Thursday, August 12, 2004
If you like origami (which I do),
And you like buckyballs (which I do),
Then you'll like this page.
It's about origami unit buckyballs. The origami is pretty simple, but you have to do a lot of folding when a model requires a couple hundred units. Assembling the units can get tricky too - especially when you get to the last joint.
It is true origami in that you start with square pieces of paper and use only folds, no cutting.
I started cutting up used printer paper into 3.5" squares to make my origami paper, but the thicker printer paper could make assembling the units difficult. I had a stack of old magazines that were going to be thrown out and I noticed that the magazine paper is thinner and kind of slippery so that the units would slide together nicely. I stuck with the 3.5" size (can get 6 pieces from one page), and I cut two pages folded in half at once so I'm cutting through 4 layers at a time with a little plastic paper cutter designed for scrap booking. With the paper cutter, I'm able to easily make perfect 3.5" sqares (even with 4 layers at a time). When folding, I try to get the most interresting color/pattern to be visible when I'm done. Someday maybe I'll get some nice colored origami paper for this. But old magazines are cheaper.
And you like buckyballs (which I do),
Then you'll like this page.
It's about origami unit buckyballs. The origami is pretty simple, but you have to do a lot of folding when a model requires a couple hundred units. Assembling the units can get tricky too - especially when you get to the last joint.
It is true origami in that you start with square pieces of paper and use only folds, no cutting.
I started cutting up used printer paper into 3.5" squares to make my origami paper, but the thicker printer paper could make assembling the units difficult. I had a stack of old magazines that were going to be thrown out and I noticed that the magazine paper is thinner and kind of slippery so that the units would slide together nicely. I stuck with the 3.5" size (can get 6 pieces from one page), and I cut two pages folded in half at once so I'm cutting through 4 layers at a time with a little plastic paper cutter designed for scrap booking. With the paper cutter, I'm able to easily make perfect 3.5" sqares (even with 4 layers at a time). When folding, I try to get the most interresting color/pattern to be visible when I'm done. Someday maybe I'll get some nice colored origami paper for this. But old magazines are cheaper.
