http://art-smart.ci.manchester.ct.us/how_to/how_to_hi_shirt.html

fold an origami Hawaiian Shirt ( a short sleeved sport shirt).

The origami shirt is one of my favourite models: it is easy to make, and looks great! In the site above you will find step-by-step instructions to fold it, with pictures. The hawaian look is optional, of course: I for instance made this soccer-themed shirt

Construction of a Menger sponge can be visualized as follows:

1. Begin with a cube.
2. Shrink the cube to 1 / 3 of its original size and make 20 copies of it.
3. Place the copies so they will form a new cube of the same size as the original one but lacking the centerparts, (next image).
4. Repeat the process from step 2 for each of the remaining smaller cubes.

After an infinite number of iterations, a Menger sponge will remain.

from Wikipedia

The Menger Sponge is a fractal particularly appealing to modular origamists, and I believe that for two reasons: it can be made out of Sonobe modules (the very first “brick” that every origamist learns), and given its fractal nature, it can be expanded forever and ever. What follows is a list of origami websites on this fascinating structure: Read the rest of this article »

http://www.artbytucho.blogspot.com/

A few days ago my good friend Tucho Fernández opened his new blog, “Art by Tucho”, where he is regularly posting samples of his drawings and 3D models. Tucho and I worked together in the Glest project and he is now also working for the video games company Traganarion Studios. As for his art, the quality of his paintings is elloquent enough. I would add that he´s especially talented for drawing things of an organic nature, especially fantasy creatures and dinosaurs, but in my opinion that´s only because that´s his preference. I have been trying to make him draw robots and spaceships since I first met him, though, and the Battle Machine is the best example that he is equally skillful at drawing almost anything.

My friend Covadonga sent me a very nice step-by-step guide to making this origami envelope, originally attributed to Frances Levangia. She writes, “I made these diagrams based on paper models because otherwise I would forget how to make it, so when I like something, since I have no idea of how to diagram, I do it in this way”. Thanks Covadonga!

While searching for information on the envelope, I came across this site, where you will find a very nice collection of letterfolds and envelopes diagrammed by John Cunliffe. This same model is included among them; for those who are learning how to read diagrams, it could be interesting to compare it with Covadonga´s instructions to see how the drawings translate themselves into foldings.

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As I promised yesterday, here´s the tessellations gallery. Enjoy!

The models have been folded by Teresa Amado, Teresa Otero and Covadonga Blanco.

ps. For more information on tessellations, I recommend visiting origamitessellations.com and raviapte.com.

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This weekend I had the pleasure to assist to the meeting organized by my friends of the Origami Group, which took place in a hotel located close to Santiago de Compostela and gathered enthusiasts coming from all the regions of Spain and abroad.

These were three days of intense folding and a great opportunity to learn while making great friends! Many people brang their own models (either made from diagrams or original creations), and I have to admit that I was absolutely amazed by the level and skill of the participants. I´m sure that you will agree with me that these models show great expertise and a unique beauty.

I had the chance to take lots of pictures during these three days (even if I always arrived late! ). Many of them are shown below; I added a picture of Xerome to the article I wrote on the models he made from tree leaves, and some 15 pictures of earring designs to the article I wrote a month ago on the same topic. Furthermore, I took so many pictures of tessellations that I think they deserve a separate article, so if you like the pictures below I suggest that you come back tomorrow: you won´t be disappointed, I promise!

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This little thing that I present today is an origami brooch I “invented” a few days ago. I started from a hexagonal piece of paper, with the intention of folding a tessellation (that is, when you fold the paper so that it creates a seamless repetition of shapes). While working on it I decided to Read the rest of this article »

http://www.johnrausch.com/SlidingBlockPuzzles/Default.htm

When I was little I had a small keychain sliding block puzzle featuring The Hulk. I remember very well the original image with all the pieces in place. I still remember my pretentious ideals (I can undo and solve it again, mwa ha ha!), and I can´t forget how they were shattered to pieces after endless vain attempts to bring back The Hulk to shape, which was finally left alone in the thick mist of oblivion, condemned to suffer an amorphous state of eternal, merciless, evergrowing entropy… Read the rest of this article »

Last Updated 26.02.06

The figures below have been made by my friend Xerome by folding carefully chosen tree leaves. I consider him an expert in origami, able not only to fold the most intrincate models but also to create new ones of his own. With these new creations he has gone a step farther in his art, not only being able to fold the leaves as if they were normal paper but also to bring hidden shapes out of them in a series of impressive masks. As far as he and I know nobody has ever done this before, but beyond the novelty of the technique I believe that these figures show an artistry that very few people can achieve.

Update 26.02.06 I added a picture of Xerome taken at the Origami meeting which took place this weekend in Santiago.

