SPRING BLOSSOM QUILT

One of my favorite signs of an immanent Spring is the many trees which burst into blossom around this time. First the fruitless pears become a froth of white and then the peach and prunus trees shower us in pink confetti.

This hexagon based quilt is appropriate for the season with its pink flowers backed by salmon colored sepals and buff colored connectors.

Although the crease patterns look complicated this is not a terribly difficult model to fold. Nor is it particularly time consuming, as modulars go. The example was designed and folded in a day.

When I get around to making Step Folds and a set of diagrams it should be within the reach of all but the novice folder.




The quilt follows my usual practice in having a carrier module (with the salmon colored sepals or outer petals), a central flower which is tucked inside the center of the carrier module and connecting units which are folded over the edges of the module and tucked firmly inside.

The model does not require glue and is quite sturdy. It sits flat because of the hexagonal shape of the basic modules.


I am currently working on a pentagonal variation which, of course, does not sit flat and will form itself into another in my series of flower balls.



The hexagons which form the carrier case and the flower are derived from a sheet of American Letter or A4 sized paper. See previous entries for links to instructions on how to make a hexagon from a sheet of copy paper. After folding, the bottom and top flaps are cut off to form the hexagon shape.


The connector units are derived from a similarly folded sheet which has been cut to size according to the pattern shown here. This time the bottom and top flaps are retained.

TOWARDS A GLUELESS FRAGRANCE KUSUDAMA

Perhaps you are familiar with the traditional Fragrant Blossom Kusudama, one of the most beautiful of the Japanese Flower Balls. Here is a photo of one made by Mio Tsugawa. You will find it on her blog, together with instructions for making it.
http://puupuu.ojaru.jp/zu/densyo/densyo1.html


It has long bothered me that this model, and others like it, use glue. Glue is just not a word generally associated with origami!

So I decided to design a model which did not use glue. Here is the copy paper version.





It has three different parts: two from a square and one (the central core) from a hexagon with the same diameter as the square sheets.

The peach colored material is a square which is folded almost identically to the traditional Fragrance model. The difference is that the peaks on either side are not folded down before the sides are folded over and brought together. When the sides are brought together these peaks are tucked into the pockets on the sides of the sections. One peak is folded into the medial (inside) pocket of its opposite partner. The other peak is then folded into the lateral (outside) pocket of its partner. The central section is now one, instead of three, sections but the petal stays together without glue. (You cannot see this in the photos because it is covered by material from the next piece).





The salmon colored material is made from another square which also begins its folded life by becoming a triangle. The central half is folded over and tucked into itself, in a similar fashion to what happened with the central sections of the petal. One of the side flaps is then posted through the slit in the front of a peach colored petal and wrapped around to the side of the stamen. Its tip is then pushed into the pocket at the top, which it now shares with the flap from the adjoining peach colored petal stamen. The other side flap of the salmon piece is inserted in similar fashion into the neighboring (next) petal. This leaves a triangular salmon colored section between the petals which, from the top of the flower, looks like another stamen.

Continue to add petals and connectors until the flower is complete. The resulting flower works best with six petals. Five seems a little loose.





The hexagonal cream center of the flower is formed from a hexagonal sheet. Once the central hexagon has been formed the rest of the sheet is carefully arranged into a tightly creased column and inserted into the center of the completed flower. The ridges of the hexagon column are held by corresponding ridges formed by the flower petals and their salmon colored connectors. A diagram would help, but it is more work than I feel like doing right now. Later, maybe.

I would rate this as a high intermediate model. It is not difficult to fold but it is tricky to put together. It requires helping instruments (I used a kitchen skewer) to push the flaps into the pockets. It is hard to keep the single thickness petal edges from being damaged by the tucking process happening in their vicinity. It needs patience to neatly arrange the folds of the stem of the central hexagon core.

Diagramming this model will not be easy and I suspect that I will restrict myself to teaching it in a class.

My next task is to create glueless connectors for the bases of the flowers so that the model can be transformed into a "proper origami" kusudama. This is complicated by the fact that my version of the flowers have six, rather than five petals. Six sided objects do not make a regular polyhedra without the addition of differently sided objects. I may have to find a way to modify the flower into a five petal version.

BOUNCE BOX and TIER BOX

The past few days have been spent developing a modular hexagonal box which bounces and a related modular hexagonal box which stacks but does not bounce.

