Speaking of fractals, as I was (well, kinda sorta) I realised I had never tried the Fujimoto Hydrangea fold before:
This is an interesting thing, with each iteration folded inside the previous – in theory you can keep folding this infinitely. In reality the tryanny of paper thickness and fat clumsy fingers stops you. Continue reading
Browsing a MiniNeo eZine that I follow, I noticed a rather interesting looking hexagonal flower and thought it worth a try:
You triangle grid a hexagon into 16ths, then put a hex twist in the middle, then add the swing-back on petals and tidy up the tessellation to make a swirl. Continue reading
While scanning Deviantart for an entirely different reason (replying to comments on some of my works there) it’s algorithm decided I needed to see some of Cahoona’s folds and this delightful helmet was among them:
Although it does not appear that way, this CP is deceptively simple.
An offset waterbomb base and a colour change for the plume and you are nearly there. Continue reading
So I was messing with a low-grade triangle grid and what to do with it (I often fold grids to keep my eye in) and came across a rather neat geodesic hemisphere that used a section of it:
So I cut 2 the same size and proceeded to collapse – one fits inside the other and makes a rather lovely icosahedral prism box. Continue reading
I am clearly in the wrong business, if making money is the aim. Being slightly (well, I think it is healthy) obsessed with paper, when a new dealer arrives on the scene I take notice. A colleague asked if I knew of “The Paper Empire” – a new QLD outlet in Newfarm:
I had not heard about them, but visited and found some papers of interest. They are the second outlet in a franchise that has been in Melbourne for a while, and their online shop has some interesting paper products imported from Norway. Continue reading
So you take a 2×1 rectangle, fold it into 4×2 squares, then halve the squares:
Then bring one pair of adjacent corners for each square, sink the dimply corner to lock, then repeat. Continue reading
Few would argue that the Tsuru (crane) is the quintessential origami figure. Everybody starts there, the form is so familiar and the skills necessary to fold it form the backbone of so many models:
While I have tried many variations of this model, few compare to Riccardo Foschi’s “feathered Tsuru”, a glorious and complex variation with such beautiful wings. Continue reading
Reporting is a beast of a thing, particularly semester reporting where we seem to joust with nit-picking grammar on parts of a report that parents do not read. Slaying the beast is particularly satisfying:
This is Riccardo Foschi’s Baby Lizard Dragon … thing. I found the CP and a photo of the finished model and thought ‘how hard could this be?’. Continue reading
Starting with a square-twist tessellation, you add to the intensity by folding it some more:
Alternating spin squares with stars, you get this nightmare of paper torture. Continue reading
Assignment time can sometimes be boring for a teacher, especially when kids are beavering away independently:
This is a tessellation I have not tried before. Based on a square grid, diagonal squares rotate 45 degrees to lie flat again, causing pleat ripples that are cancelled out by adjacent twists – clever. Continue reading
Struggling to make it through Friday, I stumbled across Sy Chen’s Hangman:
This paper puzzle allows you to gradually reveal parts of a hangman, suitable for a table top game. Continue reading
I am so excited that there is a new Alien Movie out today – Alien Covenant. Although I would dearly love to see it right now, I will have to wait until I am less busy and tired:
Having already folded both Kade Chan‘s Xenomorph, Fernando Gilgado‘s Alien and Face-Hugger I was struggling to find something Geiger-related.
I was browsing google imaged and came across Tim Rickman’s “comic” alien and knew I needed to try it. Continue reading
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
It is a little known fact that people will believe just about anything. Tell them that a furry, egg laying, duck-billed, webbed footed, egg laying, pouch carrying mammal that lives in burrows underwater and protects itself with poisonous spines … and they believe it:
There are few things more distinctly Australian then the Ornithorhynchus (colloquially called a “Platypus”) and it seems in the origami world there are nearly none of them.
Stupid me, I did a poll on Fakebook about what I should fold to commemorate (or mourn, depending on your perspective) Australia day – today’s national holiday. Annoyingly the Platypus won hands down. Continue reading
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
