geometry

1159: Polly Verity Corrugation

| wonko

Polly Verity is a paper artist I have watched since she came on Instagram (@polyscene)

She has a singular style and a seemingly superhuman touch when it comes to teasing character from paper – her paper silhouettes are like nothing else.

Polly is drawn to the geometry of plain paper, expertly capturing the light and shade that corrugated paper naturally causes.

Today she posted a corrugation that LOOKS curved, but as I bathed in it’s posted beauty, I recognized it had to be a much simpler underlying box-pleated crease pattern, and I knew that I HAD to try it.

Peeling off a 2:1 rectangle from my 90cm Kraft roll (90x45cm resultant sheet), I lay in a longitudinal axis gutter (valley), then added a deeeeep zigzag. This afforded the laying in of standard box-pleat fill-in creases that I then alternated mountain/valley to make the sheet one giant accordion pleat that folds up and on itself (resulting is a stored size that is tiny – 23x2cm).

The joy of this corrugation is that when it opens up, curves emerge from the straight lines – like by magic.

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1155: Dasa Star

| wonko

Inspired by a friend and fellow folder (should out to @aboy021), I decided to throw a 60cm square at Alessandro Beber’s “Dasa Star”:

Carving a hexagon and laying in basic axial creases, initially the paper is collapsed into a tato (envelope) and then re-folded into a tato to form a pinwheel structure as the base.

Then, in a process reminiscent of the algorithmic fractal sequence of Shuzo Fujimoto’s “Hydrangea”, we go through processes of teasing paper until it is no longer free, then flipping over and feeding more paper through the middle structure in a “paper pump”, then flipping over and teasing again.

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1153: Tanteidan “Cubes”

| wonko

At any moment, I have a half-dozen Tanteidan magazines, from my subscription to the Japanese Origami Society, on my chair-side table yet to be filed:

Flicking through them, it is impossible not to be intrigued by the challenges, fold tidbits, crease patterns and full diagram sequences.

Sadly, I contrast it to British Origami Society Magazine – I used to subscribe but let that membership lapse when I got to the situation that I folded nothing from them for 4 issues in a row.

These models are modular “cubes” designed by Jun Maekawa – delicious geometric puzzles with radically different design methodologies. The “Cat Ear” cube is a 6-module cube that is related to the “Business Card” cube I have made into a huge Menger sponge.

Paper friction and tabs and pockets offer structural strength, properly interleaving the tabs make it a really stable piece of geometry.

The “Zig Zag” cube is different – it uses 2 pieces of paper total – each “half” of the cube is folded complete (internal and external surfaces) from a sheet of Duo paper. Ingenious in design, fiendish the first time you try to link the 2 halves, delightful together and apart.

I love these little gadgets – every Tanteidan has at least 2, I have barely scratched the surface of them.

Short-Beaked Echidna

| wonko

There are only a few origami figures I MUST have in my collection – Steven Casey’s “Echidna” is one of these:

This adorable little monotreme is covered in one of my favourite square-grid tessellations, but skillfully crafted to allow all the other body bits to be where they need to.

I bought the British Origami Society booklet describing how to fold this treasure as soon as I knew it existed, and have folded it a few times now. Some sequences are nightmare fuel – this one is just so enjoyable to fold.

I recently received a shipment of paper from Origami-shop.com and in it was a 65cm 11 colour pack of the NEW Shadow Thai paper. I last bought it in 40cm square form but it was THICK so to my delight this version is thinner and takes complex folds really nicely. I chose this fur-like colour because it most closely matched the quill and hair colour of an echidna.

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1150: Star Katrina

| wonko

As a closet botanist, I am interested in floral geometry – many flowers are based on pentagons:

This is “Star Katrina”, a beautiful kusudama designed by Xander Perrott. Folded from 30 x 2:root 3 rectangles cleaved from squares of Tuttle Indigo dye duo paper over the last couple of days.

The unit is based on a tight triangle grid – fairly easy to fold accurately and the locking mechanism is so positive that this kusudama is held together via paper tension and friction only (no glue, truly, none).

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Display

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My annual origami display at Holland Park Library was installed this morning:

Cabinet 1 views

Included is a broad range of origami styles from a huge and diverse collection of designers, folded from a varied collection of papers.

Cabinet 2 views

I am trying to get better at not crowding the display cabinets – sometimes less is more to allow individual models to shine – let me know how I went.

If you visited, I would love your impressions, comments and suggestions for future displays.

Get directions here

Pillbugs

| wonko

I first folded these little critters, designed by Robert J Lang, using a square cut from an A3 printer paper sheet back in 2011 as part of my original 365 project:

Remarkably, even with that terrible paper, all the features of the critter were present however not very refined.

