first layer of star tower Originally uploaded by Origomi. this was just a monster pain. it came out OK, but it’s not what I thought it was. an interesting exercise though, and another set of folds to add to the notebook. I’m finding all the different permutations of basic folds to really be interesting to explore. I feel like I’m mapping them out, as if it’s completely new territory. of course it isn’t, as many have done this before, but it’s new to me and I decided to keep it that way. I know there are folks in the origami world who are much more adept at math than I (I just squeaked through calculus every semester, rather than acing it) but there’s more to origami than just the math. of course that’s an intrinsic part of it, but it’s important to not lose sight of all the other aspects of the art. because when things look pretty, it makes people happy.

Work in progress Originally uploaded by Origomi. I was unable to fold this flat; however, during that process of investigation, I found some other interesting folds. I haven’t been able to visualize or physically find a way to fold a 120 degree angle with a flat layer below… the way the paper folds just doesn’t let that happen, as much as I want it to. maybe something more complex will make it possible, but I’m not sure what that would be. However, I find that the more I try to work on attaining some specific goal, other things just seem to randomly pop up in the search. so I guess it’s all good.

weird hex box thing Originally uploaded by Origomi. I came up with this thing last night- I think it can be “towerized”. the bottom came together nicely in a spiral sort of way, and the extra fold along the edges made a locking edge to make it stay together. take a look at the back side of it on the flickr photostream. I steamed it over the kettle and it got all hot inside- it made me think of dumplings and I got all hungry! but it’s not a tasty treat, unfortunately. and I can’t fold dumplings well to save my life- the last time we folded up a bunch of gyoza it took me several hours to get a groove going without making a mess. ah, but the steaming bit didn’t help it harden up. it was worth a shot, anyway. I’ll have to try using some thicker paper and see what happens.

first layer of "tiled" triangle fold, top Originally uploaded by Origomi. A lot of people seem to want instructions or crease patterns for this thing, so I’m putting some together. hopefully it will make sense. I’m looking to get a snappy document together using iWork’s Pages app, but we’ll see if I can put up with it long enough to make that happen or not. I never knew diagramming was so hard…

many layer "spread" hex fold, top closeup Originally uploaded by Origomi. here’s a photo of a fold I uploaded to flickr. I didn’t realize there was a 10 MB cap on monthly uploads (eesh!) so I only was able to upload 8 instead of about 40 pix. whoops. I’ll have to spring for the paid account, I guess. Anyway, this is an example of a “spread” hex fold (which is what I arbitrarily decided to call it this morning). if you check out my photo stream on flickr, it has the full photo, the reverse, etc.