DOUBLE WRAP LETTERFOLD

 This post continues the Letter Fold Series. 

Once again, the pattern is designed for American Letter sized paper.  This one may have to be modified slightly for A4 paper.  (I have been too busy designing other models to try this out yet.  Some of you people that use "normal" (international) sized paper will probably beat me to it.  Please share.

The Double Wrap Letterfold is unusual in that the paper tucks in on both the front and the back sides.  First we collapse the front, then we bend the flaps around to the back and, after a few minor adjustments, tuck them under each other in a clockwise direction.  But I'm getting ahead of the folding procedure here.

 
There is a fair bit of pre-creasing but I won't apologize because this makes the collapse process relatively painless.

Just so that we are clear, the red unbroken lines are mountain folds and the blue and green broken lines are valley folds.  The pattern should be readable after printing it on a black and white printer.  Using the standard  -..-..-..-..-  mountain crease symbol makes it difficult or impossible to unambiguously decipher patterns with small crease lines.  Marker creases and those which are not used in the collapse, but are necessary for obtaining essential creases are marked with dotted lines in a pale color - grey if it does not matter whether they are mountain or valley folds and pale blue-green or red-orange if it does matter. 

Now we've got the preliminaries out of the way, let's get on with the interesting parts.

Begin by folding the longitudinal marker creases:  half, quarter, eighth and finally, two lines on the sixteenth grid.  Crease these hard because the rest of the model rests upon them.

Turn paper 90 degrees.  Using the 16th creases fold the left side of the paper towards the center and then fold the right side of the paper over it.  Turn the model over (colored side up). 

Using just the two top layers crease a diagonal as shown.  Bend the paper over to make a side wall (and a square).  Repeat on the other end.  Don't forget to refold the paper or you will get the reflected diagonal on the wrong side.  Not good.

Open up the paper and put it colored side down.  Re-crease (valley fold) the side walls, making sure that the crease starts at the top of the new diagonals and the center marker fold lines up.  This should ensure that you have a square square rather than a sloppy faux one.  :-) Do both ends, of course.

With the short sides on the top and the bottom, fold the left and right sides towards the center, as you did when you made the square, but this time it doesn't matter if you start with the left of the right flap because you are going to fold through all layers. 

Do not turn the model over (which is what you did last time, right?).  Valley crease a diagonal (through all layers) across the central rectangle from the top left to the bottom right.  Don't fold the other the diagonal.  

Open up.  (Colored side is still down.)  The central diagonal should be reflected on the sides.

Now refold the diagonal so that it extends from top to bottom.  It will not quite intersect the corners.  (See the crease pattern.) 

O.K. guys, we are nearly to the easy part, because you have all the major creases by now.

You could try collapsing the model, clockwise, using the thick lines around the sides and the central rectangle as the base.  However, I recommend creating those green creases first. 

To do this, start with the paper, white side up, and short sides at the top and bottom.  Got that?  Bring the left side towards the center, using the thick red diagonal on that side and the thick blue crease that nearly bisects the corner.  The top will start to come down towards the center.    Make sure that the right hand side of the top flap lines up with the right hand side of the rest of the paper.  Squash the left side out gently.  That should make the green crease. 

Repeat the process on the other side.  This time do not unfold it.  You have started the collapse process. 

Continue folding down the sides around the base in a clockwise direction.  If you creased everything firmly it should be very easy as those thickly marked side creases almost want to fold themselves.  Ease out the final diagonal so that you have a four white wings as the picture shows. Only two sides meet in the middle; the other two are offset. The ones that meet along the central diagonal do not reach the sides so that the offset flaps have "tails".

Ta da!  You have the front completed. 

Bend over the flaps to the back of the model.  Turn it over.  Now we finish the back.

The two flaps with the white tails are complete.  The other two flaps need to be narrowed so that they meet along the diagonal.  You will find the lines already there on one side.  Re-fold them so that the other side is also creased.  Fold any excess paper over the edge, unfold and tuck it between the layers of the point.  (You can skip this step but it makes it easier to slot these flaps under the other ones during the final step.  It also makes the back look neater by removing any little bits that ruin the nice straight lines of the folded flaps. )

The last bit is easy.  Beginning with one of the white tail flaps, fold the flaps towards the center in  clockwise direction, one over the other.  Tuck the final flap (a pointed one) under its neighbor.  And there it is - completed.  If you have make one you are happy with then photograph it and send a copy to this Blog.  Be famous! 

Now unfold the model, write something nice between the crease marks on the white side , fold it back up again and send it to someone you like. 



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I will eventually make diagrammed instructions.  These are time consuming and I am considering selling them, for a reasonably small amount,  to those who can't follow crease patterns and my picture-free verbal instructions.

LETTERFOLD: CENTRAL SQUARE CROSS

LETTERFOLD:  CENTRAL SQUARE CROSS

Here is the next in the Letterfold Series.

This one also uses American Letter sized paper.  That is:  8.5 ins x 11 ins  or a ratio of 17 to 22.   Once again, this pattern will probably work for A4, but I have not tried this yet.  Could my non-American followers try it out and provide us with some photos of the finished product, please.  Come on, you know who you are.  Now get folding.

