As a teacher, I look for activities, particularly in the establishment phase of a year, to engage. Nothing says engagement like a hands-on physical activity and, as my wont is origami, I went for a modular project:
The themes for this were many, the metaphors a plenty – “many hands make light work” and “the sum is greater that it’s parts” being central.
I have been exploring folded regular polyhedra, but came across this, a brilliant cut faceted diamond by Satoshi Kamiya and thought I would give it a go:
As a first fold, this is pretty sloppy to be honest – only after finishing it did the geometry I was laying down in pre-creases make sense. I have no doubt that when i re-fold this it will be much nicer.
This fold is a very clever bit of geometry, based on an octagonal piece of paper, making many facets and that classic jewellery diamond shape (this one would be a few hundret carats at that). The top face facets are locked in place by tiny closed sinks (making this very difficult I suspect to fold really small).
It is a pity there is no real locking mechanism to keep the model closed (I cheated and used a little sticky tape) – the bulk of paper does swirl in place but tends to spread when left – this might be different if made with a foil paper.
I seem to be folding a bunch of Kamiya models at the moment – prolly inspired by my latest Origami book purchase
I had a need, my brain was fried but I had to keep busy sooo…
I was given some lovely Yuzen squares (15cm) and, because the papers well all different, so colourful I decided to try to fold, from memory the Jackstone – unsure if my fat clumsy fingers could manage the fold so tiny.
I managed a dozen of them before the cramps and RSI flared up again. The resultant 6 pointed stars are so lovely, I threaded them on gold thread and gifted them to friends to put on their christmas tree (I do hope they like them).
When my hands settle down I might make some more – mind you it helps to have good paper.
The “phizz” unit designed by Tom Hull is a basic building block that can be used for many modulars:
I thought I would start manageable, so devised a 30 unit ball, 6 faces each of 5 colours – total of 30 units. These are easy folding and have a positive locking mechanism so were a good choice.
The tricksey part was to ensure an even colour balance – making sure that no face has the same colour twice. that did my head in a little, and it seemd to take me ages to come up with a construction method where I could easily predict what colour next to use.
In the end, a lovely modular – I may try for something grander, we shall see.
It took me ages to even understand what this model was:
An ingenious design by David Brill, modular in construction composed of 3 different types of modules, clustered in threes, hinged together, it is a most perplexing construction.
A seemingly plain cube opens up to show a star, which fits wholly within the cube and is removable.
Flexing the cube makes another star, flexing the star makes a plank, stellated plain and other interesting twisted geometries.
This is a keeper – paper tension keeps it in shape generally but it does not strongly lock, so I may resort to cello-tape on the joints so it can be handled without risk of it disintegrating (as it did to me twice).
The geometry is interesting, photographing it seems not to do justice to the shapes but I am glad I finally nutted it out – bravo Mr Brill.
I first noticed this lovely little fold nestled amongst the masterpiece that is Eric Joisel’s Musicians, and decided that i must try to work out how to make it:
Now the “purists” amongst you will recognise this as a “Concertina”, but that is splitting hairs, given a “Bandonéon” is square, this is clearly hexagonal, but I digress.
Presenting a tantalising hand-drawn crease pattern idea on his memorial website, I decided to try and work out a method for this fold.
Unlike the original, my design is based on a 32 x 20 grid, making an extra gather in the bellows section (which is not a bad thing) and a simpler join along the long seam (which, sadly, I still needed to use double-sided tape to close).
The geometry of this model is really nice – the bellows almost fold themselves when the creases are laid in – I experimented with the seam in and thought it looked better with the strappy seams out in the bellows.
fashioning handles at the end happens quite naturally if you have been neat, and folding it without any extra creases is possible if you concentrate, making the presentation fold very tidy indeed.
I have folded many of these, they are lovely and, now I have a handle on the scaling factors and geometry there is a knack to making them that is quite easy to pick up.
On the same hand-drawn crease pattern, there is another that supposedly makes a saxophone – might give that a whirl as I seem to be in a musical instrument frame of mind at the moment. very happy with this one however, and need to move on from it.
There are many of what i would term “legendary” folds in the origami community – few more daunting that Brian Chan’s sculptural masterpiece “Attack Of The Kraken”:
I first saw pictures of this model when trolling around the internet looking for paper challenges: one piece of paper, you bend both a masted ship and a sea monster ripping it asunder – impossible surely. Amidst the turmoil there exists tiny details also – one tentacle contains a shard of ship rigging, another grasps the terrified yet defiant Captain – look closer, is that Captain Jack?
Annoyingly there seem to be no instructions on how to fold this thing – there was, however, a crease pattern adapted from a schematic Brian Chan tantalisingly left beside a display copy of his model so I started working on that. I photo-enlarged sections of the crease pattern and repeatedly folded them until I had discovered what to fold, in what order to make that section of the model work Continue reading
Exploring an Origami Tanteidan Convention book I came upon a model designed by Peter Farina I just had to try:
Being an out and proud Harry Potter fan, I know that the golden snitch is an essential component of any game of Quidditch, this one is a beauty.
