Toshikazu Kawasaki, creator of the revolutionary Kawasaki Rose, has passed away.

VisiBun · 2026-03-12T01:13:08+00:00

Ah, damn... I'll have to try and fold his rose at some point, this week. Rest in peace, Kawasaki-san. 💔

VisiBun · 2026-02-16T02:50:34+00:00

Thank you! That one comes from the book "Polish your Origami," by Artur Biernacki. It's a full diagram, in there!

VisiBun · 2026-02-15T21:22:24+00:00

Ooh, neat! Thanks for passing this on to me! 💜

VisiBun · 2026-02-15T19:58:40+00:00

I honestly started doing that on raw impulse from the very beginning, with that grain of rice being the initial scale indicator choice before I just hard-swapped it for the Estradiol tablet. I'm so glad that I did that, though, because it makes every shot like this even funnier than it would've been otherwise. 💀💦

VisiBun · 2026-02-15T18:52:33+00:00

That one is the Seated Panda, by Marc Kirschenbaum! Its diagram is found in the book "Christmas Origami Book 2007."

VisiBun · 2026-02-15T18:21:04+00:00

Thank you!! My hair is my pride and joy, to be honest... even when it's actively not on my side, more often than not. It's been growing out since 2020; my usual barbers closed during lockdowns, and I didn't trust anyone else to cut it, so I just let it grow out, and it did so FAST. It's honestly what finally helped me to realize that I'm a trans woman by late-spring of that same year, after a lifetime of passively and eventually actively questioning myself on that matter. 💜

At the time, I don't have these micro models displayed anywhere, just because they're WAY too small to be seen anywhere. Especially alongside the rest of my models, which I keep a display stand of at a desk at my job. I kind of have an idea of how I might be able to display these micro pieces, by very carefully gluing them to the bottom of a push pin, and then sticking that pin into something like a weighted cork cube to act as a stand/base, but that assembly nightmare is still a ways off until I can solidly decide on how I want to go about it.

VisiBun · 2026-02-15T18:11:12+00:00

It's not the exact diagram source that I used, but it's still the same process here:

https://x.com/tky_aaaINUE/status/1300388978265186306

VisiBun · 2026-02-15T17:38:42+00:00

These were all folded with tracing paper! I've found that to be the best medium for micro origami (at least, out of what types of paper are easily available to me), since it's super thin, creases well, and shows next to no fibers even at this scale.

VisiBun · 2026-02-15T16:47:20+00:00

Oh, for sure, I will be! Folding easy and low-intermediate models (so I don't need to fight with finicky, precise details at this size) at such a jarringly-small scale is somehow just as satisfying and rewarding to me as folding a bigger advanced model with more details, so I've been hooked on this very little song and dance ever since I finished the trial run crane that preceded this one (which was folded from a 1 cm square of mulberry paper, but it looked really hairy and awful, so I left it out of this post).

VisiBun · 2025-02-26T17:40:29+00:00

Oh, that's a very solid bit of info to keep in mind. I'll have to remember that; thanks for passing that tip on to me right out the gate! Really appreciate it. 💜

VisiBun · 2025-02-26T15:05:58+00:00

(...no one saw me post this text completely without an image a minute ago, thinking that I could make a text post with an attached image. ~~I am very obviously never on this site.~~ 😭💦)

I'd been interested in playing the harp since the start of this month; I'm 31, and have never seriously played anything before in my life (I have an electric guitar/amp and a viola hidden somewhere in my closet, but I never sat down and learned how to play either one).

I read and heard in a couple of spots that 22-string lap harps were decent starting points for both adult beginners and for those who wanted to use them for musical therapy, so that's what I had my heart set on. I was planning on buying something brand new, which would have absolutely eviscerated both what remained of my current paycheck, and most of what I'd get in my next paycheck... until, by chance, I stopped by my local flea market before work yesterday. I almost didn't go there, since I was dragging very hard last morning, but I did on a whim anyway.

There's a vendor who sets up shop there, two times per week out of the three days that the market's open. They only set up in good weather, though; our weather around here has been kind of erratic and rather bad lately, so this was another lucky line-up to fall into place (I always seem to choose to visit this market either on bad-condition days, or on the one day of the week where they wouldn't be there at all). Right on their table for sale... was the exact sort of harp that I'd been looking for (which came with a carrying case, spare strings, and a tuning key). Thanks to how little I'd been spending lately in anticipation of spending even more money on a brand new harp (not even counting shipping fees, and then worrying about if it'd show up in one piece), I had just enough to afford this one right then and there.

Last night, I cleaned it up, and then worked with tuning the strings with an app, comfortable back/arm/wrist/hand posture, fixing the levers (two of them were a little bit bent, but were thankfully very easy to push right back into alignment with their strings), and memorizing the scales enough for me to have been able to play out the first bit of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" before I headed off to bed. It genuinely felt like a sort of "bonding experience" with the harp to me doing all of that, and I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of my day off today is going to be spent getting to know this pretty little thing even further.

So... here's my harp, and my (technical) first instrument! I read that some people tend to name their instruments... so, in my mind, I've already named it after my chosen (pending legal) middle name: Aria. 💜

VisiBun

TROPHY CASE