The Barber's Pole Box - Completed CPs

After a few days of slog the crease patterns for the various forms of Barber's Pole Box have been completed. Samples are set out below.

The task of diagramming the details will have to wait until some other time. I need a break from this model for a while.

My next projected task is to do more work on the Fish Base Box. It has two tall bases which need to be folded from good paper and photographed. Expect to see the results here in a couple more days.

The Barber's Pole Box: Version 3

Not all origami creations spring into existence in a perfect form or a with a perfect folding sequence. Mine are no exception.

The original Barber's Pole Box had two minor flaws.

1. The under side of the base looked slightly untidy because of the double edges which showed at some of the seams.

2. The lid was difficult to assemble.

Since I thrive on spatial problem solving I have spent several days working on ways to overcome these problems. The search produced several variations along the way, some of which survived.

THE BASE. The displayed crease pattern produces a base which is neater on the underside and removes some of the bulk of the sides by tucking them under the floor rather than triple folding them up the walls. The pattern of the floor changed slightly and became a little looser. My first attempt to rectify this problem was to halve the outer edges and tuck them under. Unfortunately this distastefully exposed the tucked under wall sections. Quartering the sections produced a more aesthetic result and that is what is diagrammed here.

THE LID. The following crease pattern produces a lid which looks the same on the outside as the original lid but is much easier to assemble. The pattern on the inside is the same but the depth levels are reversed: the outer edges are now over the center section instead of under it.

Unfortunately understanding how the floor of each unit is interconnected is not obvious from the Crease Pattern and not particularly intuitive. The floor and the wall ends are tucked around each other to form a secure unit without loose and floppy edges. You may come across the method on your own but you will probably have to wait for 3D diagramming or photographic examples to achieve enlightenment.



The CP includes a variation to the apex of the stripe which is now narrowed to a finer point. Different looks can be created by tucking the two halves under the adjacent section together or tucking one half differently from the other. Pictures explain this much better than words.

Narrowing the apex by folding in the other direction results in exposure of the underlying pattern at the center and can give rise to a number of interesting textures.






Still another alternative is to construct a lid using a modification of the pattern for the underside of the base section. Here is the crease pattern for that also.

Enjoy.

A Lid for the Barber's Pole Box

Some days things flow smoothly and some days they don't. Today was one of the irksome latter type. Designing a lid for the Barber's Pole Box seemed as if it should have been easy but it was not.

The aim was to make the lid follow the contour of the base and compliment this with an appropriate twist at the top.

Making a top which was identical to the base, just shorter and wider, did not work. The problem was that the height of the American Letter sized sheet did not lend itself to this. Making the lid from a square didn't help either. In fact, it caused all kinds of headaches relating to how it interfaced with the twist design in the base. I got tangled up in complex divisions (ninths) and complicated foldings which just added bulk.

Once, when it seemed that I had got something that looked effective, it proved to be insufficiently sturdy: the lid came apart fairly easily. My policy is to make boxes and containers that not only look good but lock well and don't present problems in use. In other words, they are designed to be functional art forms.

The process was not helped at all by the fact that I was using working paper which was left over from a set of mailed flyers we laser printed a couple of years back. It was stiff and horrible and tore under stress. By mid-morning my temper had began to fray to match to paper.


Finally, towards the end of the day, I came up with something which pleased me. By this time I had redesigned the base and re-thought the lid. The box-and-lid version of the base is now vertically symmetrical, slightly shorter and quite "tidy". It is also extremely sturdy, although a little bulky in places. The base is made, once again, from 4 sheets of American Letter paper (but the pattern will work with A4) and the lid is made from 4 slightly wider squares of paper. The lid is a little too snug, especially for thick paper. Instead of the specified 1/8" I would recommend removing about 3/16th of an inch from the width of the paper for the base.

The box-and-lid has won some "friends" already. Even my husband wants one. Apparently he thinks it will make a good piece to show to his workmates in explanation of what his "crazy wife" does with her "spare" time.


This is not a box for a beginning folder. Like it's maternal counterpart, both the box and the lid are difficult to assemble. Having made several of these things by now, I have discovered a few tricks which considerably help the assembly process, but they are hard to explain or draw. Diagramming this part of the procedure will almost certainly be added to my collection of origami nightmares.

Of course, some of my more talented readers may come up with something elegantly simple which I will wish I had thought of myself. One of the nice things about this art form is that enthusiasts are invariably quite willing to share their insights and expertise with other folders.

The Barber's Pole Box

Diagramming is tedious and I need to take breaks. Sometimes the breaks interfere with the next session of diagramming. Today I invented another box in a break. This is not an unusual occurrence. It adds another level of complexity to the diagramming task, however, as I am then in a rush to commence diagramming the new item while I am still enthusiastic about it and/or before I forget how I folded it.

Sometimes new designs take weeks to complete. Fortunately the design process on this one was fairly quick. I worked from a proto-folding I made a few days ago in the middle of exploring another idea. I discarded the proto-folding idea after about ten minutes. After another hour I discarded the next version as well. Version three worked out quite well but presented a problem during assembly. This was fairly quickly ironed out to produce version four, which appeared to be a winner.



Here is a crease pattern for version four. It's modular so make four pieces. Unfortunately getting the last piece to slide under its neighbor is not a pleasant process. Sharpen your fingers into long thin points or, if you don't like that suggestion, use a couple of pairs of small pliers to manipulate the paper.

If you are a talented paper folder of exceptional intelligence you may come up with an assembly solution which is less problematic. In this case I want to know about it. If you are a folder of only moderate skill and intelligence and you come up with a better solution I will reserve the right to re-classify you according to the previous criteria in order to save face and refrain from admitting my incompetence.