Essentially using overlaying fan-pleats, you create the wings and enough paper to tease and shape round to make the body. Initially, my test fold was done in white paper and I found I had to be very careful (copy paper is so brittle) not to tear/split it – the middle section gets really damaged. Continue reading
Our local council library has a large glass display case that usually has things on show for a month. I cautiously asked one of the librarians if she thought some origami would interest patrons and she was very enthusiastic:
There are around 200 models now on show at Holland Park Library for June and I am quite chuffed about that.
Dragging 3 large tidy-tubs of models, most of which I had left over from the 365 Origami Auction, they fill the case rather completely.
You can see models designed by me amongst designs by such luminaries as Kade Chan, Robert Lang, Eric Joisel and many others.
In addition, I was asked to run a workshop in the first week of my school holidays for interested folders (10 years old and up) – see the Holland Park Library website for details and bookings if you are interested.
The only question that begs answer is what the floop I do with these lovelies AFTER the month on show? Suggestions welcome … dear reader?
When I first saw this thing on Happy Folding I knew I was destined to try it:
This glorious modular designed by Francesco Mancini uses a unit similar to a Frances Ow 60 degree unit but in a very different way to make chevron-shaped modules that lock together to form pentagonal stars.
The tricksey part is to then nestle the stars so they are inside each other, weaving one inside and outside every other star – thank goodness I chose a different colour for each star else I have no idea how I would have managed to work out what strut went where in the construction.
I am quite chuffed (and a little relieved to be honest) with the result as I attempted to construct it 7 times before successfully working out what went where. Fully formed it is quite stable and rigid – it was everything but that during construction however making it very awkward indeed.
Lovely stellar structure suitable for display.
I saw Tadashi Mori demonstrating a Kawasaki Rose-based modular and thought I would give it a whirl:
Having failed miserably every other attempt to fold a Kawasaki Rose, I was chuffed to succeed this time.
I want to say I will fold this again – it took an age and although I was impressed with the rose, the modular attachments (tabs and pockets) did not positively hold it together (I cheated in the end and stapled them together).
Each rose is a masterpiece of box pleating prep work followed by a beautiful spiral collapse. Happy to be finished it tho.
Looking for a neat, colourful use for a batch of poor quality origami paper I had, I stumbled across a modular dimpled sphere:
The paper cracked and spilt in ugly ways, so I had a good wrestle to actually construct this. Interestingly, when complete it became quite rigid and strong but prior to the last few modules were wrangled into place, it was floppy and kept unfolding inconveniently.
The result is spherical, with lovely pentagonal dimples, with modules centred in fives, meeting in threes – lovely application of maths.
I must look for modules that differ in the basic 32 module sphere, and also for one whose modules are more positively connected. This one is, however, randomly beautiful.
You can have a try of this yourself – go here for instructions
Now I am a fan of a simple but effective modular, and this one is a lot of fun:
Modelled after a spring-slinky, designed with skill by Jo Nakashima, it stretches, falls and steps like the real thing.
Using remarkably simple modules, each from a small square, the structure begins to behave when there is sufficient mass in it to be propelled by its own momentum.
I like this model a lot – it was a fun way to while away an exam supervision and the construction method was simple. I ended up making over 50 modules before it started behaving correctly but even this feat did not take very long.
Give it a try, you know you want to…
In search of a new modular to adorn my computer lab, I stubbled across a dodecahedron that looked interesting enough:
Thirty modules later, I began to attempt to construct – after 7 different attempts and modifications I could not find a way to make the modules lock together convincingly.
Defeated, I resorted to a few well-placed pieces of sticky tape (on the inside) to keep the pentagonal faces together. Overall it is a pleasing construction (all be it a little cheaty)
I shall continue to look for modulars – there are lots of varying complexity – the geometry alone is reason to attempt them. This module constructs a 73ish degree angle which is a little big for a pentagon, causing a paper tension that naturally tries to spread the joints.
Come this time of year, we ALL engage in a sort of origami, with varying success and neatness – wrapping presents:
This is Yami Yamauchi’s “Pandora’s Box” – a devilishly clever fold that makes a beautiful cube that once folded is near impossible to un-fold.
The instructions suggest fold it part way, put something precious inside and close it up, only to watch the faces of the receiver as they try to open the gift without tearing the paper – lol.
An ingenious box folded from fifths – originally I was going to fold this in white, then remembered some rather splendid stripey wrapping paper and that solved 2 problems with the one roll really as I used the stripes to work out the proportions – 5×3 stripes = fitfhs of a decent size, hooray. There are many geometric constructions for making fifths but they often leave creases in the paper as you make them and I wanted it to be as blemish free as flimsy wrapping paper would allow.
In retrospect, it ended up being almost exactly the size of my Rubics Cube, lovely thing.
