Curved creases seem to do interesting things to stiff paper.
Paper tension that has been tortured by curved folds tends to force planes into curves and distorts geometry in interesting ways.
I had a huge offcut of Canson watercolour paper and decided to try Thoki Yenn and Josef Albers “Before The Big Bang” – an odd collection of concentric creases, alternating mountain and valleys. Continue reading
I liked this modular when I first saw it and knew that it would look wonderful in colour:
An interesting elbow bend, tubular construction and odd folding in fifths make this model interesting to make
You start with a split A4 page, box pleat and lock the tube, then slide one inside the other to make a rectangular hoopy thing, then nest another inside that one, then lock a third over the top of that one and you end up with a lovely sort of impossible looking shape
I like this a lot, the illusion of intersecting shapes in well designed and although a little time consuming it is satisfying and a keeper I think.
Talk about “life, the universe and everything”, this model is an intriguing exercise in pre-folding:
Organised ridges, counter folds of diagonals and the model seemed to curl in on itself in a magical sort of way. Interestingly it is composed of 42 base pairs – I wonder if that is a coincidence?
Folded from an A4 page, strangely, the resultant model is huge (as the reference stage suggests, but is has an inherent strength and rigidity that I found surprising.
You can try this one for yourself: http://erikdemaine.org/thok/dna41.html
