Looking for a rose-based box for a gift, I came across Tadashi Mori’s tutorial for this fold:
Made of “curler” units, the rose-like structure on top of the box required 4 squares. The box lid also requires 4 squares, the base also – 12 squares all up.
Continue readingCruising around on Fakebook, as you do, I came across a module that seemed really familiar. I am sure I have seen it elsewhere, but am not able to find it (I think it is a Bascetta variant?):
I decided to give it a whirl – nice and simple, and quick to fold, it locks nicely with a positive paper tension keeping groups of 3 together, then you group the 3-unit points into clusters of 5 and you get a nice positive curvature. Using other combinations I can imagine zero curvature (6 modules) and negative curvature (7 modules) … hence a torus is possible?.
Continue readingI have the honour and privilege of being asked to help edit a new origami book by Tetsuya Gotani. The first diagram I did was of this beautiful Styracosaurus:
I started with a 60cm square of patterned Kraft, and after a bunch of collapses to make a bewildering collection of isolated points.
Continue readingI love a good modular, and this little charmer uses a module not completely unlike “the little turtle” combined to form a rather lovely cube-like thing:
I decided to use wood-grain paper, and the result looks like the work of a woodie with way more time on their hands than is healthy.
Continue readingResearching tessellations, I stumbled across a paper, written by Helena Verrill (Queens University, Kingston, Canada) that generally introduced the concept and looked at a number of common tiling patterns, but the first CP is one I had not seen before:
I did a small tester and loved (fluked) the collapse, and decided to scale up to a full A3 sheet, starting with a square grid. Then nested adjacent squares are layed in on diagonals to provide odd inverse hinges.
I am quite happy with this, and if more ambitious, I would fold it much smaller on a larger sheet – it would make amazing dragon skin.
Continue readingI have seen amazing geometric models based on Heinz Strobl’s strip-based modular technique called “Snapology”, and thought it about time I gave it a try:
Starting simple, I divided A4 sheets lengthwise into eighths, then gridded squares on those strips. I used grey for the core, 6×1 strips were cut for each triangular core. I used red for the connectors – 4×1 strips were cut for these.
The locking mechanism is simple, and in situations where the modules are tightly packed it just sort of holds itself together, but I can see how, with small extensions to the connectors you could easily and securely lock adjacent modules more securely. Continue reading
The international origami community recently learned of the death of Frances Ow:
Francis was an active and beloved member of the Singapore Origami group, and sadly I never had the privilege of meeting him in the real world. But, via the magic that is the Internet I have been personally encouraged and supported by him over both of my recent 365 challenges. You can try this Tsuru Wreath for yourself – one of many designs he shared freely. Continue reading
At the risk of a family intervention, I present to you my first fold of Yoo Tae Yong’s “truck mixer” from the origami book “Origami Pro 3 – Machinery Origami” from a group of members of the Korean Origami Association:
From a square, via a very useful base, we arrive at what eventually looks mechanical but up until you begin squaring things up could also be an animal. This furthers my theory that heavy machinery is the living embodiment of once-thought extinct dinosaurs. More work to be done here. Continue reading
I am always on the lookout for interesting folds, this one was shared on a fakebook group as a photsequence on Flickr:
A fun folding technique, and a fascinating fractal pattern gradually converges towards the centre of the original octagon. Continue reading
When looking for a simple fold, one’s attention naturally falls on a torturous corrugation-based model that takes an age to fold (not):
This is Maarten Van Gelder Caterpillar – an exhaustive corrugation executed on an 8×1 rectangle (although I think it would be more effective on even longer paper). Continue reading
Life is a delicate balance, kind of like being on a tightrope way above the ground in the bigtop. Balance is important, lots of things effect balance:
Work, life, play, people, things that all take their toll on our balance, and we all struggle to walk the line sometimes, tipping this way and that as various forces pull at us. Continue reading
I gotta learn to be more careful, the previous post (which I removed the number from) turned out to be a refold from my first 365 (years ago) that I had forgotten about (I got the fold sequence from somewhere else and did not twig to the duplication … so sue me 😛 ) Fortunately a follower pointed this out:
This is Jun Maewawa’s “Peacock 1” – a lovely exercise in Miura Ori corrugation folding for the tail and some interesting layer management to form legs and head among it. Continue reading
Insects seem to be a fascination among origami designers – at the height of “bug wars” when designers were competing for the most intricate designs that were complex, had lots of legs, were thin and realistic renderings and really pushed the boundaries of existing techniques:
This astonishing model starts as a frog base. Through a torturous set of point isolation and narrowing, we get the impossibly thin legs and a lovely set of antennae. Halve this, now fold that in half, then do a double rabbit ear, now halve that … thank goodness for thiiiiin paper and accurate folding. Continue reading
Time is scarce but this was folded while kids were doing a really hard test, figured I should try something hard also:
This is a level 6 fractal fold of the previously folded Shuzo Fujimoto Hydrangea, and a beauty to behold. Continue reading
A Masu (or box) was traditionally square and used to measure rice in Japanese kitchens. These days, masu are typically used to sip Sake out of:
Having mastered David Brill’s Square Masu, I thought it time to try the pentagonal one. Apparently the pentagonal masu exists only in Origami circles – this makes sense as the woodworking skill necessary to make this in timber breaks my brain.
Page division into 6ths (to allow overlap/join) then gentle faceting and a magic corner hinge joint results in a lovely 3d shape that feels like it has volume.
I used thickish paper and found some of the internal collapses tough work to make them behave and sit tidily but overall it is a fin fold because you really have to think through how it works before trying the collapse.
