Modular Origami

When I started folding I was hoping to do geometric shapes.  I discovered that meant making multiple identical components, in some cases as many as 30 or more. Even though the components were not complicated the idea of creating many identical ones gave me pause ...and I  moved on to single sheet designs.

Well this weekend  I revisited the component origami designs and created a  couple using  "sonobe" components. Both of these cubes are made with identical components although the final folds are subtly different. The larger cube uses 12 component pieces, the smaller 6.  The diagonal pattern of the smaller cube is more pleasing to my eye- and if i was to reassemble the larger cube I'd reverse it - at the moment the diagonals are visible inside the cube - it was an aha! moment when i realized that the hidden interior was going to mirror (more or less) the smaller cube.

Another discovery was that my color selection  is becoming limited - I've burned through a fair amount of paper while rehab'ing my hip and my preferred colors have been used up!


I've made 30 sonobe components using some patterned paper and plan to attempt assembling a more complex Icoshedral Model

A vase of Lillys

A vase of lillies from this diagram.  While making these I thought I was not folding them correctly since i kept ending with the exposed white side as a stripe. It wasn't until I looked at them from a distance that i realized that it actually looked like a natural stripe of color.  I think most Lilys that are striped this way would actually be light colored with the stripe being the dark color - but no matter I like the result.

Flowers

This is a fun project. I had seen flowers on lots of sites and stayed away since they looked complex. While it may not have seemed an ideal first project it turned out not that difficult. The stem is very simple. The flower itself   has no difficult folds and as bonus you actually inflate it in the next to last step. I think the hardest step is getting the flower to balance on the stem!

The diagrams I used for the tulip and the stem were on the origami USA site. I used Aitoh Origami paper which has nice solid colors.

Animals

Penguin

The penguin came from an ipad app I tried out. On one hand it came out really well and the app looked really slick - on the other hand the apps steps didn't really define the angles or locations of the folds in a definitive way. Maybe my past life as a draftsman makes me picky about that kind of thing , but I like the diagrams which are specific, allowing you to use geometry be accurate as you fold.

Crane

I guess the crane is probably the most classic origami model I've done. I used a diagram from the origami club for the one pictured above.

Giraffe

Giraffe

Mouse

Mouse

The book where i found the above mouse instructions, Genuine Origami: 43 Mathematically-Based Models, From Simple to Complex   listed it as simple - in fact its the first one in the book.... I guess its all relative but other models, even in the same book are easier.  But regardless it was a fun fold,  next time i'll have to use a realistic color.

The Giraffe above is also from the same book as is the squirrel below. 

Squirel

Squirel

Early Projects - geometric shapes

A Box

This is "A Box 3" from this diagram at the Origami Club.  I particularly like taking a square sheet of paper and turning it into a open container. This is one of the papers Martha picked up for me - "Miyabi Chiyogami Komon, Washi Chiyogami". Its textured, most obviously on the white side, and the printed side retains its pattern well at the folds.

Star Basket

 This is a traditional "Star Basket" from this diagram at origami USA  I used Aitoh Origami paper which is the other kind Martha picked up at Michael's... unlike the other paper which  this one has solid colors and little or no texture. The paper and color holds up well at the folds though.   This is one of my favorites, a neat container that looks cool.

I'd provide a pointer to the diagram, but for the life of me i can't find the source I used for this one. Its my first attempt at a simple square box. I used the Aitoh paper for this final model. Unlike the star box folding this one wasn't as much fun -I've made many star boxes, but I don't expect I'll do this one again.

A few more....

Open Pyramid Container

The "truncated" Pyramid above is a fun container to fold and relatively simple, The site i found the diagram on appears broken now - but the same diagram can be found here in a slightly funky format.

Tetrahedron

This is the tetrahedron which i had trouble with originally. This model is completed with Miyabi paper. I've concluded the paper that came with the original "kit" was of poor quality and the diagrams contained subtle errors which only are obvious now that I've done a fair number models. Perhaps I'm still reading it wrong but the example above is impossible if you faithfully follow the diagram!

Cube

Same as the tetrahedron above this is cube which didn't fold well originally. In this case the diagram was OK - but the finished models just didn't look as good as when done with Aitoh paper as shown. At some point I'll find a diagram on line and create new models of the tetrahedron and cube and provide the links.

I particularly liked making  this box -  the contrast in color and (relatively) crisp lines are visually interesting. The Aitoh paper has some nice solid colors. Secondly the folding is fun too - pretty simple with only nine steps. The initial steps create a series creases but leave the sheet flat....then in single step you create the box...and finally you fold the flaps down creating the contrasting color and locking the shape in place. Like the pyramid the site i found the diagram on appears broken - but i found the authors own site with it here

Origami Rehab

With time on my hands I decided to try origami as a way to pass the time while my hip rehabs.

I started by attempting to fold models from a kit i had purchased at the MIT museum store a week or so before surgery.  The kit was of "Geometric Origami" and I quickly found even the most basic cube and tetrahedrons were not folding well. I decided either I didn't understand what I was doing or the instructions in the booklet were poor.....so i searched the intertubes for traditional origami to both practice folding and learn from a source other then the booklet that came with the geometric kit.

Over the last couple of weeks I've spent hours folding traditional Origami - starting with boxes and then moving on to flowers and animals, returning to the cube and tetrahedron that i had been unable to do originally.  As it turns out my first attempts were failing both because of my ineptitude and the poor quality paper in the kit. Martha picked up some origami paper at michael's  (the Paper Store didn't have any - go figure) and that made a huge difference.

The following posts include most of the models I've made - in some cases it took many practice models to get to one good example - others just folded up fine the first time.