Starting with 2 squares of paper, some simple creasing, an odd thing happens – a solid shape emerges:
This squarish donut is odd, it slides together with nearly no folding and creates an interesting geometry. Continue reading
geometry
597: (47/360) Jun Maekawa’s “Gemini”
Puddling around in an old Tanteidan magazine, I noticed that the first few pages are usually devoted to smaller folding projects – often modular in nature:
This 2-part modular is fascinating and initially I found it baffling as the diagrams were not really clear (the illustrator was trying to represent stages that were 3d in 2d line drawings) and the instructions are all in Japanese. Continue reading
595: (45/360) Valentines Day
Now I know there are those who say that Valentines Day is a Hallmark business opportunity, but I happen to think that celebrating someone you love is a good thing:
My valentine loves to read, so I thought a pair of Washi Deluxe bookmarks would not go astray. Continue reading
591: (41/360) Miura Ori Fold
Paper-influenced materials engineering has gained incredible momentum in the last few years as ancient and modern folding techniques get applied to modern materials:
The Miura Ori fold is a fascinating corrugation that takes large flat surfaces, divides them up into “shallow” parallelograms, re-arranges the creases into alternate rows of mountain and valley across the folded field to make a self-organising surface. Continue reading
585: (35/365) Many Hands Make Light Work
As a teacher and pastoral care “tutor”, I am always looking for ways to get kids working together. At the beginning of the year the tutor group room is a mixed-year level (6-12) mixture of strangers and established friends so “GTK” exercises (Getting To Know you) are great icebreakers if you can get them actually talking and working together:
A few years back I struck on an idea to get kids collaboratively folding an origami mega-structure. The model is fairly simple – I taught the newbies (in this case the year 6 and 7 students) a simple modular unit. They then had to go teach another kid in the group, who in turn taught another. The central metaphor is “the WHOLE is greater than the sum of the parts”, “many hands make light work”, “we are as strong as the weakest link” … and so on.
583: (33/365) Hearty Cube
This delightful 6-part modular cube is designed by Meenakshi Mukerji:
The modules cleverly isolate a colour-changed heart at the centre of a “U” shaped module that forms one side of the cube. Continue reading
580: (30/365) Jun Maekawa’s Six-Roofed Regular Dodecahedron
Trolling around in my collection of Tanteidan magazines, as one does, I came across a little 6-piece modular designed by Jun Maekawa:
Oddly named until you notice that each of the modules is a little “house” shape, complete with pitched roof. Continue reading
579: (29/365) Half and Three Quarter Cube
Leafing through “Folding Australia” I came across an odd modular that results in half and three quarters of a cube:
Simple folding, deft locking mechanism and a little geometric brain bending. Continue reading
572: (22/365) Origami On The Brain
Those who know me realise I am a little obsessed with paper folding, some would say to excess. The truth of the matter is I am constantly amazed what you can coax a flat sheet to do. I think I missed my calling as a materials engineer:
I like models that I can visualise, as I am folding. Equally, I am fascinating when there is a tangle and then, out of the mess, something wonderful emerges. Continue reading
564: (14/365) Francesco Guarnieri’s Stella Garland
I was casually puddling around in origami blogs, as you do, and came across the one page diagram of this little charmer and decided to give it a whirl:
8 pages, sort of a spectrum, combine in a whirl not unlike the leaf garland popular in Roman times however the locking mechanism leaves a small hole in the middle rendering it unwearable.
I could imagine folding these in red/green/gold/silver, pimped out with baubles and glitter (in a craft project from hell) that would make a lovely seasonal wreath – something to consider I guess. Continue reading
560: (10/365) Blackstar (Shining star)
This is Hoang Tien Quyet’s Shining star, a multifaceted recursive fold that is somehow appropriate for today, the anniversary of the passing of David Bowie:
2016 was a difficult year for me, and there remains 2 things that I am still struggling to come to terms with: my father’s passing at Easter and Bowie’s Passing in January.
558: (8/365) Mike Case’s Campfire CP
Now I am not really new to the whole “fold from a CP” approach to origami, but I am not consistently good at it either, many models have just baffled me. Initially this CP was beyond my understanding also but you know, when you keep at something eventually something gives and it can make sense:
This is Mike case’s “Campfire” – a devilishly clever use of a colour change, box pleat and concertina folding that results quite magically in a set of pointy flames and 6 modellable stickey-outey things that become the logs. Continue reading
557: (7/365) Jun Maekawa’s Borromean Cube
Most Tanteidan magazines start with a section that deals with modular folding. I was surprised to find a modular cube designed by Jun Maekawa, along with a bunch of variations.
With cursory research, it appears “borromean” relates to interlocking shapes, and this cube has “ribbons” of colour that weave in among each other in an interesting way. Continue reading
551: (1/365) Mummy Star
When my sister in law went to Nepal, she found some rather charming Lokta paper, hand-made with block printed gold floral designs. She carefully transported it back with her for me to wrangle. I had a modular in mind and the orange Lokta seemed the obvious choice:
This is Miyuki Kawamura’s Mummy Star, a startlingly complicated modular in 30 pieces. The technique of folding splayed fans, then folding them back on themselves gives the appearance of “wrapping” or bandages I suppose (think Mummy Movie). Continue reading
No Dragon, Just Head
Determined not to let Shuki Kato’s “Western Dragon” beat me, I decided to isolate the part of the model that I had failed on each of the 4 times I have attempted this nightmare of bent paper – the head:
Using the crease pattern, I isolated the corner that is the head and made that section HUGE, then ignoring the rest of the model (that I have successfully folded twice) I only did instructions that effected the bit of the crease pattern that I had on my 60cm square section.
Yee gods! Continue reading