Design by Mark Bolitho, artwork by Paul Hanson
Edited by Jane Rosemarin
The cartoon diagrams created by Paul Hanson. See PDF of the cartoon.

Editor’s Note: This Christmas tree designed by Mark Bolitho is a lovely, simple model that’s hard to stop folding. As I worked on 30-something copies of the tree for my December artist trading card, I decided I would try to obtain permission to republish the design in The Fold.

Mark Bolitho died in November. I met him at the Oxford British Origami convention in 2018, and I sensed immediately that this talented and prolific designer was a kind, warm, unassuming person. I am reprinting these offbeat cartoon diagrams by Paul Hanson in Mark’s honor.

Paul agreed that publishing the diagrams in The Fold would be a fitting tribute to Mark, who taught the model every year at London Origami meetings. The diagrams were originally published in December 2018 in the British Origami magazine, number 313.

I’ve been folding the trees from 50 mm paper, which yields a 58 mm tree. Any duo paper should work, but you might not want to go too large.

Comments

December 13, 2021 - 7:50am ruchi711

Is it just me? can't find the diagram for the tree, only the pdf for the cartoon

December 13, 2021 - 9:09pm linda.musich

The diagram is in the cartoon. The paper changes as it arcs over the characters head. I also had trouble “seeing “ it at first. Rather clever.

December 14, 2021 - 6:26am ruchi711

it was hiding in plain sight the whole time!! i expected the tree to be more than 7 simple steps!! so elegant

December 15, 2021 - 4:59pm lindamacf

Such a simple and sweet tree to fold. I also enjoyed the comic strip diagram...

January 26, 2023 - 6:23pm Vishakha Apte

i am so sad to hear the news of Mark Bolitho passing. he was such a sweet guy. so generous. so talented. so funny. i met him first i think in sept 2001 at the BOS convention near london/greenwich. he had just completed his "crease lightning" book then and i got a copy. i soon folded each and every model in the book. it's a GREAT book. and EVERY model is delightful. this lovely tree is in that book iirc. i loved his book and his work so much that i wrote a book review of it for the paper.
oh man - this is crushing news... and i am sad too that i didnt know about it sooner. i havent been in the folding world that intensely for a while now.

i hope you are all well. stay in touch.

xo
vishakha