14-year-old completes origami masterpiece

14-year-old Dave Ng, a Grade 8 student at St Joseph's Institution International School recently completed the Ryujin 3.5, an elaborate model designed by origami master Satoshi Kamiya.

The model dragon includes intricate details such as scales, feelers, claws and horns, and can take up to a month to fold.

Dave began his hobby when he was four-years-old, when his mother bought him an origami book. He decided to test his abilities around two years ago when he saw the Ryujin 3.5 on the Internet, and made it his goal to create the complicated piece.

It was not so simple, however. Dave spent a great amount of time studying the model, starting on the model in March 2013. It took him 25 attempts, and around 50,000 folds in a 180cm² sheet of paper for Dave to finally realise his very own Ryujin 3.5.

Dave's Ryujin 3.5 has since been given away to a friend, like all of his other models. He aspires to create his own masterpiece that may hopefully be published in an origami book. To do so, he will need to submit his own original masterpiece to an origami convention where the best ones are then published in a book.

jasonsoh@sph.com.sg