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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
This torturous little bugger of a tessellation seemed to eat paper like nothing else:
Shuzo Fujimoto’s design of a clover-like tessellation that spreads from a central point is an interesting exercise in layer rearrangement, resulting in a lovely eye-popping pyramid-like structure that has dimensionality. The resultant folded form is much less than a 1/4 the size of the original sheet and is very dense in places and is naturally concave on the underside. Continue reading
When friends travel, often they find lovely small bits of Washi. Packs of this are full of a myriad of lovely traditional prints, rich colours often embossed and overlayed with gold.
The tricksey bit is to work out what to do with it – given it’s size and often the overpowering beauty of the design.
Continue reading
As part of the school’s social justice program, I was asked to come up with a fold for a bow tie that I could teach year 7-10 boys and girls from 3 schools on a Friday afternoon:
Based in part on a technique used by many, but first seen in a video, I devices a way of using a square, hiding raw edges and basing most of the folds on halves (figuring boys could actually fold things in half fairly easily). Continue reading
Another time sponge, based on a square grid initially that was torturous to fold and pre-crease. Based on Eric Gjerde’s tessellation molecule, it is an amazing use of paper that features largely an “all at once” collapse.
Many tessellations sit flat while you do them, their interim stages are still flat – not this mongrel. Once you start, you gotta finish and then work out how to flatten – interesting but not very portable in the end. Continue reading
I spend a lot of time waiting for students to ask for assistance during practical assignment lessons. This is a good thing – if they do not ask and are skilled enough to work independently then I have done the right thing, so it is all grist for the mill. (When kids need help but do nothing about it is much less good, but again a choice the student makes):
This is my first attempt (and probably last) at Eric Gjerde’s “Stacked Triangles” tessellation, based on a triangle grid that had a 6mm spacing. Continue reading
Now apparently, when faces with a wee beastie, you throw a pokeball at it and that, somehow, traps the beastie …inside.. the ball for safe keeping – truly, I cannot make this shit up:
This is Jeremy Shafer’s Pokeball – a genius modular fold using 2 bits of paper that interlock at the hinge, forming a rather lovely clasp at the front. Continue reading
I try to mark the passing of Hiroshima Day August 6 with respect and effort.
Having folded the traditional 1000 cranes twice in my life (oddly, the second time my cranes were “borrowed” by a then campaigning year 11 for a community project where he received the credit and was subsequently elected School Captain … but I digress) so thought it time to try something new. Continue reading
After some fiddling, and diagramming (hopefully for the Sydney Folders Convention book) I am happy with the component parts of this original model:
The sock and buskin are two ancient symbols of comedy and tragedy. In Greek theatre, actors in tragic roles wore a boot called a buskin (Latin cothurnus) that elevated them above the other actors. The actors with comedic roles only wore a thin soled shoe called a sock (Latin soccus).
Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, is often depicted holding the tragic mask and wearing buskins. Thalia, the muse of comedy, is similarly associated with the mask of comedy and comic’s socks. Some people refer to the masks themselves as “Sock and Buskin”.
Inspired by face work on Eric Joisel’s Dwarf series, a single piece of paper becomes BOTH comedy and Tragedy – happy with the result.
Have a try with my diagrams: http://www.wonko.info/365origami/wp-content/uploads/SockAndBuskin-PeterWhitehouse_2.pdf
