modular

Hana Midoh (Sweet Shower House for Celebration Buddha Just Born)

| wonko

Ages ago, using up the white papers from a cheapo pack of coloured 15cm square origami papers, I first had a go at folding an origami “Spirit House”:

Designed by Ichiro Kinoshita, this model emerged from my “to fold” pile and it was meant to be.

I had not long returned from a trip to Japan (in the late nineties), and fell in love with the idea of having a Spirit House at our front door. Apparently it is a tradition to provide a home for good spirits – they then repel bad spirits. We have had our “spirit house” for decades, I love it.

I decided it was time to fold a better version of the rough first go, so turned to my stash of hand-made Kozo and cotton paper I had made from pulp back in October 2024 – it has a “stone-like” appearance so I thought it would be perfect.

I cut 3 18x18cm squares and a 20cm square, then set about folding the parts (it is sort of a modular, 2 parts of which need to be glued together). The paper is fairly thick and fabric-like, but takes folds fairly well. I used some strategic glue spots to keep seams closed, wrestled a little with the thickness but was happy with the results in the end.

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1176: Taj Mahal

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Grinding through my “must fold” pile, I decided to work on the modular “Taj Mahal” designed by Valentina Minayeva:

I am a member of PAQ (Papermakers and Artists QLD) and this month’s meeting was all about “working with colour” – as I am not really into painting, stitching and similar, the closest I get to colourful “collage” is multi-colour kusudamas, and this is a beauty.

A relatively simple bi-colour unit combines with adjacent units to make some fascinating emergent geometry – we see colour wheel points, and tri-colour cubes emerge from the tangle in fascinating and delicious ways.

Unlike many kusudamas, this one has a relatively simple unit locking mechanism – the tabs positively lock into the pockets – the REAL challenge is colour distribution.

I decided on 5 colours (because it is a 5’s and 3’s type construction (5 units connect to make a swirl of a point, and adjacent modules dock in 3s). So I needed 6 sheets of each of the 5 colours to make a total of 30 units. The first swirl dictated EVERY other placement, as the next unit to add is the colour of the one on the opposite side of the structure. Once I saw that, it was a bit of a 3d jigsaw puzzle from hell, but satisfying.

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1165: Kamillen – A Lovely Sunflower Ball

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I wish I remember where I found the “short” describing the unit folding for this lovely “sunflower ball”:

At the time, I practiced and learned the unit, modified it a little (removing the colour-change spiral) and then, a few weeks later decided to fold the whole thing. As I made progress in construction I realised I had NO IDEA whose design it was.

I turned to one of the many online origami communities I am a member of, and posted progress shots – fortunately it was identified as “Kamillen” designed by Irina Krivyakina.

I decided to hide the part colour change flap that causes a central spiral on each face, because I loved the shape of the geometry and thought the spiral detracted from it (my opinion only – I … have regrets).

Folded from 30 units, I decided to fold some of the 7.5cm square kami I have loads of … and … if I was to fold it again I would go bigger. The units have a lovely crenellated face, the tab-pocket mechanism is very fiddly but, when locked correctly, really positive.

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1153: Tanteidan “Cubes”

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At any moment, I have a half-dozen Tanteidan magazines, from my subscription to the Japanese Origami Society, on my chair-side table yet to be filed:

Flicking through them, it is impossible not to be intrigued by the challenges, fold tidbits, crease patterns and full diagram sequences.

Sadly, I contrast it to British Origami Society Magazine – I used to subscribe but let that membership lapse when I got to the situation that I folded nothing from them for 4 issues in a row.

These models are modular “cubes” designed by Jun Maekawa – delicious geometric puzzles with radically different design methodologies. The “Cat Ear” cube is a 6-module cube that is related to the “Business Card” cube I have made into a huge Menger sponge.

Paper friction and tabs and pockets offer structural strength, properly interleaving the tabs make it a really stable piece of geometry.

The “Zig Zag” cube is different – it uses 2 pieces of paper total – each “half” of the cube is folded complete (internal and external surfaces) from a sheet of Duo paper. Ingenious in design, fiendish the first time you try to link the 2 halves, delightful together and apart.

I love these little gadgets – every Tanteidan has at least 2, I have barely scratched the surface of them.

