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Showing posts from August, 2022

Magnolias Origami Tessellation

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 This tessellation is folded from an old crease pattern that I found in my google photos. Apparently, I had conceived of the idea, but had never executed it.  I actually found the crease pattern mistakenly associated with an entirely different tessellation than what it depicted. Weird.  Anyway, I finally folded it.  It's an interesting star pattern that I haven't seen before. It waited a long time to finally come to life and now, at long last, it has.  Crease pattern is at the bottom. 

Vortexes Origami Tessellation 2.0

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 I have been looking back at some of the tessellations that I did several years ago. Back when the whole idea of creating my own tessellations was still a crazy, new concept.  It's certainly interesting to see how differently I thought then in terms of shapes, construction and overall concept.  In some respects, it feels like I was more creative back then. On the other hand, I feel more skilled today. More able to bring random ideas to fruition.  This tessellation is another design of my own which I had to reverse engineer because I didn't properly document it the first time. It tripped me up for a bit because I was trying to simply recreate the shapes using standard construction methods, but there's actually a secret to finishing this one. Its basis is a pretty simple design that is augmented by a series of reverse folds on the corners of the spirals. When you examine it from the back you can see better what shapes are involved.  There are the open back hexes. Then the plu

Spiraling Origami Tessellaton

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 Way back in January 2019 I created the pattern for the tessellation in this picture. This is a refold of that.  When I first did it, I failed to save a crease pattern. As I was looking at the photo of the original I decided it would be worth folding again.  For two main reasons.  One, to have a saved crease pattern. Two, to have a nicer photograph of the completed model.  My phone back then did not have a great camera. It's a bit of a strange feeling trying to solve your own design.  On the one hand, I felt confident that if it was my mind that created it, surely that same mind could figure it out in reverse.  On the other hand, I felt worried that if I couldn't figure it out that meant I was losing my origami mojo.  Fortunately for me, my mojo remains intact for now.  Honestly, it's not a very complicated design. It's just densely spaced.  I'm a sucker for those closely nested repetitions.

Solving the Criss Crossed Tessellation by GatheringFolds

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 This tessellation is a modification of one by @gatheringfolds that I solved. I believe she called it Criss Crossed.  Honestly, I initially found it a little confusing. It's not ideal trying to figure out the mechanics of an origami structure from an instagram pic on your phone.  I used to share them to my email and open the images full size on a regular pc monitor, but instagram has made that a lot harder to do. It may still be possible, but I've not tried that hard.  Given that I usually do these things at work, I'm limited in how I can obtain the larger images.  So I zoom in from the app on my phone and grumble and squint and usually can make out the details required. Usually.  I mapped out how her original idea worked on some grid paper, but decided to shrink it to better fit on a 32 pleat grid.  Basically just moving everything closer together. The back side is particularly interesting to me. It makes me think of a pulley system. I like it. 

Rhombus Ribbons Origami Tessellation 2.0

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 This is a tessellation that I came up with almost exactly 3 years ago. Fiddling around, I came up with it all over again. That happens to me a lot. Time goes by and I forget them and wind up unknowingly repeating myself.  It's all good though. It's a chance to fold it better. To photograph it better. To document it better.  It's larger offset hexagons on the one side and triads of rhombus twists on the other side.  I particularly like how the rhombus twists create ribbons that flow to the corners of the hexagons.  It's a pretty easy tessellation to execute. Nothing tricky about it. Any old paper will work.  Crease pattern included below.  It's a bit messy, but just the red lines apply.  It's not indicated in the crease pattern, but you do need triangle twists at the triple intersections of the rhombuses. They land on the reverse side. 

Infinite Triangles Origami Tessellation

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This is just a flash idea I had. There was no planning involved. No inspiration. I just started folding and followed the lure of the creases in the paper.  Upon seeing the finished result, It kind of reminds me of Robin Scholz's Triphilia tessellation, but the construction is definitely different and I was not thinking of that as I was crafting it. The similarity is that you can arrange the layering of the triangles into different patterns of your choice.  I went looking and discovered  I had folded this a few years ago and called it Triangle Temptations . I didn't realize this until after I'd completed this model.  Apparently, according to my original post, I'd seen someone else fold it on flickr and recreated it.  This happens sometimes. You hit on an idea and it's something you've done and forgotten. They linger in the back of your brain and come forward unexpectedly.  That previous version differed from this one slightly, in that it used double sized cross g

High Density Hydrangea Origami Fold

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 Recursive origami used to be something that I did on a regular basis. Long before I discovered origami tessellations, recursive origami was what I did.  Recursive origami is similar to tessellations in that they're both a repeating pattern that can, in theory, go on infinitely. But while tessellations repeat along the x and y axes, recursive designs repeat along the z axis.  Shuzo Fujimoto was a famous recursive origami designer. Some of his most famous creations are the clover and the hydrangea.  Some origamists even took it a step further with what are known as high density recursive designs. Repeating the single layered model multiple times on a single sheet of paper.  For some reason that I don't understand the technique for folding the hydrangea has stayed firmly planted in my brain. Even years later, I still remember all the steps.  I also remember that it can be done at higher densities. I first encountered this idea at a website called. origamitutorials.com. But I had