Having international connections with folders continues to be a gift. Connecting via my Instagram account, I was approached by a new Kusudama designer Syed Faraz approached me regarding his new design “Blooming Bow”:
He asked if I could diagram it for him. I insisted on folding it first.
In folding it, I got a better appreciation for the steps (from a rough photo diagram sequence), and helped me refine the shape of the unit, capturing more accurately the sequence.
This kusudama is of the “curler” variety – it differs from others in that rather than a tab-pocket unit connection it relies on the interlinking of paper curls.
I have folded a couple of “curlers” and note that construction is generally more difficult – the units tenuously interlock until you “triangulate” and they stabilise. Getting the curl right is really important – the centre of the kusudama gets very dense as you add more 5-3 groups.
When gifted a Larson a Day tear off calendar (thanks Matt), I was faced with a problem – each tear off day is a perfect square and there are 365 of them (for the year), and … I obsessively fold paper so naturally:
This is a 360 unit modular, based on Tom Hull’s Phizz unit – sort of origami lego.
The construction relies on inherent curvature of clusters of units. If you link 6 into a hexagon, the resultant shape is flat. Less than 6 units and the structure curves into a bump (ie. positive curvature), and groups of 7 or more negatively curve (like a saddle).
The basic structure is an inner strip of 6s, either side is a strip of 7s – this then forms the middle of the donut. A strip of 6s, then a strip of 5s to outcurve and then a strip of 6s to close – sounds more complicated than it is, but boy is it fiddly. Docking 3 phizz units together requires interleaving layers over a bend – when there is nothing else in the way it is simple, when there is lots surrounding it then it becomes very difficult, particularly when you cannot reach both sides of the join in the later stages of lacing it up.
The result is lovely, the geometry draws the eye. This used up what will be 1/4 of the total sheets torn off for the year – whether I keep going is up in the air at the moment – long term projects are fun so we shall see.
The Java Sparrow is a type of Finch, and is characterised by some very brightly coloured but well confined patches of colour. It represents a challenge for an origami purist because it typically needs 4 colours, and paper is usually (at most) duo colour:
The approach of this model, like a few in Kyohei Katsuta’s repertoire, is to use multiple (in this case 2) sheets of paper folded in together to give you access to the double colour pallet.
You know that feeling you have seen something before – I get it in origami a lot. I was sure I had seen a “Java Sparrow” before, and was sure it was in a Robert Harbin book from my youth, turns out the one I actually remembered was in an equally old book I had as a kid (and still own) “Origami” by Toyoaki Kawai which I remember clearly used a colour change “cheat” that involved colouring in parts of the square strategically with colours that would be presentation areas in the final fold. This “technique” is currently called “Kimiroing” because a modern designer (Kimiro) uses little laminated (or sometimes painted) colour patches to achieve tightly controlled colour change in some of his models sometimes.
I searched my stash for suitable paper and settled on blue/black thick Shadow Thai, and orange/white Yukogami, cut 25cm squares of each and then set about nursing the thick papers through a lovely but precise sequence.
Although uniaxial (bi-symmetrical along a long axis), the shaping ensures the model does not spread open like so many in that ilk. The legs are really fine – a little too thin to support the model weight, but I will probably mount it on a wire armature to fix that. The sequence lets you use quite thick paper while still managing the layer build-up well. Even though I struggled to get a square of Yukogami that was actually square because of the rough texture, the results of the mixed paper types give the model the illusion of a fluffy tummy, scaly feet and smooth flight feathers.
I really love the result, and think it a good display model for my next cabinet exhibition.
Just trying to get my head and mouth around the name of this geometric modular provided the imperative to fold it:
Designed by Daniel Kwan, it is based around Francis Ow’s 60 degree unit, folded on a 4:1 rectangle that then has 30 degree crimps placed at thirds down the length of the paper, on opposite ends. The resulting units seem to spiral.
Units are joined in groups of 4, making a single solid descriptively called a “Gyroelongated square dipyramid” – “gyroelongated” meaning it is an extruded and twisted solid, “Dipyramid” because there is a regular square-based pyramid at each end of the solid.
Daniel illustrated they could be interwoven – 3 can be symmetrically interwined to make a visually startling whole.
The hardest part of this model was working out the symmetry of the intertwining. Merely seeing a finished one was not enough, you need to discover the scheme that, symmetrically, distributes spokes of each sold over and under, taking into account the twist, yet still meet at a pyramidal end WITHOUT overly distorting the units.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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).
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:
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.
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”:
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.
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.