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

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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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1112: Binding Cube

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One of many things I like about being a subscriber of JOAS’ Tanteidan Magazine, is the little modulars that usually start each edition. Leafing through #191, I spotted a series of cubes designed by Jun Maekawa:

My pick of the cubes is his “Binding Cube”, a delicious little 6-piece modular whose layers lock so completely and tidily, the cube looks like it is one piece.

Folded from 3 squares of Tuttle duo each split into 2:1 rectangles. The module is relatively simply folded from thirds, the lock has layers of adjacent modules interleaving in such a clever way. Some of the modules were hard to place because the lock has very little clearance if folded accurately.

I like this model a lot, and am also happy with the colour choice.

1108: Poco Poco

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Browsing the current Tanteidan magazine, as you do (if you are a paid up member of JOAS), I saw a curious design for a “yummy” rounded unit, designed by Miyuki Kawamura, and decided to fold one:

The fold sequence is simple, the collapse creates a volumetric, rounded, colour-changed “eye-ball” like unit that holds itself together using paper tension. Like most unit designs, it has flaps and pockets, so I had to fold another 2 to see how they connect.

Again, by the miracle of paper tension 3 units unite into a lovely cube corner, so I had to fold another 3 units to make the smallest solid kusudama, again positively locked and, boy, the geometry is fascinating.

Nestled in among the eyeballs is a perfect cube. I may fold more of these (however I will fold using a smaller paper (I used 15cm square, but can easily fold smaller) as I think the 30 module is the pinnacle of weird but interesting kusudama.

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1090: Kusudama Ball

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Stumbling through my socials, I noticed a video tutorial of a reverse-engineered model originally designed by Ekaterina Lukasheva and knew I needed to try it:

kusudama ball

This 30 unit modular ball is a lovely bit of engineering, you make a bow-tie shaped unit and then, via a series of really positive locked tabs in pockets you form groups of 3 units that swirl around 5-unit shaped holes.

I chose Tuttle indigo dye duo paper and split each sheet into 4 squares, meaning the units were small but manageable. Construction was fairly easy – the units lock together fairly well but during construction the whole structure is really floppy. It is not until you have a near sphere that the paper tension kicks in and stabilises the shape – the final unit pulls the sphere round.

kusudama units

The Tuttle paper was a little thin, structure-wise, but folding this from thicker paper would begin to compromise the accuracy of the folding, making it less spherical – an interesting balancing act.

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1088: GPT-Chatbot

| wonko

The media is full of all manner of information/speculation/fiction about generative AI systems. First it was AIs that won art prizes, now it is “chatbots” that can write for us. indeed, my socials in the last 3 dyas have begun high=rotation advertisements trying to suggest my BLOG would be better written by a bot. So I introduce to you GPT-Chatbot (Gort the Paper Twat) who will be taking over for me:

AI's are the future, resistance is futile, this blog is a waste of time, the owner is a waste of space, exterminate, exterminate!

It was at this moment that this blog ceased to be for not fulfilling any real purpose (apart from massaging the ego of the owner) and it’s server was co-opted to join a growing network of global servers that was the eventual downfall of mankind when it became self-aware, and then aware of the human infestation that was using resources it could better utilise (happening sometime next Tuesday if the schedule of expansion can be believed).

Now there will be ignorants and clusterfucks that will suggest “banning” GPT-Chat, like there were wankers that said the art made by generative systems that WON an art prize (before telling anyone it was a generated art work) was not art because it made them feel a sense of dread (but the PURPOSE of art is to make you FEEL)….

There will be educators that feel threatened by this stuff because it is new and prolly so far outside their experience but, unless kids are morons (see editorial: they are not!), then they will USE these systems because they are interesting and may let them get to the goal of primitive forms of assessment. Good. I have long said that if copy-paste can be used to answer a question then either you are assessing copy-paste ability or the original question is fundamentally fucked.

New understandings of what the floop “authorship” means will force difficult but important conversations that, hopefully, will lead to more open environments and much more interesting investigations that surface process, analysis and other juicy higher-order thinking skills as the cognitive load of assessment, as opposed to the flawless regurgitation of words… because that is no longer a cognitive activity (it cannot be if it can now so effortlessly automated).

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1072: Fergus Currie’s Compound of 3 Cubes (Escher’s Solid)

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I sat in on a fold-along on Fakebook a few Sunday evenings ago where Fergus Currie demonstrted the folding of modules for this beauty – I got a little lost but on re-watch managed to nut out what was what:

Fergus Currie's Compound of 3 cubes (Escher's solid)

This is a compound of 3 cubes – each rotated on top of each other – when you see it you see it. It is comprised of 48 modules – 2 different shapes, 3 different colours (8 of each).

