I was playing with a modular technique that uses 6 business cards, some simple bends that create a stable modular cube:
You can then either link these cubes in any direction or “face” the sides with an additional set of 6 cards. I made these during a conference session that talked about creativity – I thought I should walk the walk.
I must consider a larger structure using this technique – a little like minecraft-style building but with paper.
Now I am a little bit merry after the QSITE drinks mid way through their annual conference:
So decided to give some pleating a go to form a martini glass – the principle is based on a technique designed by Stephen Hecht and involves exhaustive pre-creasing followed by an elegant twist/collapse
The resultant sculptural form is lovely – the scale I calculated also makes it life-size and convincingly a martini glass.
QSITE Peeps are off to the conference dinner tonight – I raise my glass to a bunch of talented and enthusiastic colleagues. I hope they have fun.
Very happy with this as a first fold, it is based on a similar technique I used to invent a trophy for my son with the only really tricksey part determining scale. Satisfied with this one however. hope you like it too (lol, kidding myself that people are actually reading this shite).
Anyone who knows me realizes the terror I experience when visiting the dentist:
Don’t get me wrong, our dentist is awesome, and very aware that I have an irrational fear that I cannot control when being worked on.
A red frog (chewy lolly) was the latest culprit, taking away most of a huge filling on one of my molars so today I face a molar re-build and thought origami teeth – there’s an idea.
This delightful model is a compact little box pleating exercise designed by Robin Glynn. When folded from an A4 cut square they turn out essentially lifesize, although they have much fewer teeth than a real set, they are demonstrative of form and look a lot like those chattering teeth wind-up toys sold in joke shops.
Quite happy with this as a first fold.
Now most who know me know that I am up for a challenge and when I saw this one I knew I had to give it a go:
90 pieces of paper (60 small and 30 long) individually folded and locked together, no glue make an astonishing lump of awesomeness:
This has taken me AGES – folded over a the course of last week, the last two prisms were added today and we have this lovely thing. Designed by Daniel Kwan, based in part of a Francis Ow unit, the angles necessary to make a pentagon are tricksey.
The tab and pocket construction technique is, in theory, really simple but when the model has 3 simultaneous tabs (for any vertex) keeping them all in before locking them was really fiddly and resulted in much swearing. As the model got more and more crowded the problems increased to the point where I nearly gave up, having mangled a set of tabs so badly they were not going to insert, requiring a refold.
Very satisfying to finally finish – there is a lovely symmetry with this model – pentagonal swirls framed by pentagons. I think my term 3 modular is cool – hope you like it also.
Want to make it? Download my intersectingPentagularPrismsPattern and print it on an A3 page, cut out the shapes and get bending – tab A goes into slot B etc. Originally this was designed to be made from STARBURST lolly wrappers but I scaled them up to be double that to make it easier. Achievable with copy paper, probably much easier with a different colour for each prism in retrospect.
For me, September 11 2001 was the day the world lost it, in a big way. Senseless acts of violence were met with years of senselessly violent retaliation and witch-hunts, government sanctioned genocide and publicly celebrated religious fanaticism. There were no winners – we as a species did little to justify our position atop the food chain:
A symbol of peace in the origami community is the crane, there is a branch of the craft that looks to incorporate cranes into other models. this intricate and often torturous craft can result in some stunningly complicated folding – this one by Jeremy Shafer is called “The Star of Peace”.
Using a technique termed “isolating squares”, you reserve unfolded squares and crumple all else out of the way and in this care we end up with a 3d star with a ring of 4 cranes flying around the top layer. The container is waterproof (like a fancy waterbomb).
I fold this with mixed emotions – the media has so skewed the events leading up to and after 9/11 that it leaves me with an even stronger resolve against war, military action and religion … you get that. I live in hope that the human spirit continues to emerge from the morass, looking for ways to help, positive actions that build the dignity of people and erase the artificial barriers of race, creed and sect.
Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try
No people below us, above it’s only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for todayImagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do
No need to kill or die for and no religions too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peaceYou may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as oneImagine no possessions I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger a brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing for the worldYou may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as oneYou may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
Take my hand and join us
And the world will live, will live as one
John Lennon, “Imagine”.
I liked this modular when I first saw it and knew that it would look wonderful in colour:
An interesting elbow bend, tubular construction and odd folding in fifths make this model interesting to make
You start with a split A4 page, box pleat and lock the tube, then slide one inside the other to make a rectangular hoopy thing, then nest another inside that one, then lock a third over the top of that one and you end up with a lovely sort of impossible looking shape
I like this a lot, the illusion of intersecting shapes in well designed and although a little time consuming it is satisfying and a keeper I think.
Now in my quest to fold 365 models, one a day for a whole year, it seems like I have been doing this forever already. Not having an infinite amount of time, I thought I wold fold an INFINITY in paper:
this is a rather ingenious pair of interlocking rings, the whole of which (hole … a ring joke there, lol) was folded from a single square, no cuts, no glue.
