30xsquare

1114: Fergus Currie’s 3rd Stellation of an Icosahedron

| wonko

Just before the Origami Marathon this year, Fergus Curry dropped a free access download to a new hedron that I knew I had to try. I cut the 30 papers and then ran out of time to actually fold them prior to the marathon:

Returning to this fold recently, I went into production-line mode to ensure I had fold consistency for each module given angle construction was a core requirement (ie. there is no “template”, you make the angles fresh each page, twice).

The resultant module have a pair of hinged triangles as faces, and deep pockets and twice bent tabs that, when together, make a really positive join.

Construction was at times painful – seating the modules inside their nearest neighbors requires you insert a tab around a corner that is being pulled closed as you seat it. Early on, mating modules is ok but as you lose access to the inside of the solid, it becomes more and more awkward. I resorted to a symphony of tweezers near the end to close it up.

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1042: Starsea Kusudama

| wonko

Keeping my fingers buys, I had it suggested (on Redit) that I should try Tomoko Fuse’s ‘Starsea Kusudama”:

Tomoko Fuse's Starsea Kusudama

I had not seen this before, the unit is complex and folding it on a 1/4 6″ square was, in retrospect, probably a mistake but I like a challenge.

30 modules later, the construction was fiddly but the locked shape is really sturdy and there is no need for glue – tabs are buried deep in pockets. The last few units are really hard to seat (I needed tweezers to ease them into place) but paper tension causes the ball to become regular.

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1041: Anniversary

| wonko

38 years ago, the love of my life said “I do”, wearing antique white lace, in Wanganui Gardens, on the bank of the Brisbane River, among family and friends in glorious sunshine. She did this despite the fact that I was wearing a brown suit, ruffled beige bodyshirt and brown boots – must have been either love, or certifiable lunacy.

Maria Sinayskaya's Little Roses Kusudama (squares variant)

Happy Anniversary Jo, love and hugs always.

This is Maria Sinayskaya’s Little Roses Kusudama (squares variant), 30 units – lovely thing indeed.

954: Simi Flores’ Spikey Ball

| wonko

Cruising 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?):

spikey ball

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?.

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613: (63/365) David Mitchell’s “Gemini”

| wonko

We are heading into assignment season in many of my classes – this means my students are busy getting on with it, occasionally asking for help, but I am stuck there inert and when I get bored I get naughty:

…so I fold stuff to keep me awake. Modulars have an advantage that, once you have mastered the module, it is largely “rinse and repeat” until the final assembly. Continue reading →

551: (1/365) Mummy Star

| wonko

When my sister in law went to Nepal, she found some rather charming Lokta paper, hand-made with block printed gold floral designs. She carefully transported it back with her for me to wrangle. I had a modular in mind and the orange Lokta seemed the obvious choice:

This is Miyuki Kawamura’s Mummy Star, a startlingly complicated modular in 30 pieces. The technique of folding splayed fans, then folding them back on themselves gives the appearance of “wrapping” or bandages I suppose (think Mummy Movie). Continue reading →

486: Little Turtle Kusudama

| wonko

A dear friend (*waves to Caff) holidayed in Europe, visited Florence and found some amazing block-printed handmade paper, popped it in a post pack tube and mailed it to me.486LittleTurtleKusudamaView

To be honest, I have struggled to use this paper because it seemed a such a terrible shame to cut it. Lovely irregularities, vibrant colours and relatively heavy cardstock suggested that a kusudama might be the solution.

Thumbing through Tomoko Fuse’s book “Multidimensional Transformations, Unit Origami”, I came across a unit called “little turtle” that I had not tried. I think they got the name because, as part of the folding process of the unit you make a shape similar to the “turtle base” I have used for other models.486LittleTurtleKusudamaScale

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411: Phizz-based Stellated Icosahedron

| wonko

The “phizz” unit designed by Tom Hull is a basic building block that can be used for many modulars:

I thought I would start manageable, so devised a 30 unit ball, 6 faces each of 5 colours – total of 30 units. These are easy folding and have a positive locking mechanism so were a good choice.

The tricksey part was to ensure an even colour balance – making sure that no face has the same colour twice. that did my head in a little, and it seemd to take me ages to come up with a construction method where I could easily predict what colour next to use.

In the end, a lovely modular – I may try for something grander, we shall see.