Origami Tessellations

Lots of new origami content being posted these days on flickr- almost too much to try to keep track of! I have a bunch of backlogged posts, which I will get punched out once I tie up some loose ends at work (work, you know, the thing we do when we aren’t folding?)

However I feel I need to point out Joel Cooper’s Hat model:

I suppose it’s bad that I think of everything in the context of it’s lamp-worthiness; I honestly don’t, but when I see things like this I really can’t avoid it.

I also think this would morph really well into an egg. I’ve been in need of a good tessellated egg for a long time now, so if I can pull it off using this as a base I’ll be deeply indebted to Joel for the insight and inspiration. I still can’t get over how well he folds his work!

Finally!

Originally uploaded by freeflyfrog77.

new flickr folder freeflyfrog77 created this beautiful lamp out of a 5-foot sheet of paper!

watching the build process on this is fascinating- make sure to read the notes, too. here’s the description of how it was designed:

I used a piece of paper from a roll we have at work (kids draw on it off an easel). I liked the stiffness of it. I used a yard stick and ruler to score all the folds before hand. With a little pressure the paper just “popped” into its fold. It required fine tuning at the points though. As for the pattern it is actually really simplistic. I took a piece of paper one pleat wide and simply folded it to a shape I liked the profile of the lamp to be. I then transferred it on to the paper flipping the angles every pleat…The clincher I think was the scoring. I did it with a mechanical pencil tip with no lead in it. I went through in a few spots due to over pressure but nothing a spot of tape can’t fix.

you can see the whole project photo set here: Lamp Project.

• TNPI – Do it Yourself .mac
  Matt Simerson (I keep running into this guy online, somehow…) posts this nicely detailed way to replace most of the .mac functionality with your own *nix box.
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• Build your own macro ring-light
  nice instructions for building your own ring light – a way of getting even lighting on a subject that is being macro-photographed.
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• Tantalizing Tesselations!!
  educational page with different lessons for kids on tessellation geometries, and types of symmetries. some easy-to-explain and understand material. (personal reference bookmark)
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• The artwork of Kenneth A. Huff
  Delicious complex geometric artwork, with a strong organic feeling to it. inspiring!
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origami salvage yard

Originally uploaded by origami joel.

Joel Cooper has several new photos online- I found this one to be the most striking.

it’s the cast-offs from his mask folding; he says that the designs that don’t work out get re-used as prototyping material. I think we all understand that- especially once you’ve spent all that time precreasing the paper, it feels wrong to just throw it away.

due to the sheer quantity of creases on these designs, it almost looks like faces melting, or something odd like that… they all seem very sad, to me.

I still find these amazing. check his photo stream on flickr for a great set of posts on his creation process for these tessellated masks.