Last Updated 26.02.06

The Origami Group in Santiago de Compostela is a cheerful community of enthusiasts of paper folding. There´s no “membership”, as no special requirement is needed to join other than curiosity and interest towards learning new figures (and making friends, of course!). Read the rest of this article »

http://www.pocketmod.com/

The PocketMod is a small book with guides on each page. These guides or templates, combined with a unique folding style, enable a normal piece of paper to become the ultimate note card.

The interest of pocketmod lies in the way it merges several useful related ideas into a single, solid initiative. There´s a set of handy templates (or mods, as they call them) to choose from; an intuitive application to arrange them into a custom notebook; a way to make this application as accesible as possible (you can either design and print the notebook right from the browser, or download the software and use it offline); a clever folding pattern so that the notebook is quickly made from the printed piece of paper; and a tool to convert previously made documents (in pdf format) to a ready-to-fold booklet (or series of booklets, if needed).

I find that the folding technique leaves too much paper unused (one side, actually), but after trying several alternatives I believe that actually the authors went for the easiest way to get the book ready. Anyway, the forum is a good source for further mods and ideas. Now you can say goodbye to sketching on paper napkins!

ps. Still, if you must use a napkin, remember the folding pattern: you´ll get a notebook as small as it is cool

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http://www.page.sannet.ne.jp/jun_m/card3d/index-eng.html

3D Card Maker is a Windows application which generates unfolded patterns for Pop Up Cards.

kirigami is a paper craft where shapes are literally brought out of paper by cutting and folding (some origami models require cuts, but those are exceptions, so to say: in kirigami, cutting is an intrinsic part of the making of the models). The models themselves can be designed either by hand or aided by the computer; in this latter case 3D Card Maker allows you to create fairly complex designs with just a little practice. All the work is done in a single window where the model is shown in 3D, and moving, rotating or scaling it is straightforward. The interface is easy to understand (first steps: move the cursor with the keyboard arrows, raise columns by pressing the space bar), and provides very useful functions, like the mirror mode, which saves half the work when creating symmetric patterns, or the animation feature, which shows how the model should be folded after cutting. Finally, you can directly print the unfolded pattern, export it as a bmp image, or even export the tridimensional model as a DXF. In all, 3D Card Maker is a very nice program which will keep you entertained for quite a long time.

a book by David Petty

In these pages you will find over 100 inventive variations around a circular theme using modular origami

If I were to describe this book in as few words as possible, I would choose these: easy, modular, organic origami. Easy, because the folding instructions are very clear and each of the pieces can be made in a few minutes by people with none to very little knowledge in origami; modular, because you create the models by assembling several small identical units together; and organic, because the result is a whole which looks much more complex than the sum of its parts: actually, many of the spiky stars and rings remind me of living sea stars and urchins. I came to this book after having seen several models a friend of mine had done, and I recommend it to anyone interested in any of the key themes mentioned above, as it will be a pleasing and rewarding discovery.

Update: I just found out that the author has made available several models with instructions here.

A high-tech tumbler that transforms rough rocks and minerals into smooth, shiny gemstones.

I like the idea… you throw in some raw stones that you got on your last day in the countryside, you then wait some time and voila, you get a handful of beautiful polished beads. You may want to spend a little more and get into a more serious, professional looking tumbler, like these ones from lortone. Anyway, keep in mind that tumbling is made for the patient one as it takes many days for stones to gradually polish. You may take a look at this page for more info on the whole thing.

Today I got an explanation on this technique. It is basically an iterative method that allows to approximate the measures until a satisfactory value is achieved; this comes to mean that you make an initial guess, you apply an operation on it and then repeat that same operation over and over, taking the result of the previous step as the starting point for the next, which will give you more accurate measures each time.

For instance, if you want to divide a segment of paper in thirds, you would do the following:

1.-Fold one side the paper into what you guess could be the right measure for a third of it. Don´t mark the folding completely, just mark the end of it so that you know where it is.

2.-Fold the other side so that it reaches the point you just marked, and mark the folding.

3.-Fold the other side so that it reaches the point you just marked, and mark the folding.

Keep doing this. In a few steps you should have accurate thirds.

Now for fiths:

1.-Fold one side of the paper into what you guess could be the right measure for a fith of it. Mark it just enough to know where it is, as I explained for thirds.

2.-Fold the other side so that it reaches the point you just marked, and mark the folding. Now make and mark a fold which is the half of this.

3.-Fold the other side so that it reaches the point you just marked, and mark the folding. Now make and mark a fold which is the half of this.

Keep doing this. In a few steps you should have accurate fifths.

… Now that I think about all these thirds and fiths, this looks a lot like the way one would tune a musical instrument

Thanks to my friends of the origami group in Santiago de Compostela for sharing these techniques with me.

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