The two box types can be combined, in various combinations, to form a tier box which bounces. The combination model can even be connected near the base to form strings of boxes or hexagonal "circles" of tiered boxes.

The photo shows one way of connecting the sections. It is a photo of the rough proto-type models so don't look for perfection. Expect to see crumple, because it is certainly there! Designing a model generally results in a lot of messy models before the final version is reached. Unless you are Robert Lang, of course.

There are six sheets of paper used for each of the several sections.

Almost all of the starting sheets are half squares, that is, rectangles with a 2:1 ratio. The patterns can be printed onto paper via an ordinary computer printer. The limitation here is that the largest piece can be no taller than the length between the minimum printer margins at the top and bottom of a page. This translates to a box with a diameter of about 4½ inches.

The sections stack inside or around each other. Lids become bases to accommodate stems. Stems end in boxes which accommodate other boxes and/or lids.

There are two lid styles. One is an overlay style, the other fits flush with a base box but overlays an inlay box. One of the two lid styles is being used as the base for an extension tier in the photographed example while the other is on top of the model.

The box wobbles from the base. The wobble part is obscured in the photograph which was taken from the top to show the lid decoration.

It will be several days before all the problems of its construction are resolved at which point I will make it with a variety of colored papers which will better demonstrate the modular and the sectional construction. Then I will post the Crease Patterns for each model of each section.

There are several sections which are not shown in the photo. One inlay box style is still in design infancy. Two other inlay styles were stackers which were not photographed because there insufficient lids to accommodate them. Photos of these will be posted in blog postings to come.

This is a fun box which, nevertheless, has practical applications.

Hexagon Star Twist Box: Variations

I have been preparing diagrams and sample foldings for a forthcoming publication.


In the process I reworked one of my hexagon designs for a Star Twist Box (the white box with the copper star in the center which is shown far left) and came up with some variations (the brown and white boxes shown on the right).

The crease pattern does both of the boxes shown on the right. One is put together by tucking the top sections under the adjoining left section and the other is put together by tucking the top sections under the adjoining right section.

The CP shows shading for the version on the far right - the box with the raised center section. Mate the colored sections with the corresponding color. Pale yellow sections indicate the that the mating surface is on the other (back) side. Mate the bright yellow parts with the underside of the pale yellow sections.

CPs for the Water Lily Kusudama Series

Here are crease patterns for the Water Lily Kusudama and its derivatives and attachments. Unfortunately the CPs do not tell the whole story. There are some twists and tricks in putting these things together which are not at all obvious from the CPs. If you are a novice to middle level folder you may have to wait until I complete the diagrams before enlightenment is possible.

Begin by making a hexagon from a rectangle. The pattern is scaled for American Letter paper but the same concept applies equally well to an A4 sheet.

These are "rough and dirty" instructions which avoid me posting a full set of careful diagrams. If they leave you confused try Googling for better ones until I post some myself.

Divide the paper into four equal parts lengthwise. Mountain fold the bottom corners up to the quarter crease marks. This will give you sharp corner angles and two sides of the hexagon. Make the valley creases by appropriately lining up the edges. Complete the hexagon by mountain folding the paper along the appropriate edges. If you consider how the creased section will reflect when folded you can figure out which edges to line up. Try it out with a piece of scrap paper first.




The following CP is a stage along the way to making the Water Lily Kusudama units. It will provide you with the hex star and legged dish. I suggest that you fold the overlapping sections half way around and then unfold them and start at a different point. The final moves are a lot less confusing when the paper has already been primed to fold in the right direction.




The additional creases shown here will provide you with the water lily unit. Although they are shown on the back side of the paper they are made from the front. If you end up with the unit by following these CPs in the absence of step by step diagrams I will be quite impressed. Send me a photo to prove it. You will need eight water lily units for the kusudama and/or outer skin of the chopstick holder or vase.

The units are put together with the aid of strips made from the cut offs from the starter rectangle. They are four hex grid triangles long by one hex grid triangle wide. You need three of them per flower. Double the ends over and insert them into the matching shape that you will find by gently lifting the internal petal of a hex section and carefully pulling up the two flaps. Push the internal petal back down to lock them in place. Bend the strip on the central crease and insert the angled other end into a corresponding side of another flower. Continue until you run out of flowers to connect.

