Origami #11: Water Bomb Tessellation

I've been fascinated by tessellations in general for a very long time, so I was very interested to find the book "Origami Tessellations" by Eric Gjerde. There are some truly stunning things in the book, and some truly stunning tessellations out there in the world -- made from a single square or hexagonal sheet of paper. Just take a look at the origami tessellations group on Flickr to see what's possible.


This project is called "water bomb" and it's in the beginner section of the book. It was relatively straightforward and (unlike many tessellation projects which start with 32x32 or denser grids) only required an 8x8 grid to do the basic pattern. If you look at the right on the first photo above, you can see where I made an error with the initial creases -- there's one errant crease in the middle of one of the squares.


Brownie first wondered why I was putting this thing on her bed -- then she decided to make off with it and eat it (she has a thing about paper).

Origami #10: Scorpion

In honor of my zodiac sign (still *, regardless of what you might have read recently), a scorpion.


Pretty straightforward -- did involve some cutting, but I was actually able to follow the instructions I found at Origami Club without difficulty. I may be starting to get the hang of this thing.

* I mean, really, now. First they demote Scorpio's planet, now they want to tell me that not only am I not a Scorpio, but Scorpio is really only nine days! Could give a girl a complex.

Origami #9: Turtle

This is a fairly traditional origami piece: a turtle. Instructions found at The Fold.


With this project I learned that I still have a lot to learn about following origami instructions. I've been knitting since I was old enough to know the difference between needles and yarn, so knitting language and knitting patterns are second nature to me. This whole origami experience is giving me a new appreciation for what people who learn to knit as adults must be going through when faced with a pattern for the first time.

I will admit that I found a great video that walked me through the process so I could understand the directions. And, in general, I highly recommend that adults learning something new watch other people do it, live or online -- at least for visual learners this is a big help.


Once I figured out what I was doing, I have to admit the hardest part of this project was opening it once it was done, since this was, once again, made with a calendar page that's a bit heavier than origami paper. Very pretty, and very fitting for a turtle, however.

Origami #8: UFO

Yet another project from "Amazing Origami" by Kunihiko Kasahara. This one starts with a two-sided regular octagon. Adding a few folds to the octagon creates this great UFO shape.


Here I'll just quote the book: "I would like to introduce you to a different technique here, called iso-area folding. This was invented by Toshikazu Kawasaki, a Japanese mathematician and prominent origami scholar."


Essentially, once this UFO is folded it creates a shape which can be turned (by pushing down on the top until it flips) and still have the same shape.

Origami #7.5: I Didn't Fail After All

Success! After posting to the blog last night that I had failed at figuring out this vase pattern, I sat back down in my chair, took one last look at the piece, and suddenly knew what I was supposed to do. A few folds later, and I had a completed vase.


Pattern is from "Amazing Origami" by Kunihiko Kasahara. It starts with a square piece of paper which is folded to create 6 60-degree angles, then cut to create a hexagon. This hexagon is then manipulated to become this lovely little vase.




And some bonus coverage of yesterday's project (which was finished late last evening and photographed under artificial light):

I think you can see the shape of it much better here.

Origami #7: Altered Cube

As promised, today's project is a slightly more interesting project from "Amazing Origami" by Kunihiko Kasahara. But first I need to admit to my first origami failure. My original plan for the day was to make a beautiful vase created from a regular hexagon, which itself was made from an equilateral triangle. But I couldn't. I got stuck. Sorry.


What you get instead is this cube (essentially two open boxes put together) with its 8 corners "knocked in" creating an interesting polyhedron shape (technically a triacontahedron with 24 triangular faces and 6 square faces). The pictures don't really show it well, but I think you can get the idea.


This shows the two pieces which were joined to make the polyhedron.

BTW, while searching for the correct term for a 30-sided polyhedron, I came across Daniel Kwan's Flickr photos. Wow, just wow.

Origami #6: Pentagonal Pyramid

This week: fun with geometry. I found a very interesting book called "Amazing Origami" by Kunihiko Kasahara. It has some very interesting projects in it, but it really focuses on the geometry behind origami. This project uses a few simple folds to create first a doubled pentagonal pyramid shaped something like an hourglass (see side view photo),


then shows how the whole thing can be taken apart, cut in half, and reconstructed into two individual pentagonal pyramids.


Okay, not a very exciting project for the viewer, but the geometry is kind of interesting and the explanations of how this all works are simple enough to understand even for someone who struggled with basic geometry in high school.

Tomorrow, something a bit more visually exciting from the same book.