This ingenious fold is from Jeremy Shafers book “Origami to Astonish and Amuse” and is the first step towards achieving a snarly fold that features EIGHT rings (again, from ONE piece of paper)
A lovely accordion fold and some tidy end pleating and presto, an infinity symbol which I think is splendid. Even the wife did not believe it was only one sheet until I unfolded it and proved it was.
Now I found a collection of spirals and boxes by paper legend Tomoko Fuse, and the snail looked hoopy, so I decided to fold it:
A relatively simple fold, with an elegant curved pleat forms the shell and a simple shape for the foot topped off with lovely eye stalks.
If I was to fold this again I would use less symmetrical pleats, so the creases get closer together as the shell gets smaller, still it is a lovely bit of geometry.
Was puzzling what to do as today’s fold, glad I chose this.
My Monthly Modular is a fab use of equilateral triangles that work in clusters of 4 or 5 to make interesting spheroids:
Eight of the modules make a “Jitterbug” – a curious structure that twists into a cube.
Thirty of the modules clustered in fives make a soccer ball (er, sorry, an Icosadodecahedron) which is a lovely thing to behold. (oops, sorry, a icosidodecahedron)
A relatively simple construction, quite quick also and also fairly rigid given how the parts interlock and self-tighten. You can have a go at this yourself here
Now I am not an experienced modular folder, but this is relatively new to me and yee gods it is interesting. Having Parent-torture interviews tonight I got home in time to do the final assembly for this little beauty:
Designed by Jorge Pardo, it takes 60 – yes children, that is right SIXTY squares of paper in delicious and bendy ways.
Each module is fairly easy (if a little fiddly) to make, coupling them takes nimble fingers and a bone folder to lock the layers – bunches of 5 make stars of a spoke, each spoke unit connects to each adjacent one via 2 arms, it more or less forms itself.
This has taken me ages, literally hours – over the last few days inbetween other models but it is hoopy. My FIRST FOLDS were white, but I decided a while into the model that it had to be done in colour, using small Washi paper squares provided by Mary Cassidy made the job easy (thanks Mrs Cass!).
You may applaud now.
This week is Catholic Education Week – now I am not a Catholic, nor ever religious but I know that at my place of work there are a number of important ecumenical symbols – one of which is a Celtic Cross:
This model takes a preliminary base and distorts it in interesting ways – designed by Tadashi Mori it is an interesting geometric form that has its roots in ancient UK cultures.
Our school has one in it’s quadrangle, and our school crest has one as well – appropriate symbology I thought.
When I was a kid, an old black and white telly series from Japan called “Samurai” captured my attention – corny stories of good guys in white versus ninjas in black:
They threw star knives as one of their many skills (jumping, film reverse, back up into corners roof corners was another). A year 6 student brought me a ninja star he had made for him (mum or dad folded it) after I inquired if he could teach me.
After a small amount of deconstruction, the elegantly simple construction was evident – strength and simplicity in what looks like an intricate machine. I liked it so much I made a coloured one, using some lovely little washi squares Mary bought for me (love your work Cass’)
Happy with this, particularly as the star moves upon itself and the “blades” retract into a lovely octagonal ring – very clever
Apparently, according to JJJ at least, it is LOVE WEEK – awwwww
So I folded Frances Ow’s winged Heart (partly because it is late, I am tired and sometimes a simple fold is ok – ok?
An effective fold, in duo paper the heart is one colour and the wings are another – nice.
Now I like a good challenge, but this was a little beyond the pale:
I have seen photos of this model less than half as big and I am buggered if I can work out how you could fold it that small as I struggled at this scale.
A fascinating exercise in box pleating that makes the peggy things and the pitty things on the same surface of a page, then bending it into a self-locking box – wow!
I can see how this could scale infinitely, adding rows of pegs and pits but I am glad I chose only 2 of each as this alone took me an age to nut out – I had a practice with each component first (the site I found it suggested this was a good idea (well, at least I think it did, I cannot read Italian very well.
Why lego? Well, I have been playing with lego robots for a week or so in prep for a robotic unit with year 10 students – lots of fun.
You should have a go at this yourself here
…so I was bugged that as tiny little triangles, in white, I found it impossible to complete the 5 intersecting shape thing, so I went to the school copy room and asked for some colourful Copy paper – A4.
I got 5 strong colours, cut squares, made them into thirds, total of 6 strips per tetrahedra, 5 tetrahedra – total of 30 bits of paper, 1-2 minutes to fold each unit, 3-5 minutes each to place and lock into surrounding units and it is done.
I find this shape fascinating, and the order of the pattern was only evident after I had completed it – from simple shapes, great complexity and beauty can arise.
