pegasus

This has got to be my favorite model to fold, and the first model in a long time that I committed to memory so that I would be able to produce it at any time.
It’s simple, elegant and a pegasus! I folded this one out of a piece of origami paper I wrote a few sentences on from an in-class project. I really like the addition of the scribble as an emerging texture. Not knowing how or where it would exactly end up while folding.
I just want to add that I always find the final product so attractive! There is something in the angles, proportion and the chunkiness of the legs, that is immensely gratifying. It also makes for a extremely stable standing figure which is not always accounted for when folding.

To get the pegasus, there a just few steps you need to take from the eight point star… here is a pic of that from a previous post

Diagram taken from

Two folds I like to add to this model is an inside reverse fold to create more of a square snout and a soft inside reverse fold on the tail to give more of an illusion of it hanging.

fold on.

Lamp Project – 3d modular origami circuits

Modular Origami Lamp
A lamp shade constructed out of 3D origami modules with some modules conductive and other non-conductive. The conductive Modules will link together to form the circuit. More specifically, each of the three pins on a RGB LED will be connected to a row of conductive modules. The color of the LED will be adjustable by swapping out modules in the row with either more conductive or non-conductive ones. This will change the resistance of each RGB pin, which will in turn change the color.

Mike and I decided on the basic module made for 3D origami. The next step was figuring out how to make these modules conductive. We decided to try copper leaf, which is very fragile and applied by brushing adhesive to the object you want to gild and then applying the leaf. It seemed a good way to apply an even coat of conductivity.

We had a folding party, and by the size of them, it seemed that what we were about to construct was a miniature lamp shade. This worked nicely since we were prototyping and it worked scale-wise if we were to use a single LED anyway.
Only problem was we needed to keep onward, but we couldn’t find a common cathode LED, we were testing ones borrowed from class mates and had no luck. Either they were common anode or the common cathode ones we found had faulty pins…

We admitted defeat (for now) and decided to start putting together our modules.
Here is where we learned how to cut paper in the right size, fold a module and put them together.
3D origami

After some searching, we were able to find one after all… but agreed to buy some first thing the next day!

NEXT CHAPTER

Modular Origami – testing modules

The theme for building a project this week was modularity. Mike Kelberman approached me with an always intriguing idea of using origami and conductive inks in order to create a transformable electrical device. What we came up with is a lamp using an RGB LED. The idea is changing the color of the LED by changing the resistance of each pin. In able to change the resistance, you add either a conductive or non-conductive module to the circuit trace.
Once we decided what module design to go with, we decided to make the lamp shade itself out of the modules, the connections of the modules to one another making up the conductive traces that lead to each of the three LED pins (R,G,B).

This is the start of our process, making and deciding on what module to work with.

We searched many different modules. Here are some great modular origami sites:
http://www.origamee.net/
http://hektor.umcs.lublin.pl/~mikosmul/origami/
http://www.origami-resource-center.com/modular.html

The problem with most modules we found, was the flexibility of design. If we were to have a shape that you had to be able to remove a module and still have the stability of the form stay in tack, it could not be a form that relied on the tension created between each module.
The first one that looked promising was “That Simple/Stupid/S#!%@!#! Unit”
It gave us pictures of different configurations using 4 – 30 units. Still, after folding, this proved to be too flimsy and not right for what we had in store.

After nixing That Simple Unit, we went back to simpler modules that might give us more of a stable connection. Below is an example of that. Still wasn’t quite right…

NEXT CHAPTER

tare panda!!

While I was looking for panda diagrams I found this awesome tare panda! I thought it would be simple, but the fold was actually more sophisticated and crazy fun! Especially since you get to blow into it to puff the face out. sweet.

A pdf of the diagram right here

fold on.

The Ape

In honor of by bff’s birthday (he’s thirty!) I made an ape today. Actually, in order for it to be entirely accurate, I would have made a monkey. Alas, I couldn’t get my hands on a monkey diagram in time for this post. So, sorry Mikie… no zombiemonkie (his moniker)… maybe zombie ape? ok… maybe not.
It still equals <3 and warm birthday wishes!

Taken from

Written by James Minoru Sakoda

fold on.

Rabbit

In order to get to the rabbit, I needed to go through two base folds, the eight point star and the owl.

This came from an origami book I’ve been folding from for years, I love it! It’s called Modern Origami written by James Minoru Sakoda.

fold on.

unico*rn

This was made by following online instructions, you can find them right here
However, I added some folds of my own to improve the look. Reverse folds on the legs to simulate hooves and in hopes to make it more stable, and a reverse fold on the tail. I also made sure to leave a bit on the end of the horn so it had two flaps that folded over each side of the head which created a nice rest for it.

fold on.