Origami Tessellations

So, there’s been a little ongoing conversation on Flickr the last few days talking about how long it takes you to precrease a sheet of paper with a triangular grid. Taking off from that point, it branched out a little bit into how we go about the actual folding process.

Ryan (the one who started this conversation!) just posted his folding process, here.

I’ve just changed my normal folding process to utilize a method that I saw in one of Fujimoto’s books; I had to make some guesses, but I think I figured it out so it’s roughly the same. I posted a series of photos detailing the folding process which works pretty well; however, I also recorded a quick video and uploaded it to Youtube.com. You can click on the embedded video below and view the 4:30 movie, if you want more details.

A few days ago, I folded this 7-pointed star:

I put together a quick CP of the design, which is roughly accurate- you’ll get some fudging of a few lines, though. The main reference creases are accurate, however.

Download the Negative Space Heptagonal Star crease pattern here.

My apologies if it doesn’t fit quite right on the paper- I’m having some PDF issues this week, hopefully I’ll get it all sorted out soon.

Seven Points of Love

Originally uploaded by Ori-gomi.

Folded this heptagonal star from some radial line grids- the rest is folded by guesstimation. I’ve been practicing this type of folding a lot lately, trying to get some better folding ability. I’m still not very good, but I’m getting better at it- it’s just going to take time, and that’s OK. Patience with these things is important. it’s all about having fun in the process.

I like the way it looks, I just wish I could figure out a way to fold a centralized heptagon in a sheet of paper without needing printed guidelines.

This is from a series of items generated by a script I had laying around- more posting on that later.

-Eric

Double triangle twist, shadowfold view

Originally uploaded by cati1ine.

We were all very pleased to see some tessellations from Andy Wilson posted on flickr, and added to the Origami Tessellations photo pool!

Andy has been folding tessellations for quite a while, and has some really amazing work out there. He was the person who really inspired me to start folding tessellations, as his work was really some of the only photos available online to study and learn from. So he’s been quite an inspiration for my work, and I’m really pleased to see some new items from him- and have him join our little virtual tessellation group!

He’s only got 2 photos on flickr right now, but if you have an account make sure to add him as a friend so you see his work pop up in the future! Flickr is free to use, and only costs money if you want to have more or less “unlimited” photo uploading abilities- I think it’s quite worth it, but you can post a lot of photos without paying a thing. I highly recommend it as a fun and interactive way of sharing your origami work with the world at large!

Looking forward to more fascinating tessellations from you, Andy!

I saw these wonderful folded artworks by Richard Sweeney this morning, thanks to a tip from Oschene. There’s some very interesting concepts here, and some wonderful rounded shapes- reminiscent of Huffman’s curved folding, in some ways. Richard really must have spent a lot of time figuring out his folding techniques for these works- creating curves is amazingly hard to do accurately and cleanly!

It’s some very impressive stuff, Richard- thanks for posting them on Flickr so the world can see your art.

two wonderful examples- check out his whole photostream for more wonderful works

This is totally unrelated to origami, but I thought I’d post it anyway.

My Brazilian co-worker was in an “Ultimate Cage Fight” this last weekend- he knocked out his opponent in 7 seconds with one kick. My wife and I went to the event, which honestly was pretty bizarre- but it was really fun to cheer for my friend and see him accomplish what he has been training for these last 6 months.

here’s the link:

http://www.origamitessellations.com/MaltaFight.wmv

Don’t watch this if you’re easily disturbed!

Looking forward to your next crazy cage fight, Caio.

See more info from his friend’s website here, including photos and the fight poster.

This won’t be a common sidestep from my normal website content, but it was just weird enough to share it with those of you who know me. For those of you who don’t- this isn’t my normal taste in entertainment

-Eric

Sweet- the Make: magazine blog picked up my link submission of Joel Cooper’s work. Thanks Natalie, for sharing this with everyone out there on the internet- getting some more exposure for Joel’s amazing art is only a good thing!

My Latest Folding

Originally uploaded by Ori-gomi.

Here’s what I’ve been up to lately.

rest of post blatantly ripped from my flickr page:

So, I haven’t posted much origami lately. There’s a few reasons for this.

We had some family issues with surgery, and then with everyone being sick, which really isn’t all that is conducive to artistic creation. That’s been an ongoing problem for a few weeks, and thanks to those of you who gave me some support through that, I appreciate it.

…and the other thing is that I have been doing a lot of folding that just isn’t something that is worth sharing! I’ve been playing around with octagons, dodecagons, and other many-sided polygons and their various uses in making tessellation designs; however, much of my test folds are incomplete partial sections that are useful only for me, as a reference fold.

Hopefully all this playing around will yield some fruit, in the form of a larger tessellation of more complex shapes, but I’m not quite sure how that is going to come together quite yet.

I’m working on it, though- here’s a shot of the box of test folds I’ve been carrying around every day with me. I keep adding things to this pile, and then taking them away and putting them in storage at home, as ideas come and go.

If you have a Digg account, please take a minute to go “digg” a link to Joel’s origami:

http://digg.com/technology/Amazing_Origami_Mask_Tessellations

The more “diggs”, the more visibility the story gets. Thanks!

-Eric

Origami crumpling

Originally uploaded by Orbán Zoltán.

Spotted: Floderer style crumpling, by a new flickr member- Orbán Zoltán.

I enjoy the look of this kind of origami, although I can’t imagine where to even begin if I wanted to fold such a piece.

There’s a number of great photos in the photostream, so make sure to check them out!

-Eric