Paper PaperBird (SkyBird)

Butterflies and Caterpillars have it. Zebras’ or Tigers’ stripes help the animal blend into their environment. Why then shouldn’t a bird develop its own natural camouflage. Introducing the SkyBird: the first bird (that I know of) which blends into its surroundings; just so long as its surroundings are bright blue skies with little fluffy clouds.

Josh McKible created the PaperBird earlier this er…last year, and has been offering his designs as free downloads ever since. I met Josh at his booth at Design Festa, and was floored by his talent, and his nanibirds. 何 (nani?) means “what?”, and perfectly captures my reaction to life in Tokyo much of the time. When the bird evolved into a paper toy, I had to make one of my own.

The photo isn’t perfect, but it’s the best my lil’ digital camera can do. Which is okay, because I still need to make the little bitty birdy feet, and figure out what to put in the word balloon. After that, we’ll see if we can make Skybird available as a template on the PaperBird site. Here’s what he looks like before being glued together, with a better view of the colorful plumage. Kinda reminds me of a totem pole or a caduceus.