geometry

355: Robin Star

| wonko

I was trolling fakebook and came across a lovely video posted by noted origamist Jo Nakashima:

Designed by Maria Sinayskaya, this simple but beautiful wreath modular is a keeper – make it out of coloured wrapping paper, small, and it is a lovely tree decoration.

I like this a lot – a good solution to a “what the flooping heck am I going to fold today” situation. Folded in 8 parts, you should have a go at this.

Nearing the end – 10 more to go until this challenge ends – wooo!

Want this? BID for it NOW.

346: Urchin Star

| wonko

The “monthly modular” is something that would be suitable for hanging on a christmas tree that YOU could make along with me:

This is an Urchin Star, designed by Martin Sejer Andersen with the folding sequence videoed by Jo Nakashima here. I have made a cutting pattern that requires you to print it out on A4 paper twice – you can download that here: print-me-twice.

You need 30 modules, but they are easy to fold, taking no time each once you get into the zone, and they slot together really easily (certainly the easiest assembly of ALL my modulars so far) – even with fat, clumsy fingers like mine.

You should make these – they are lovely – if you use paper coloured on one side, the tips of the star are white, which is pretty also. Wrapping paper would work well – some of the thicker foil-based paper would work well indeed (not that thin plasticised stuff tho, it does not take folds at all)

Have fun with this – totally try it and post your result as a photo on facebook for me to see how it went please.

343: Squid

| wonko

Cephalopods are a tricky subject in Origami, this is a figurative squid by Jun Maekawa:

Having eaten and cooked squid on a number of occasions, the basic body morpholoigy is right, the yummy bits are all there.

A nice set of bilaterally symmetrical pleats, a fun collapse and a 3d re-shaping makes an entirely recognisable squiddy.

There are a bunch of Maekawa’s models that I would like to try – he/she (sorry, not sure) has an original approach to the square and the models have a unique character

326: Rough End First

| wonko

All too often we feel like we are dealt the “rough end” of the pineapple:

It is a curious expression that, I think at least, has something to do with inserting said pineapple in a pineapple-unfriendly place (makes my eyes water just thinking about it).

This is a pleated structure designed by David Petty and it contains techniques I will use elsewhere.

You can see the pineapple-like structure (squint, close one eye, through a mirror) … yeah, there it is and this design is meant to be folded with duo coloured paper, as the top would then be a different colour to the bottom – neat.

I have seen much larger paper sculptures using this “stretched pleated rib” technique and now I know how they were made, which is a good thing.

Paper and folding is taking up waaaay too much of my life right now – have other things I HAVE to do but will somehow muddle through,

325: 3 of 11 Dimensions – XYZ

| wonko

Now in my understanding, life/existence as I know it exists in 4 dimensions (X, Y, Z and Time):

I am trying to understand physics, it does my head in when they talk of strings and the need for 11 dimensions to make sense of them.

Busy day, a modular to bridge the gap. This nice little modular by David Petty.

Happy with this as a first fold. Other things in the pipelines.

315: Lest We Forget

| wonko

Today was “Remembrance Day”, at 11 am on the 11th of the 11th, 2011 the nation stops to give thanks and praise to the fallen soldiers from all world wars:

This is Frances Ow’s “Star Medal” – a lovely paper decoration (made even lovelier by making it in metallic paper) that I thought was fitting as a tribute to the day and also to distribute to a bunch of WWI ‘Aces’ who meet semi-regularly to play an old school board game with vigor and passion.

The gold medal was awarded to the “ballsy-est” move in the game – a near suicidal strafe on enemy base, the rest of us got bronze. In retrospect I should have folded one in purple, or better still folded a “purple heart” as one of the pilots was severely under the weather. Made from a 2×1 rectangle, based on a hexagon, the collapse is elegant and pleasing, a masterful design.

I originally folded this a while back, holding off until today to publish (so sue me)

Celtic Cross Revisited

| wonko

When I first folded Tadashi Mori’s Celtic Cross I knew it would come in handy, being that it is a part of the symbology of my College:

My year 12s (well, I call them mine, they were the leaders in my tutor Group – a lovely bunch of chaps) had their last day of classes today so I thought it a good idea to mark the occasion with cards – naturally they would feature origami.

Hope they liked them.

308: Carmen Sprung’s Kantenmodule

| wonko

I saw this modular and decided I wanted to try it:

Having no idea of scale, I initially used coloured squares cut from A4, but got the colour count wrong – notiing it was in 6 groups of 5, I mistakenly got 5 pages  each of 6 colours – dang.