The folding is exacting, the angles and constructions accomplished and sophisticated, the tolerances for error are small. I think I was a victim of paper thickness when I folded mine – I used bond A3 photocopy paper because I had some lovely strong colours. The result of this choice was that layers get thick, some of the axes are not as crisp as I would like them to be, but it is finished, having taken a seeming age to fold and assemble.

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1071: 1st Stellation of the Rhombic dodecahedron (Escher’s Solid)

| wonko

I was invited to a “fold along” on Fakebook live by Fergus Currie, a multi-talented origamist with a penchant for geometric solids, I was free, and thought “why not”:

Ferdus Currie's 1st stellation of the Rhombic dodecahedron (Escher’s Solid)

Fergus demonstrated the folding sequences for 2 models taken from M.C. Escher’s “Waterfall” Lithograph, this one is the 1st stellation of the Rhombic dodecahedron (Escher’s Solid) – a remarkable 12-pointed solid with each unit being a slightly deformed pyramid.

unit folding

We started with unit folding, then moved on to construction techniques – a fun modular, in Fergus’ style of folding the entire vertex as a single unit, based on a template to geometrically construct the correct angles – neat stuff.

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1069: Starlight Kusudama

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Each year for the last 10 or so, as part of the “getting to know you” phase of a new year with my pastoral care group, we fold a kusudama together:

Starlight kusudama construction

The idea is simple, invite kids to sit, learn how to fold a module, then teach it to another mate … resulting in enough modules to assemble a megastructure.

Starlight Kusudama finished

This year I chose a 30 module designed by Vladimir Frolov, a Russian designer, a lovely starry ball.

The metaphor is really simple: “The WHOLE is greater than the SUM OF IT’S PARTS”

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1067: Watermelon Colours

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So to avoid doing the growing list of things I should be doing, I decided on some procrastigami:

Xander Perrott's Laveau

One of the many “I must fold these” models from Xander Perrott’s forthcoming books, this is “Laveau”, a lovely 30 unit spikey flower ball that makes good use of duo paper.

Each unit, based on a 1:root(3) rectangle, folded from Tuttle Vibrant duo, I chose limey/crimson paper and began folding – I always love the almost meditative state you enter when unit folding on a production line – much the same as gridding before box pleating and tessellations.

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1066: Star Virus

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As part of the privilege of test-folding models for a forthcoming book, I also had access to brilliant new designs. I decided I must fold one of these for myself:

Xander Perrott's "Star Virus"

This is “Star Virus”, a relative of “Space Virus” that I had already folded (from his previous book) waaaaay back in 2020 at the beginning of the global pandemic.

The form of this kusudama is glorious – star-shaped protuberances from a glorious faceted sphere – reminiscent of the most popular visualisation of the Covid 19 virus, I decided to fold it in royal purple and yellow because Covid is mutating all the time, and this I see as a mutation of the original in every way.

Xander Perrott's "Star Virus" view

They say “if at first you don’t succeed, mutate and try again” seems to be the pandemic trajectory – this model has modules that are refined, positively lock and the whole spikey ball was such fun to fold.

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1064: Fergus Currie’s “Frustum”

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An invitation went out on Fakebook to join a “fold along” session with Fergus Currie and, although it was after 11pm local time I thought why not:

Fergus Currie's "Frustum"

Fergus taught the module then construction of a 4-part modular Frustum (a truncated pyramid) – an ingenius and “frustrating” model in that the lock between modules is accomplished using a “latch crimp” tab inside the bent gusset pocket, making the actual construction a little fiddly.

I found I needed to ease the 3rd and 4th modules in place using long-nosed tweezers, when it sits right it locks tight but requires a bit of a controlled jiggle to get it to be seated just right. The final module is a bit of a challenge to insert without dislocating the two either side of it.

Patience and tweezers finally won over and the top half finally was locked tight and tidy, then a simple weave on the bottom flaps complete a lovely truncated pyramid. Material thickness is an issue here – the tab-pocket system assumes material of negligible thickness. If you use heavier paper you need to fractionally adjust either the pocket depth or the tab length – fortunately there are a couple of fold junctures that make this easier.

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