Origami | The Art of Paper Folding

Four days of nonstop folding with awesome people.

I made some biodegradable pots for my chili seedlings today. I am quite satisfied how well they fit the box.

A guide how to fold them was posted here in this community earlier: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/57009504

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/24752898

Sitting in his family’s living room in New York City, 14-year-old Miles Wu was astonished to find that a simple piece of paper, folded into a Miura-ori origami pattern, could hold 10,000 times its own weight. For a total of more than 250 hours, Wu had diligently designed, folded and tested copious variations of the technique—a series of tessellating parallelograms that can fold or unfold in one fell swoop—to find one that could be used to build deployable shelters for emergency situations like natural disasters.

“I was really shocked by how much [weight] these simple pieces of paper could hold,” says Wu, who’s currently a ninth-grade student at Hunter College High School in New York City.

Wu had always been fascinated with the ancient Japanese art of origami, but he really began indulging in it as a hobby about six years ago. In 2024, he started exploring paper folding beyond its appeal as a creative pursuit. “I started reading about how different types of geometric origami were being studied and applied in STEM for their various physical properties,” he says.

The teenager was researching the Miura-ori fold when Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida and wildfires raged in Southern California. “I thought maybe these origami patterns, which are strong and collapsible, could be used as emergency shelters in these natural disasters—kind of like a tent,” he explains.

Wu noticed that existing structures were sturdy, easy to deploy or cost-efficient, but rarely all three. “This creates a problem during emergency situations, such as hurricanes or wildfires, as deployable shelters ideally need to be produced quickly, set up easily, and able to withstand the elements,” he says.

Was reading about letter locking and was thinking if it can be done without cutting the paper.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterlocking

Godzilla Designed by Takai Hiroaki folded by me. Diagram for the design can be found in Origami Tanteidan 2nd convention's book.

Designed by Khin Hooi folded by me

from Meenakshi Mukerji's book Marvelous Modular Origami

Designed by Román Díaz

The diagram can be found here:
https://origamivnnhatpro.blogspot.com/2019/07/flower-roman-diaz.html?m=1

And a video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJXMtrI7TTY

The pre-creasing phase is a bit confusing but turns out it's not that hard later on.

Only six more modules but I'm already exhausted.

Update:

HELP! They're multiplying

So, I'm kinda proud to share here a diagram I made for Riccardo Foschi's standing gnome. It started as a personnal project, for me to remember the folding sequence.

I draw it from his YouTube tutorial.

But as I was quite satisfied with the outcome, I submitted it to Riccardo. And he agreed to make it public.

So here it is!

Feel free to share the diagram as much as you can. And fold an army of gnomes!

Here is the link: https://archive.org/details/standing_gnome-riccardo_foschi-2.5.5

This owl designed by Román Díaz can be found in his book Origami essence, page 17.

If anyone knows the author please tell me, I learned it years ago and I still find it fascinating.

Today I was talking with a musician friend and I realised that origami and music are more similar than I previously thought.

Often when someone asked me if I ever designed a model I answered that like in music not all musicians can compose a melody. Today, talking about a project I have in mind I realised that the similarities go a bit further in the sense that after I selected the models I want to use I'm having to fold them many times until I'm satisfied with the result, like a rehearsal, and the diagrams I'm following are like sheet music.

I'm rehearsing a cat designed by Victor Coeurjoly. I will need a bigger and thinner paper.

I'm starting to love this cat.

Design by Kyohei KATSUTA a link to the diagram

Folded with tissue foil, 11 cm. Diagram in Stéphane's Halloween booklet. Video on his channel. More info on Origami +.

Folded with metallic kami, 7 cm. Diagram in Stéphane's Halloween booklet. Video on his channel. More info on Origami +.

Folded with rice paper, 24 cm. Diagram on the AEP's website. Video on YouTube.