LETTERFOLD: BOWTIE

PREAMBLE

This is the first post on this Blog for a while. 

We are recovering from the effects of a serious IRS mistake. They thought we had earned 3 million dollars in 2000, and took away most of my husband's wages for several years.  This  resulted in us using up all our savings in order to survive, being evicted from our previous house while I was still recovering from major back surgery (which did a lot of harm), learning how to be lawyers so that we could represent ourselves in a dispute with our ex-landlord (we won), missing two Christmases for lack of cash, dealing with the problems of having to drive unlicensed vehicles to stay alive and managing to avoid bankruptcy due only to the extreme generosity of a couple of people.  And of course we had no money to pay a lawyer to fight with the IRS.  We eventually told them that our son was on food vouchers and if they milked any more money from us we would die, suicide or become homeless and unemployed - any of which would result in us paying no more money to them.  They have backed off.  They have all our paperwork (the third copy of these - they lost the first two) but have not yet processed it.  That was almost a year ago.  Sigh.

I developed a thyroid deficiency problem as a result of the extreme stress and am gradually getting that under control. 

On the plus side, our seventeen year old managed to graduate from High School in spite of all the drama and uncertainty.  This is particularly amazing because he suffers from Asperger's Syndrome which makes any change stressful, let alone what he has been through for the past few years. 

We are rather battered, but we have survived.  I am now able to concentrate on origami design once more. 

This is the first of several letterfolds that I designed over the past few days.  I will deal them out as I complete photogenic models and crease patterns.  I aim to complete some diagrammed instructions (time consuming) and teach at least one of the models at the upcoming Berkely Convention.  If you are a San Francisco Bay resident then perhaps I will see you there.


BOWTIE LETTERFOLD (AMERICAN LETTER SIZE)

Although this was designed for  American Letter sized paper it will probably work for A4 as well.  If one of you tries this out please photograph the results and share them, and your comments, with us.  I'll post them on this Blog.

Here is the Crease Pattern. 

A word of warning.  In order to fold this without tears you will need to refold the two vertical  valley creases on the short side so that they are temporarily mountain creases. 

Push the points of the orange triangles on the long sides to the center to collapse the model. 

Then refold those mountain creases back to valley creases.

Push these center flaps so that they are facing along the center in the other direction (90 degree turn). Flatten.

Turn the points under.

Tuck the four flaps in the pockets below (not into) the ears of the white bow tie.

If this is about as clear as brewed coffee then you will just have to wait until I complete the diagramming - or come to the Berkley convention and I'll show you. 

Remember:  all broken green lines are valley folds and all unbroken orange lines are mountain folds.  (Except for the alternating vertical folds on the sides.)

HEART FLOWER 2 -- KUSUDAMA

Here is a cubic kusudama folded from the heart flower variation.

There are some pluses and some minuses. The flower petals are longer and wider. This hides the connecting pieces quite well. On the other hand, this is a difficult model to put together. At first the connections between flowers were folded into pockets on the back/inside of the model. This became more problematic as the model neared completion. The last five folds were folded from and into pockets on the front.

A VARIATION ON THE HEART FLOWER

Here is a variation on the heart flower. In this model the heart shape is formed on the corners instead of the center sides.

Once again, the differently colored sections provide information about the size of the five paper additions to the basic flower unit. There position on the crease pattern are an approximation of their final place in the flower unit. Once again, the side additions connect the flowers together without glue but this time they are folded slightly differently from those used for the other heart flower. (See the photos in the following posting.)




By the way, many of my creations appear on my Flicker Photostream before they make it into my blog. If you are curious about what is in my origami pipeline you can look there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46625176@N00/
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THE HEART FLOWER KUSUDAMA

Recently, a reader requested information about one of my origami lanterns which she hoped to fold for her upcoming wedding. Unfortunately the item has not been diagrammed yet and the lid section is not an easy component for a near novice folder to fold or to put together.

I informed the reader that many kusudama models an be easily modified to become lanterns and I referred her to a kusudama of Russian origin which featured heart shapes, a theme which seemed appropriate for a wedding.

Contrary to the conventional rules of origami, that model required that the folder make cuts in the paper. I guess this cross between Kirigami (the art of paper cutting) and Origami (the art of paper folding)could be referred to as Kirorigami.

I found myself wondering if the model could be modified so that it was not necessary to make cuts in the paper. So I experimented.

I came up with the following model. It has a number of features which differentiate if from the Russian original, including the fact that it incorporates several pieces into each flower unit and that these units can be connected without glue.

The CP is included for those who can follow such things. The differently colored squares are the same size as the additional pieces required, and in approximately the same position from which they will be folded into the model. The center piece is not folded and simply sliped into the center of the flower. The corner pieces connect the flowers together. One of the photos shows how this is folded. A folded corner is folded together with a corner of the flower. This is held firmly in position when the sides of the heart shape are folded over at the back.

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.