I made the Jumping Origami Frog first, which is a simpler pattern but perhaps more fun in the end.

Jumping Origami Frog instructions can be found at the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant web site. (There are tons of sites with instructions and patterns, but the UW site has nice illustrations for each step.)

This is a good pattern to learn if you ever find yourself trying to entertain young children with only materials at hand. If you have strong fingers, you could fold this one out of an index card (or one of those magazine insert cards), and the heavy material should give it much more “spring” or jumping power. Not only can you provide instant entertainment in the form of frog races and long jump contests, you may also get some “cool” points for being able to fold it in the first place.

I did the second pattern simply because it looks more like a frog. I also like that it can be inflated.

Classic / Inflated Origami Frog instructions found at a site called, appropriately, Origami Instructions. If you’re new to origami, this site will help because it has photographs to illustrate each step.

Both frogs were made from 5 7/8″ square Fold ‘Ems origami paper.

Yeast
Medium: Micron pens on Bristol board
7 3/4″ tall

This was a hard one. I finally decided to draw a glass of beer with little yeast colony shapes forming the bubbles in the head. Yeah. Not my best moment, but I love technical pens.

Acorn
Medium: Basswood carving

I’m sure this would’ve taken two minutes on a lathe, but alas, I don’t have one. So I shaped this one by hand with Xacto woodcarving blades and a scrap of basswood.

Posted from my iPhone

Door
Medium: Pencil on drawing paper
Size: 7.5″ x 6″

Can you tell I had a Lord of the Rings movies marathon this week?

However, I sketched this freehand while watching an L.A. Ink marathon. Go figure.

Ribbon
Medium: Gift wrap ribbon

The weaving felt less elegant than it looks, more like deliberate entanglement.

Pattern is from a little site called icandream.com.

It calls for ribbon that is 3/4″ to 1″ wide and 9-12″ long. Most of the ribbon’s length is cut into four strips, stopping 1.5″ from the end to make the wings. I didn’t have any ribbon wide enough, so I laid four pieces of regular gift wrap ribbon side by side and joined them on the back with a 1.5″ long piece of mailing tape.

There’s no tape keeping the woven body of the bird together. Everything was woven loosely and then tightened up by pulling one ribbon at a time.

I inserted a pipestem cleaner from the Umbrella challenge, and my ribbon bird is now living happily with the umbrellas in my JoyCats vase.

Sun
Medium: Adobe Illustrator

I ran out of time to add some additional details in the center (behind the sun), including stylized grain, leaves, and clouds, which would have expanded the color palette. I think it feels too flat, but I wasn’t about to run to that old standby, Drop Shadow. It still was a good Illustrator exercise, though.

I sketched this out (very roughly) on paper first. I soon realized that I was at least somewhat influenced by a piece of art hanging in my living room. If I had the gear, I would’ve embossed the sun pattern onto copper, just like this piece.

I discovered this at a Salvation Army store and couldn’t resist. It reminded me of the sort of thing my grandparents would have had in their home. There, you could’ve been fairly certain that it was a gift from a missionary they supported or was something they themselves brought home from a mission trip.

In reality, I have no idea where it’s from. The embossed and enameled metal is attached to the wooden back by four big tacks. One corner has some damage like the tack was moved or replaced from its original hole. There is no label or signature anywhere.

However, the back is almost entirely unstained wood with a couple of marks that look like something had been attached with Scotch tape — maybe a description or newspaper clipping about it?

If you’ve seen anything like it, please add a comment! It’d be fun to track down the region, at least.

I guess I can tell you now that the other noun was “hook.” My grand idea to combine “vixen” and “hook” involved making a sitting fox with the tail protruding as a coat hook. Not a functional one, being of clay, but I thought it would look nice on a wall anyway. It would have been about 3″ tall.

But the tail came off where I had attached it to the fox’s body. Obviously, I need to learn more about this clay before using it again, or at least how to connect two pieces of clay. I did enjoy carving it after it was dry, defining the vixen’s body in relief.

Just to add insult to injury, I don’t even have a photo of the unpainted piece other than the cropped photo I posted yesterday. I took three photos but only saved one on my PC, and, of course, I deleted the two which would have shown the whole piece.

This really has not been a good noun week. *sigh*

Well, onward and upward, as they say.

To make up for the lack of interesting stuff these last couple of days, check out these artists which I discovered this week:

Jason Tennant
I came across Jason’s work when I searched the ‘net for a good photo reference of foxes. There isn’t much information about him. The most I could find is this description from his “From Waters And Woods” collection homepage.

I draw inspiration from time spent being “off the grid” on a secluded parcel in the Finger Lakes, participating in natural cycles and changes; life, death, and rebirth.

The sculptures are carved out of a variety of native woods.

Little Sapling Toys

I found this shop from an interview featured in the latest Etsy newsletter. To quote from their bio:

Our family designs, crafts and tests quality wood toys from our new home in Boise, Idaho. The wood used for our toys is either reclaimed or FSC Certified hardwood and is sanded satin-smooth. We use a local beeswax and organic jojoba oil finish to bring out the natural beauty of the woods. Our teethers are left bare.

I like the elegant simplicity of their teethers especially.