The next CPs are for the upgraded version of the central tube/vase. In order to get one that exactly fits the dimensions of the square left by the edges of the connected flowers, take a starter rectangle of the same size used to make the starter hexagons and crease it at the three-fifths point. Use my division helper to do this easily. (See earlier post.)

Next divide the three-fifths section into four equal parts and relect two of these on to the remaining paper. Cut off the left over section. Fold the rest according to the CP.


Roll up from the right hand side. Loosen the central section a little and twist the left hand rolling under the right hand rolling at the central point or thereabouts. I am afraid this a hard to describe in words. If you have made Kenneth Kawamura's twist box you will understand the procedure. If you can't figure it out then omit the odd configuration on the right hand side base section, roll the thing up starting from the right hand end and simply tuck the last flap under. The only difference is that the internal floor does not look quite so neat. If you are going to fill the tube up with something and don't intend to peer into its depths very often then this is probably quite adequate aesthetically and quite strong enough as well.

Unlike the model in the earlier photographs, this one has a triangular slash on just one of the external walls and a matching one on an internal wall. As well as being decorative, the slashes prevent noticeable sagging on the long side walls.

The result is pretty strong and sturdy but not, alas, waterproof. Don't fill it with fluid and use it for real flowers. If you are going to fill it with heavy things then you can strengthen it further (at the expense of shortening it) by turning over a narrow strip at the top. You can avoid unwanted crumpling by making 45 degree creases in the corners of each section before folding the material over to top. You can then ease it over a section at a time. Of course, pictures or detailed diagrams would help. Unfortunately preparing these takes more time than I am prepared to spend at the moment. Manana. (Where's the tilda when you need it?)



Filling in the square holes begins with a procedure similar to the internal tube. Take a piece of paper the same size as that used for the hexagon starter for the kusudama flower. Make a crease at the three fifths mark. Fold two squares from this section and discard the remainder. Fold each square to match the CP. You will need four squares (that is, two sheets of paper.)

In order to make the side tabs match the hexagonal angles into which they will slot make a template angle from a piece of the scrap, line its base up with the base line of each tab and fold the right side of each tab around the template. Lift up tabs in the pockets of the remaining hex sections of the water lilies and slip the tabs into them. Adjust. These square sections are not held together as firmly as the water lily pieces are to each other but they are not especially fragile either.

Enjoy!

Water Lily Chopstick Holder or Vase

The waterlily kusudama has been given a central column which has morphed it into a vase or a chopstick holder.

Star Dish with Legs and Waterlily Kusudama

This has been a very busy week. I am in the process of putting the finishing touches to several new designs.

I spent a half hour away from the problems associated with these and fiddled with a hexagon.





The result was a star









which morphed into a dish that stands on legs and snaps back into the star when you are finished with it












which morphed into a water lily








which morphed into an eight piece kusudama.


The kusudama is held together quite firmly by tabs cut from the scrap material left over after converting an American Letter sheet into a hexagon. No glue.



At a later date I intend to fill the square holes with leaves.



Crease patterns and instructions will come later.





Coming up is a placemat/table runner/wall hanging pseudo-tessellation which is made from square-based quilt-like modules and rectangular tabs. There is also another vase in production.

The Bulb-Stem-Flower Vase

The last two days have been spent developing an earlier hexagonal base proto-folding into a flower vase. I have called it the Bulb-Stem-Flower Vase because that is what it looks like. The base of the vase has indentations which look like bulbs. The mid section has slits which look like stems. The top section has projections which look like petals. And the interior has foldings which look like the internal structure of a flower.

I developed a colored paper pattern which emphasizes these elements and also assists with folding. This is fortunate, because the model is based on multiples of five which can be difficult to fold accurately, even with a division template.

The most difficult part of the model may well be the process of printing the design on an inkjet printer so that the front and back are in the same orientation and the setting has been adjusted so that the ink dries between coatings and does not smudge. The shinier the paper, the longer this takes. It is also necessary to allow the paper to dry completely before folding the model or you will add to the smudges.

Here is how this model began its life. Apart from the coloring, there is actually not much that is different between this model and its development.

The three models shown here were printed on different papers: flat white 80#text copy paper, Wausau 70#text Royal Metallics White Gold paper (white with a pale yellow glint) and Gruppo Cordenons 80#text Stardream Opal metallic paper (very pale yellow with a white sheen).

The plain copy paper (front right) worked fairly well. It had the clearest brightest colors and folded well. This example lacks the maroon internal flower coloring which was added to the later models.

