Having recently realised I had forgotten to re-subscribe to JOAS, I hurriedly did so then went on holidays, fully expecting the back-issues of Tanteidan to not arrive for weeks:
Due to the miracles of Australia post (or was that Japanese post and a courier?) they arrived while I was away, fortunately kept dry in my mailbox. Continue reading
So when invigilating, you cannot mark or do anything that productively uses the time, so sometimes I choose a simple but repetitive fold that I can do without looking anywhere but in the direction of students being examined:
This is Michal Kosmulski’s “Oxi” module – an interesting variation of Tom Hull’s “Phiz” unit. Continue reading
Looking for today’s fold, I returned to a collection of bookmarked models from my growing collection of Tanteidan magazines:
Made of 4 tetrahedral modules, each with deep tabs along a pair of adjacent sides, you then fold a pair of interlocking preliminary bases as the core. Continue reading
Topologically convoluted geometric modulars confuse the brain – shapes that morph into different shapes in stable but seemingly unpredictable ways are fascinating:
This is a wedge-flex – a modular hinged construction of a series of triangular prisms (wedges) that fold, bend, twist and re-align in interesting configurations. Continue reading
The toe bone’s connected to the foot bone,
The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone,
The ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!:
The leg bone’s connected to the knee bone,
The knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone,
The thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones! Continue reading
Leafing through the Tanteidan Convention book #5, I came across an early Dragon design by Takashi Hojyo:
This model is a modular – 3 parts (head/tail, body/legs and lovely wings) made from the same sized square, it needs glue (shhhh, I used a couple of nubs of double-sided tape) to keep it together but has a comic-like charm. Continue reading
Busy times indeed – perfect for folding a 12 piece modular:
Fairly simple modules that sit over one, inside another adjacent module, locking fairly positively into swirls of 4 “petals”, you get a shape that describes a cube when you look just at the points. Continue reading
Sometimes you need to fold a modular, and sometimes that modular really needs to be a 12 part construction:
This is “Cube from Thrids” designed by Tung Ken Lim, a simple windowed cube that works well with a 3-colour scheme. Continue reading
Searching for daily folds, O came across an interesting 6 part modular cube that has much development potential:
each face features a colour changed heart but I imagine that with a little inventiveness you could fashion diamonds, spades etc, or other things as the basic module solves the problem of liberating colour-changed flaps rather nicely. Continue reading
Sometimes a simple crease pattern leads to some interesting emergent geometry:
This is Charles Santee’s “Star Block”, a 2 part modular that I found when trolling among Origami USA’s “The Fold” issue #22. Continue reading
The internet is an amazing thing, it affords connections between mortals and luminaries in the field:
I noticed Sara Adams (a living legend in the Origami World) was asking for test folders to test diagrams she was drawing and I immediately put my hand up. Continue reading
Tomoko Fuse is a living legend in the Origami Community, her designs are numerous, intricate, ingenious and challenging to fold:
This is a 12 part modular with double-locks, frilly bits and framed holes in each face. Continue reading
Looking around for a chess board in origami was fun, there seem to be a few out there, including a few that use only 1 sheet of paper and a million creases to perform the necessary colour changes for the squares:
I discovered I could not source paper large enough to make a playable chess board, so looked for alternatives and stumbled across Joseph Wu’s modular chessboard. Continue reading
I am always on the lookout for a striking modular to fold when I am idle at work. This beauty – two tetrahedrons mating, was an obvious choice:
I have folded much more complicated versions of things like this – made with lots of little pieces each having different angle connectors. Ilan Garibi appropriates Francis Ow’s 60 degree unit and adds 2 different connector slots mid way along each long unit – a bottom edge slit and a top edge slit. These then mate seamlessly making it look like a pair of struts are in fact 4 bits of paper when they are not. The intersection of the 2 mating tetrahedrons is an octahedron; points rise from the octahedron faces making it stellated – genius. Continue reading
On the the pleasures (there are many) of visiting Japan at the moment is the onset of spring, and the flowering of cherry blossom trees:
I remember vividly the glorious show, in colours from deep red to white/lemon, trees around Kyoto and Miyajima being particularly lovely. Continue reading
