Praying Mantis

Designed by Michael G. LaFosse

Fiction screenwriters could not dream up better alien life forms than these exotic-looking insects. Their apple-green color, huge, intelligent eyes, angular head, and their powerful arms make their form particularly interesting to me. During my summers at Vinton Pond in West Townsend, Massachusetts, I was able to study these insects in the nearby field of tall grasses. A few years ago, the Origami-USA directors met to inventory the forgotten collection of origami models, stacked in a basement storage room beneath the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. We came across a box that I recognized. I exclaimed that we had found the original Praying Mantis I had folded in the 1970's, as a gift to the late, Lillian Oppenheimer, who was head of the Origami Center at that time. Another director was standing near me as I opened the lid. He said "Nobody was folding anything like that in the '70's. I turned the box so he could see the inscription "Michael G. LaFosse - 1978" While it was advanced for its time, present day designers of super-complex origami models have far surpassed its technical achievements. Robert Lang, Satoshi Kamiya and others, shy away from designing and folding no insect, no matter how complex it may appear.