The Wausau paper (front left) was the least successful. The ink ran and smudged badly, something which may have been avoided by allowing the printing on the front of the sheet to dry before printing the pattern on the back. One of the edges tore slightly while being folded. The paper is thinner than the 80#text but still holds its shape well. Its main advantage is that it has a slight sheen which shines through the printed colors.

The Stardream paper (center back) was the most successful. It also smudged, but not nearly as badly. It was good to fold, did not tear and was a perfect weight. The mica coating on the paper makes it water resistant but I think the inkjet colors remain water soluble even when dry. While the printed colors on this paper are the most muted of the three, the sheen which shows through them is wonderful. I would like to think that the mica coating on the paper makes it water resistant but I think the inkjet colors on top of it will prove to be water soluble.

Here are the paper patterns for the front and the back of the vase.

The front pattern is 8 inches wide by a little over 9 inches tall so it will print on either American Letter or A4 paper. Make sure your printer centers the images on the paper. Do a test run to make sure that you put your paper back in the tray in the correct orientation for correct back-to-back printing.

The pattern for the back of the paper has been extended around the edges to allow for sloppy printer alignment. It is about 8.2 inches wide so it should still print on an A4 sheet. Be sure to print the images out in their actual size. Do not let our printer adjust them to fit the page or they may not line up, even with the in-built fudge factor.

Here are the crease patterns. Please note that the crease patterns are shown on the "colored" side of the paper and not the "white" (back) side as per usual. This model is easiest to make if you work from the front.



Start by making the preliminary grid creasings. It should be relatively easy to find landmarks for these on the colored pattern. Next add the mountain creases outlining the three axes.

Begin the third diagram by firming up the creases in that picture which you have already made. Now add the valley fold spokes. These are made by bringing two mountain fold spokes in to meet on the line which connects the center points of the edges. Be careful not to fold these lines all the way to the apex as this will make it difficult to form the "bulb" at the base.

The creases around the edge are formed by halving the tips of the overlapping material which ends up on the inside of the vase. Turn the results over the top to form the petals. Shape them as you wish. Your model is complete. Send me a photo.

This has been a somewhat frustrating model to develop. Wrestling with color printers is not my idea of fun, especially when they ruin perfectly good pieces of special paper. I managed to contribute to this process by making more "fool folds" than usual. The camera angles are designed to hide them. A "fool fold" is a fold you make in the wrong place or in the wrong direction through a deficiency of brain juice which is at least temporary in nature.

The fact that the color printer is housed in a dark corner of my husband's relatively impenetrable study did not help my humor. Navigating Peter's study needs mountaineering gear, a compass and a good health insurance plan. First he insists on littering it with all the packing boxes which his computer equipment came in. He insists that this is absolutely necessary "so I can move them safely elsewhere". Then he uses the floor as essential "flat space" to store just about everything so that it "can be easily seen". This does not work too well as he is constantly loosing things under the many layers which accumulate on and around the box collection. He would make an excellent member of Monty Python's Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things. It is hard for me not to add to the layers by falling on top of them, which would probably make me an honorary Member.

In spite of the frustrations, the model has been completed. I think the results are worth it. Do you?

It turns out that bulb-like sinkings in vases are not unique inventions of mine. Christine Edison provides details of a Septimus Vase inspired by Phillip Chapmen Bell which also has these items surrounding the basal section.

http://flickr.com/photos/christine42/1250344172/

I had not seen either Edison's or Chapmen Bell's models before I came up with mine. As is often the case, the inventions were independently made in a roughly similar time period.

The Christmas Star Box

Several days before Christmas, a number of my friends were e-mailed copies of the crease pattern for my Christmas Star Box. Unfortunately several of these people did not receive it. Either their filters tagged the document as spam because the header contained multiple recipients or it was blocked because the file exceeded the allowable byte limit.

The CP was published in Anna’s annual Designer’s Christmas Collection,. Since this magazine is restricted to contributers I am publishing the CP here as well. That way every one can enjoy a belated Christmas present. (I hope this does not contravene the agreement on non-publication of the material elsewhere until early this year.)

The model starts with a hexagon. The CP can be resized and printed out on a laser or inkjet printer. The mountain folds are painted as unbroken red lines instead of the standard dot and dash line which tends to show up poorly on models which are folded from print-out patterns. Follow the thumbnails for an idea of the collapse process.