Australians call these “Slaters”, but they also go under the name “wood lice” because these little isopods are found in decaying vegetation – which is why I decided they should be folded from Mango Leaf paper. It makes this fold a bit “meta” in that the critter is folded from mulberry paper that contains leaf litter.

The fold sequence is exacting, forming trapezoidal molecules for each of the 14 legs, along with antennae and a rather beautiful segmented shell. This model appears in a few of Robert’s books, I folded this one from “Origami Insects 2” – a rather splendid volume from Origami House in Japan. bought from Origami-shop (even though, strictly speaking, it is not an INSECT….).

I decided to fold two so we could see one open and one curling up into a little armoured ball – they do this when in danger.

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1145: Nova Kusudama

| wonko

I am often given 6″ origami paper by well-intentioned friends who know I do origami and assume 6″ paper is useful to me. I have lots of it – and I mostly use it to fold kusudama:

I had a pile of duo Tuttle watermelon/lime duo paper, so resolved to treat it to make it more interesting. I bought some acrylic inks a while back, and a mouth airbrush, so decided to tone the pages while learning how the airbrush works – a fun experiment.

I chose to spatter the watermelon side with white ink, and the lime side got yellow and black spatters. The effect is quite lovely and delicate – it compliments the geometry of the model really well.

I had seen a youtube tutorial of KovĂ¡cs VincĂ©nĂ©’s “Nova” kusudama, and I thought the geometry really interesting. Like many spikey balls, 30 units in 5/3 clusters makes a nice little structure.

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Hand Made

| wonko

One of many goals, long term, is for me to make and fold my own paper. By “make paper” I mean collect, process and form sheets from pulp. I clarify because one school of thought around “making paper” is laminating or treating existing sheets – I do that also, but yeah, there is a distinction.

I attended a workshop out back of Gympie with Dion Chandler, using my newly acquired mold and deckle, and pulled (get the lingo đŸ˜› ) A3 sheets – by the end I got pretty consistent at it but need more practice.

I ended up making A3, A4 and a smaller “letter” size”, love the deckle edges and the structure of the sheets. I have also Methyl Cellulosed some and, so long as I apply the MC to the paper (and not the glass I am sticking it to) then the sheets come away crisp and sturdily hold folds crisply as well.

That workshop we were pulling from a vat that started mostly with cotton pulp, and gradually had recycled kozo (mulberry) to it – quite a resilient mix. the resultant sheets are precious and wonderful.

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1142: Daniel Brown’s Seamless Chessboards

| wonko

Having folded Steven Casey’s 8×8 40 grid seamless chessboard and singularly failing to fold Marc Kirschembaum’s 40 grid because of crease-creep inaccuracies, I was approached by Daniel Brown and asked if I was interested in his chessboards – naturally I jumped at the chance. “Seamless” chessboards are deliciously more complicated because it required each square to be represented by an un-broken surface (as opposed to being able to be comprised of bits and pieces of layers – a much easier path):

A "clusterfuck" of seamless chessboards
A “clusterfuck” of seamless chessboards

I say CHESSBOARDS because Daniel has developed a series of coloured/white alternate seamless models of LOTS of sizes, and the skills necessary to migrate edge paper towards the centre to effect colour changes is a thing that needs some work and, often, particular “widgets” (or self-contained localised fold structures).

I started with the 4×4, rather efficiently designed on a 9×9 grid ( 0.444 efficiency). I had a piece of blue-white kami, so gave it a whirl. Even dimensions require different approaches for adjacent corners as they are different colours – the same colour corner exists on the diagonal.

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Future Folds: Panel discussion and Exhibition

| wonko

Coupled to 8OSME, RMIT Design Hub is currently hosting an exhibition of important origami works called “Future Folds”. The opening event featured a panel discussion with Tomoko Fuse and Robert J Lang.

Panel discussions can be wonderful if the alchemy is right – the right combination of guests and questions. I am not sure we got a stellar set of questions posed, but it was encouraging to hear the guests speak of their obvious love of origami, and interesting to hear about their differing approaches to the artform.

We then proceeded to the gallery space to view a number of precious “holy grail” origami objects. Presented as the centerpiece was a large scale installation of Tomoko Fuse’s “OROCHI” (or large snake) – beautiful organic tube sculptures that seemed to have a life of their own.

Around the walls of the gallery were astonishing things, many of which I have only ever seen in documentaries and books – Tomohiro Tachi’s “Rabbit” for example. This was posited proof that using “Origamiser”, you can construct a crease pattern to replicate ANY 3d object using folds only. An amazing demonstration that would have been a nightmare to actually fold, but entirely possible to do so.

We saw some lovely examples of Jun Mitani’s curved fold works (some I have the CP of but have never successfully folded) and some original tree-maker inspired circle-packed designs for bugs and lobster from Robert Lang.

