30 Days of Creativity - #12

Paper Crafts

Figure1. Starting an origami triangle

Today was a day to try some paper crafts. I had recently gotten a couple of books from the library—one on paper tessellations and one on origami. It was time to try something from each. It ended up being  a family affair, with my daughters trying their hands as well.

Origami Triangle, Origami Pyramid

Not being in an overly ambitious mood, I made a simple triangle out of a square piece of paper (Figure 1). Big whoop. Realizing that was not very impressive, I proceeded to a three sided pyramid. Big Whoop!

Tessellated Paper

Figure 2. Old and interesting gummed paper

This was actually more interesting, and was tackled by the girls. I had recently obtained some very interesting gummed paper at an estate sale and hadn't come up with a legitimate gummy use for it yet, so we figured, "what the heck." It has an interesting fuzzy texture, but turned out not to be ideal for the purpose (Figure 2). It does not hold a crisp edge, which is necessary to get a large number of precise folds into it. I also tears too easily.

But, somehow they got it to work and produces the attractive curved shape shown in the middle of figure 3. Figure three also shows the origami pyramid.

Figure 3. Triangle, tessellation, and pyramid

The tessellation book recommends mulberry paper, which apparently is very tough and holds a crease well. It also happens to be fairly expensive (although you can get a deal on some on eBay). If we ever decide to get seriously into tessellating paper (not likely) it would be worth the investment. Some of the creations shown in the book are pretty amazing though.

References

Montroll, John; Origami Polyhedra Design; Wellesley, MA: A K Peters, 2009

Gjerde, Eric; Origmi Tessellations: Awe-inspiring Geometric Designs; Wellesley, MA: A K Peters, 2009

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