There are 20 keys in total, 18 in six rows with 3 keys each (three fingers per hand) and 2 to form the left hand rest and the right thumb hook. Comparing the clarinet CP with this one you can see it is very similar but adding more keys and bending folds at the bottom to make the bell.

The clarinet CP that inspired me to create the saxophone

When I designed my final saxophone I had to decide how many keys to fold. When you look at a real saxophone it looks really complex, with the body surrounded by keys, levers and hooks. I chose to fold three to accommodate three fingers per hand but I guess any other number would be as good as this one. It would be as simple as adding more key lines to the CP. In this photograph you can see a real person playing the saxophone and how the fingers are placed.:

Saxophonist example pressing three keys with each hand. Original image here

There are a lot of different mechanisms around the tube making the number of keys to fold a difficult choice.
Original image here

Let us see some photos of the folding process:

The paper with the nine stripes  and the upper row of keys precreased

After folding the 9 stripes

We start to fold the keys, you can see one on top (the front key) and one in the middle of the photo (one side key)

We proceed with the folding

We close the paper

And squeeze the paper to put the keys together

Repeating on the other side we get three keys

This is the back side of the paper. It doesn't stand flat

We repeat with the rest of the keys including the two back keys

Finally we squeeze each key to give it the final form

Although in the following photos not all the keys are finished it is better to do it now when the saxophone is still relatively flat. Latter it becomes harder to manipulate. This was my first attempt after designing the model and I didn't realised it

The back side with all the upper keys folded

We star to bend the tube 

This is the first bending of the tube

We repeat three times

We make another bending fold

And one last bending fold to separate the bell from the tube slightly 

This is the final shape of the tube

We start with the bell. 

We fold this little triangle

We push it inside

After repeating with all the flaps

The same area from the back side

We separate the layers to make the end of the paper  the wider we can  

And finally shape the bell

The last step is folding the mouth piece

A little moisture and modelling takes us to the final result

Finally I don't want to lose the opportunity to thank Victor J. Quintero for his help to deduce Joisel's saxophone CP. After seeing my saxophone's photo in my flickr he deduced and sent me this CP.

Simplified CP deduced by Victor J. Quintero

Victor J. Quintero's folded saxophone. We would get a saxophone very similar to Joisel's one by adding more diamonds to the CP 

THE SAXOPHONIST

New model and new problems waiting to be solved. The thing I enjoy the most about this project is that each model is a new challenge. Joisel's dwarves are so different that when you begin to fold one of them you can only guess what the end result will be. The only thing I had clear in my mind is that my next dwarf was going to be the saxophonist dressed on a tailcoat and a hat. He would also have a moustache. That way it would be completely different to my former two dwarves. 

This is the result:

The CP to fold this gnome was deduced and released in his web and flickr page by Ricardo Montecinos. There are two different CPs:

Both of them are similar with the only difference that the second one gives a longer tail than the first one (4 divisions versus two). This length increase makes the grid bigger, 36x36 vs 32x32. In the next photograph you can see the area of the CP from which the tail comes. The smaller circle indicates the point of the tail. 

In my case I have chosen the second CP because I wanted the tail of the tailcoat to be long. The problem with this election is that an increase in the grid decreases the model size. The kozo paper I use comes in 60 cm wide sheets (60x60 cm is the paper I have used in my former dwarves). My first dwarf, the clarinetist, is folded from a 60x60 cm square paper for a total height of 26 cm and it uses a grid of 28x28. That means that for a 36x36 grid I would need a 77x77 cm square paper if I wanted to have the same size.

Before taking a decision, I folded a proof model from a 50x50 cm foil paper and that made me chose a final square of 72x72 cm. The final size of the folded model would be between my clarinetist and my violinist. Under my point of view making this proof model was essential. It helped me not only to know the CP but also to learn how to model the tailcoat, face, arms and hat. In order to make the final square I had to glue a stripe of paper to the bottom of the 60 cm wide sheet. That way the join would become part of the upper part of the legs and it would be invisible.

One last thing about the CP. In the next photo, in the top right corner you can see Joisel's CP. The blue lines highlight the area that forms the coat and body. I have drawn that same pattern on the dwarf with tailcoat (also in blue). Once I finish the collapsing I will unfold part of the model to create the pattern highlighted in blue. That way I will have a coat very similar to Joisel's one but with two tails.

The final CP I will use will be the one with the 36x36 grid but changing the head pattern with Joisel's one as I did in my previous violinist dwarf:

The precreasing. The seventh division starting from the bottom, with a lighter colour, is the place where I joined the two pieces of paper.

I start folding arms, hat, tails and legs

I continue with the diamonds that make up the face raising the arms at the same time

I close hat and face and make the central triangle.

Detail of one leg and tail 

Detail of one leg and tail from other side

Front view of the collapsed model

Back view of the collapsed model

The collapsed model does not close perfectly, in fact, the legs are not aligned to the central axe of the model. I will fix it later. Now I am going to release the central diamond as I explained before. 

I begin unfolding the bottom of the triangle

After the unfolding, in order to be able to collapse the model again you have to use the creases I painted in blue before

We play a little bit more with the paper to be able to hide the leg inside the coat and to make it perfectly flat. 

Finally I get the tail and leg in the right position.

Maybe the steps I have shown are not very clear but the important thing is that you should play with the paper until you get something that you like. Before this photograph, I made three variations with the proof model and any of them could have been right. Joisel's dwarves are so variable that in the end any modification can be a success. I encourage all of you that try to fold this model to explore and play with the paper to discover new variations and, why not? publish them on the Internet to enrich Joisel's legacy. 

Front view

Back view

Detail of the leg and how it is folded inside the coat 

And now it is time to play with the arms. This variation was suggested to me by Ricardo Montecinos and lets you widen the arms. Now the arms are one division wide and we want to double them and, as an added benefit, shorten them. 

I open the arm releasing one division on each side

Four fingers go to one side and one finger to the other

I fold the arm down and up

I close the arm. You can also see how I have released some paper on each side of the back to close the model

Final base 

Once I have the final base I begin with the modelling. Here are some photos:

Closing the tailcoat

Making the eyes

Closing the hat

And at last the final model. Here you have photos from the four sides:

The instrument is a saxophone designed by me, painted with deep gold acrylic. I will talk about it in my next post.