Present also were some lovely spiral forms and tessellations by Tomoko Fuse and an assortment of other precious folded things.

It is rare for such works to make it to Australia, and I was so glad to have been able to see them.

8OSME – Melbourne, July 2024

| wonko

An unmissable opportunity presented itself where both OSME and Folding Australia conferences were to be hosted in Melbourne, Australia, one following the other. Having never attended an Origami conference (of any flavour) before, I jumped at the chance, but had little idea, really, what was ahead.

Diverse plenary lectures to start the days off

My wife and I got an Air BnB on Collins street for the week. Using the PT> train network, I travelled to and from Swinburne Uni for the international gatherings each day while Jo explored Melbourne Galleries and cafes.

I believed OSME stood for Origami, Science, Mathematics and Engineering – turns out the “E” was for Education, even though in this conference there were 2 Engineering strands … so, ok then. It seems the 8th iteration of this conference reflects origami/folding now so popular as an engineering concept.

A Myriad of parallel papers
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1140: Acorn Box

| wonko

Browsing through the latest JOAS Tanteidan Magazine, as one does, I came across a seemingly simple but delicious little pentagon box in the shape of an acorn designed by Tomoya Kariya:

Exploring the sequence, I figured I could shepherd some of my hand-made paper through it, and reasoned that banana paper would make a beautiful cap, lemongrass and cotton paper would contrast nicely for the kernel.

I turned to my stash and discovered I had some smaller offcuts, so set about making matching 6″ squares of the rough but beautiful paper.

Folding hand-made botanical fiber paper is really hard on the finger tips – the lemongrass paper is actively spikey, but, being strategic and deliberate when manipulating tough fibers that lay on creases, I was able to coax the paper to take shape.

I LOVE the result – the handmade paper is PERFECT for this fold, it enhances the organic shape and makes it feel like a precious relic.

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1138: The Power of Many

| wonko

I love the geometric world of Tessellations, and have folded many. It is doubly satisfying when you design that tessellation molecule and how it tiles yourself.

This is a hex-point tessellation, and is based on a mathematical algorithm discovered by AurĂ©lien Vermont ( @auregamiiii ) and described in a paper written by them as part of their study in Engineering. The algorithm describes a geometric construction method that lest you raise a n-finned spike from a flat surface and have the surface “heal” around it.

It does so by placing strategic dart pleats that seamlessly absorb the excess paper caused by the spike in a controlled and very flexible way. You can raise a spike at the intersection of a collection of creases (2 or more intersections). The folding gets progressively more fiddly the smaller the spike and the larger the number of intersecting lines.

I chose to derive a hex-spike, that is a 6-crease intersection spike molecule, based on a regular hexagon. Once I had derived all the creases necessary to allow one spike to be raised, I test folded it (just to check – theory and practice are sometimes at odds – some paper designs for origami seem to ignore the thickness of the paper which then breaks the symmetry or distorts the shape) and all was good.

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1136: Tsuru-Jin

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As lightning crackled from the raging thunderstorm above, the electrodes sizzled, the smell of burning flesh hung damply in the air as the creature stirred on the table, accompanied by a mad cackling laugh interspersed with hysterical cries of “It’s Alive!!!”:

Apologies to Frankenstein lovers, but let us face it, this model is a bit of a Frankenstein. It is the result of putting a Satoshi Kamiya RyuJin 2.1 dragon head on a classic Tsuru (Crane)’s body. Nuts – right?

I first saw the CP (Crease pattern) for this on one of the Origami Discord servers I frequent (RyuCentral), and thought … how odd, how hard could that be??? Stupid man!

Dividing the paper into quarters and half along one diagonal, I reserved 1/4 on the diagonal for the crane and then set about laying in the graft CP for the dragon head in the remaining 3/4. It needed a 23 division grid that intersected at the square opposite the crane. Accuracy was the key. Grid laid in, I then started setting the pre-creases necessary for the head – stupid man, fucked the first set up twice (because I did not count), finally, pre-creasing done the collapse began.

I have folded many Ryu Jins, many versions, many times, so it was like returning to an old friend, interestingly muscle memory helped me not find the horrendously complex manipulations difficult at all (or maybe my subconscious was blocking the trauma) but to my surprise the accuracy I obsessed over early on paid off later allowing a pretty tidy collapse and NO damage to the reserved 1/4.

With the head collapses through early base, late base and shaping, I isolated and shaped the little arms and then set about working out how to fold a crane with the head as the head. Annoyingly I chose the wrong orientation first (der) and the head was upside down and backward. Just when I thought I would have to perform an infamous “neck twist” (interestingly NECESSARY on full RyuJins), I tried unfolding the crane and reversing all the creases (ie. folding it inside out) – to my delight that solved the problem (and THEN I remembered CPs are usually drawn WHITE SIDE UP – what a dickhead!!!).

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