FAUX QUILT

I have been experimenting with the weaving grid and have come up with a kind of faux origami quilt.

I began by making the subsections and then connected them into long strips. Then I began weaving and twisting.



It was not long before I became hopelessly tangled and twisted. The solution was to remove all the dangling bits which were not necessary for the next step. This is making it easier.



In general, twisting the pieces together is not easy. The paper (cheap 20lb copy paper)is too bulky and not strong enough to cope with a lot of folding and upfolding. Some of it is getting a little thin. Very little of it is ending up with the same crisp folds with which I began the project. Some units are definitely a little crumpled around the edges.



I have been utilizing mini "dog clips" to clamp selected folds together while I arrange the folds prior to twisting. The clips work well but my arthritic hands find them difficult to squeeze and un-squeeze.

I think the piece would benefit from thinner prettier and sturdier paper. At the moment it suffers from the constraints of cost as well as the usual pitfalls of developing a new model and method of folding.

This is definitely not a fast method of paper connection. The benefit is that the intrepid (and arguably insane) folder can end up with a multi-colored flat piece of decorative origami of theoretically endless dimensions. As with any kind of quilting or pieced work, patterns and "pixel art" can be worked into the decorative sheet: all it takes is a little planning.

Emergence from Down Under

It's been quite a while since I posted anything here. As previously mentioned, I have been extremely busy assisting an Australian friend deal with a professional lynching team. Unfortunately the abuse continues, but there has been as long enough lull to have an "orgami break".

I have developed quite a number of new models and continue to work on old ones. The modular vase is up to the Mark 10 version now, and I am still not entirely happy with it. I have had to solve quite a few problems along the way. There will be more about this in future posts

Here are some preview photos of things I have been working on.


There is a large series of vases. Here are examples.

The blue one has a weak bottom. The pink and grey one has a lid which is flimsy compared to the base. The tall yellow pot, made from legal sized paper, works very well.















The final tall vase version. The lid is a little crumpled in the photo because it is the prototype.














There is another modular vase under development. It bears some resemblance to the tesselated blue vase above but the shape is different and the bottom does not fall out :-) It joins pieces of paper both horizontally and vertically: 12 Silver Rectangles in total. More later.



Here is a squash bowl. Pack it flat and assemble it when needed.














Here is the final version of the Pocket Box with firmly fitting lid. Pack it flat, put it in your pocket and take it out and assemble it when needed.

























This box and lid are made from the new Orange Coated card weight paper. The lid is pitched like a roof. This is another relatively easy box to fold.












I experimented with flowers again. I call this one a Quad Lily because it has four petals and looks approximately like a lily. It does not resemble any flower that I know actually grows somewhere, but it looks nice. The lilies will eventually be connected to form a kusadama and/or a 3D quilt. The current connector template is made from a piece of recycled printed paper and is not fit to be photographed. You will just have to wait patiently until I get around to working on this model again.













I am still fascinated with hexagons so there are various hex bowls with lids.


Series One. The base is a year old. The lids are new. Note the upside down yellow lid which also doubles as another bowl.
























Series Two













I am still experimenting with ways to connect pieces of paper to form large models.


These designs connect four pieces of paper firmly and decoratively. They are relatively easy to fold and should make quite a difference to what can now be achieved with origami quilts.

Pseudo Tessellation

Place-mat, Table Runner, Table Cloth, Quilt, Wallhanging. Take your pick of what to call this model.

It was meant to be a Table Runner but the effort involved in making and assembling so many small pieces got old when I reached a size that you can stand a vase on. The starter paper varies in size from a small 5-1/2 inch square to a tiny 1 inch by 1-3/4 inch rectangle.

I like the look of the completed model but I am not in a hurry to repeat it. Needless to say, when I do repeat it there will be a few changes resulting from the experience.

Although the model holds together very well the thickness of the paper used for the tabs on the back side resulted in a tendency for the tucked in parts to come loose while working on neighboring pieces. Next time I will use tab paper which is thinner than the rest of the work instead of thicker. The reason for the negative polarity of the paper thickness was that the tab color that I wanted to use only came in the thicker weight. If you look carefully you will see that it is a lighter shade of the copper color used for the main pieces.

The edges need special treatment, especially for this sized piece. Does anyone have any suggestions?