A3

943: Dragon Heart Tessellation

| wonko

Researching 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:

dragon heart

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.

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942: Triangle Waterbomb Tessellation

| wonko

One of the interesting things about being associated with “Pinterest” is that their algorithms continually look for stuff it thinks will interest you. Given I only browse Origami, I get some interesting leads. I saw a triangle-based tessellation/corrugation and did a little digging:

triangle waterbomb tessellation

Seems Ron Resch, in the early 1970’s, was heavily into paper-based corrugation and this design emerged around then. The basis of this fold is 2 triangle grids, one at twice the scale of the other, offset at 30 degrees to the other. It took me a couple of failed attempts to get the crease layout to work but in retrospect is is much simpler than it seems.

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785: (235/365) Pentagonal Masu

| wonko

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.

721: (171/365) Kythera Dreaming

| wonko

A colleague recently spent an extended time back home on Kythera, a lovely island in Greece:

Returning to work is never easy after such time away, but I can feel and understand her longing to return. This shell is meant to evoke dream memories of Kythera. Continue reading →

703: (153/365) Square Twist Tessellation

| wonko

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 →

550: Multi-Stage Clover Tessellation

| wonko

This torturous little bugger of a tessellation seemed to eat paper like nothing else:550multistageclover

Shuzo Fujimoto’s design of a clover-like tessellation that spreads from a central point is an interesting exercise in layer rearrangement, resulting in a lovely eye-popping pyramid-like structure that has dimensionality. The resultant folded form is much less than a 1/4 the size of the original sheet and is very dense in places and is naturally concave on the underside. Continue reading →

546: Château Chinon Tessellation

| wonko

Another time sponge, based on a square grid initially that was torturous to fold and pre-crease. Based on Eric Gjerde’s tessellation molecule, it is an amazing use of paper that features largely an “all at once” collapse.546ChateauChinon

Many tessellations sit flat while you do them, their interim stages are still flat – not this mongrel. Once you start, you gotta finish and then work out how to flatten – interesting but not very portable in the end. Continue reading →

545: Stacked Triangles Tessellation

| wonko

I spend a lot of time waiting for students to ask for assistance during practical assignment lessons. This  is a good thing – if they do not ask and are skilled enough to work independently then I have done the right thing, so it is all grist for the mill. (When kids need help but do nothing about it is much less good, but again a choice the student makes):545StackedTriangles

This is my first attempt (and probably last) at Eric Gjerde’s “Stacked Triangles” tessellation, based on a triangle grid that had a 6mm spacing. Continue reading →

538: Sock and Buskin

| wonko

After some fiddling, and diagramming (hopefully for the Sydney Folders Convention book) I am happy with the component parts of this original model:SockAndBuskin

The sock and buskin are two ancient symbols of comedy and tragedy. In Greek theatre, actors in tragic roles wore a boot called a buskin (Latin cothurnus) that elevated them above the other actors. The actors with comedic roles only wore a thin soled shoe called a sock (Latin soccus).

Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, is often depicted holding the tragic mask and wearing buskins. Thalia, the muse of comedy, is similarly associated with the mask of comedy and comic’s socks. Some people refer to the masks themselves as “Sock and Buskin”.

Inspired by face work on Eric Joisel’s Dwarf series, a single piece of paper becomes BOTH comedy and Tragedy – happy with the result.

Have a try with my diagrams: http://www.wonko.info/365origami/wp-content/uploads/SockAndBuskin-PeterWhitehouse_2.pdf

Comedy – Tragedy

| wonko

Doodling with a single uncut A3 sheet, I managed to fold something approaching both masks of the Drama “Comedy and Tragedy” thingimage

Using a Joisel-like face thing twice, I think this model has potential as it uses one piece of paper to realise the whole enchilada. Continue reading →

534: Friday

| wonko

Continuing my exploration of some of Eric Gjerde’s introductory tessellations, I liked the look of a square-twist based weave:534Weave

Sitting on a square grid, off-set squares are added to near diagonals and twist to collapse and lay flat again. The front side then is a jumble of rolling squares but when you flip it over to the waste side a lovely weave pattern has been made as a side effect of the surface twisting. Continue reading →

533: Gjerde’s Pinwheel Tessellation

| wonko

After leafing through Eric Gjerde’s “Origami Tessellations” I knew I had found the motherload of paper punishment:Tessellation6

This is the “Pinwheel” tessellation and it has a hidden beauty. I am learning that a tessellation is a regular repeating pattern, magically interlocking “molecules” that go together like tiles on a mosaic floor.

Usually based on a grid (at least initially), this one is based on a triangle grid, and features closed hexagon twists and open triangle twists that compliment each others vertices very neatly. Backlit they reveal an intense and curious but often completely different geometry. Continue reading →

Segway V2

| wonko

I was recently asked how I folded my Segway model because someone wanted one. I was loathed to part with my original and to be honest I had no idea, I just folded it, so decided to revisit the model (which seems unique in the origami community) and see if it can be methodologised:SegwayV2

Originally I folded in 32nds, but decided in re-working the model 24ths work better, and are easy folding once you have thirds. The balance was always consuming enough paper for the body to leave enough for the control stalk which splits at the top. My original cheated because the proportions were off ( so I sneakily cut a strip off to shorten it) but on 24ths, it just works. Continue reading →

441: Ballerina Kit

| wonko

Most parents know little girls go through the “I want to be a Ballerina” stage:

This is a wonderful thing; dance, culture, beauty and movement are all things that make our lives richer. Few go on to be professional ballet dancers (more’s the pity, few fit the fragile stick-insect archetype) but learning dance improves coordination, flexibility and overall fitness.

A lovely little lady called Kit has started ballet – she is gorgeous and will be fabulous, so thought it appropriate to celebrate by designing an original model inspired by the work of Stephen Weiss (girl in a dress) and Claudio Acuna (hoodie) that captures the special elegance of a child and her first tutu.

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