I think the scale was a bit out – this thing turned out enormous – lovely but enormous. It is really strong, structurally – the multiple triangular cross section modules interlock really solidly and make for a nice shaped ball.

I toyed with the idea of doing this over a couple of days, but in the end I got really fast at folding the modules, and the construction process was really fast also – although it was a little tricksey ensuring the colours were distributed evenly.

Very happy with this model – it looks lovely and takes quite a striking photo also.

291: Hexagonal Prism

| wonko

John Montroll is a design genius:

In his book “A Plethora of Polyhedra” he explores the complexities of single sheet 3d-shapes, and this rather splendid prism caught my eye as something I wanted to try.

I like how the pre-folding teases of open edges up and inside the finished shape which locks itself – very clever Mr Montroll

There are some eye-poppingly complex polyhedra in this book, I shall be trying some more I think.

288: Happy Birthday Gemma

| wonko

A friend turns 40 tonight, and quite likes roses, so I thought a paper construction might compliment the rose bush we were taking as a suitable milestone:

Made from 40 pieces of paper, this is a variation of Maria Sinayskaya’s “Little Roses” kusudama (rose ball), a curious construction that features triplets of lightly bent petals that interlock in threes, making pentagonal vertices – the maths here does my head in.

Was lovely to catch up, Happy Birthday Gemma, and happy house-warming Mark, Gem, Jake and Kit.

287: Fuse Box (Small Flowers)

| wonko

Tomoko Fuse is a genius in designing intricate boxes:

this is called “Small Flowers” because of an incidental pattern the overlapping edges make, sort of looks like aflower. I made it in colour only because a monochrome version would not have been remarkable.

The lid and the base are each comprised of 4 pieces of paper, an interlocking modular that is fairly rigid and would make a nice stocking case or filled with some sweet treat.

Why a “Fuse Box”? Well, Energex had a transformer on the street go pop and our school spent the day without power – all interesting. I thought a paper play on words might be fun.

286: Spiral Star

| wonko

I saw a video of this interesting structure and decided I should give it a whirl:

It is Tadahi Mori’s “Spiral Star” – a lovely fiddly modular using 6 bits of paper that interlock to form a 12 pointed star with lovely spirals near the centre.

If this was not so fiddly, it would make a nice decoration for a festive tree I guess, but even with A4-cut squares it was dense and tricksey.

Quite happy with this as a first fold and, yes, I know I have done my monthly modular but … meh, it interested me so there you go.

280: Infinity Cubed

| wonko

Now I got thinking about infinity, as you do, and that I could beat it by cubing it, then a modular idea struck – make an infinity out of cubes:

So I began collecting business cards – white on the back, and performed 2 simple bends (and ONLY 2) per card – then explored ways of linking them together securely using techniques I had previously discovered.

This sort of construction eats up a LOT of cards – 426 in this construction – each cube side has an inner and outer skin card, making it finished, white, smooth and lovely. This thing is HUGE, surdy and really rigid.

This took a bit of thinking out, I started it on Tuesday and, bit by bit, it coalesced into something wonderful and profoundly beautiful (well, I think it is) – such a nice intervention between old discarded business cards and the landfill they will eventually become.

278: Passing Notes

| wonko

Now those who know me realise 2 things – I love music but I cannot read those little black dots on the lines for nuts:

It was doubly problematic when I was in a choir as all those around me were able to sight-read and I … sort of … faked it (I have good pitch and developed a skill of singing along).

It was/is a frustration that is heightened when I am confused, tired, stressed and … well … pretty well all the time really.

This model, designed by Jeremy Shaffer is a neat little cluster of notes and is very tidy, considering it came from a square there is lots of tough hiding of paper inside to make a polished model.

WHY fold this? Well, today JJJ released a new radio station – “Unearthed” that promises to give a whole bunch of unsigned bands a place for their music to be broadcast – this is a wonderful thing IWHO.

276: Nautilus

| wonko

Tomoko Fuse is undeniably a genius, her work with exacting spiral forms unequalled:

This is her “Nautilus”, a lovely recursive form that, after the pre-creasing, almost folds itself.

Elegant and graceful curve, perfectly planned pleats and a tidy shell end make this model a keeper for sheer geometric beauty alone.

I want to pretend that I go tthis first try – truth is I folded a set of folds wrong way round first go (bloody Japanese instructions), but restarted because I wanted to make the model (so sue me)

Will be folding this again – would love to fold this in large format, will see how I go. really happy with this – who said geometric sequences were not beautiful (it is just mathematicians that wring the joy out of them :P)