My second experiment in radial perpendicular pleating was based on a 30cm square of crispy Kraft paper, a regular 32 grid and a random number sequence:
I decided it would be interesting to see what happens when you use random numbers to control the collapse sequence for a micropleat corrugation based on a regular 32 grid of mountain folds. I typed “100 random numbers between 1 and 3” in google and blow me down but there was a website for that: https://numbergenerator.org/100randomnumbersbetween1and3
Each time you open that you get a new sequence. Mine was “3 2 3 1 2 3 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 3 3 3 2 1 1 3 2 3 1 1 1 3 3 1 1 3 1 1 2 1 2 3 3 1 2 3 3 1 3 1 2 1 3 2 2 1 2 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 1 3 3 3 2 3 1 2 1 1 3 1 3 1 3 2 3 1 3 1 2”.
Starting on the pleat just down from the centre line (in retrospect I wish I had started with the centre line, but… meh), I used the first 3 mountains and laid in micropleats (partial 128ths) across the sheet as uniformly as my fat clumsy, nerve damaged fingers would let me. I then rotated the paper 90 degrees clockwise, crossed out the first number and used the second number to determine how many cross-sheet micropleats to lay in. Rinse and repeat to the edge of the sheet.
Although time consuming and exacting, the process was meditative and purposeful – because I had this random sequence “bible” controlling the process it felt like I was on a journey, each turn let the afternoon light play beautifully on the growing texture – a texture that was regular (ish) but also seriously not regular.
The result is another COMPLEAT – a self-locking pleated sculptural object that is gorgeous to look at. Because all my micropleats were on the same side, the structure is increasingly concave – as the paper recovers from the savage creasing and “relaxes” out to the locking pleats, it becomes more vessel-like, more volumetric as the shadows deepen.
I love the unpredictability of this technique – I think I need to mix it up even more, flipping sides, direction of rotation and see what happens – it is fun to “fuck around and find out”