Organic Origami

A natural continuation from the previous day. The diagonal of the pleated square is divided into four not quite equal parts and three pinches squeeze the pleats to create four leaves.

These two leaves look the same as those in Four leaves. However, here the pleats in each are parallel to the orientation of the folded leaf, while originally they were perpendicular to it. The center of the sheet is where the two leaves meet, and the twist does two things: it changes the color by flipping the visible side of the paper, and it shapes the leaves by pressing all the pleats tightly together. Pins (nails) are critical in shaping this.

Very simple as far as folding goes. After the folds were made, I rolled every available corner to create curled shapes. This added three-dimensionality as well. Paper: elephant-hide.

The simplest possible way of creating an illusion of four individual squares of paper. Paper: light blue lokta, crumpled and dyed black and gold.

Just like the previous variation, this fold gets really really thick in places, and when the paper is as thick as elephant-hide, the effect is quite different.

Another reworking of an idea from 2008. This time, I used moriki kozo with no sizing. The sheet was probably about 8 inches square. In both cases, my goal was to do in paper something reminiscent of Božena Štih-Balen (especially the Burgeoning series, shown in the second row on the third page of the portfolio). I still have work to do here, but for this series I’m happy with a few variations (see also days 36 and 43).

The basic pair of pleat sequences, but at a very tight pitch (32 by 32 from a 6 inch square). Using tant, it would be almost impossible to complete it cleanly. Instead, I stopped about halfway and pulled the folded part out, almost flat.

This was inspired by a revisit to something I did back in 2008. Instead of a simple three by three grid of identical wavelets, I added twists during the folding so that the one in the middle tilts in a different direction. I refolded a version of this recently and as I was working on it I thought about the logical continuation of the idea: use more than two orientations. In fact, use all four! It took four or five attempts before I got the folding sequence right. Tant, 12 by 12 inches, 24-base grid.

A proper tessellation, if only two by two. Each quarter is the basic pair of pleat sequences, then pulled out. Copper metallic paper, 6 by 6 square.