business card origami

The above is a Level 1 Menger Sponge constructed from 20 structural units made from 6 business cards each, plus exterior paneling, for a total of 168 cards. The unit was assembled, as always, without any glue or other fasteners.

A menger sponge is a fractal cube created by dividing each face into nine squares and then removing the center square. The complexity of the sponge increases as you repeat the process with each of the remaining squares on the face, and then the squares left from that process and so on. Other people have constructed Level 2 and even Level 3 sponges, but it requires a whole lot of business cards.

Above, folding the business card units.

The first two structural units, constructed from 6 cards each.

The sponge after adding more structural units. Once the structural units are in place, it is customary to panel all surfaces with additional cards. Unfortunately, this time I ran out of cards and had to leave the interior of the sponge un-paneled.

modular origami star

This modular origami star was folded out of 30 uncut sheets of origami paper and assembled without any glue or other fasteners. The individual units are slotted together on the outside of the model, which makes it a wee bit easier to assemble than the kusudama I folded a couple of weeks ago. Like the origami box, this model was designed by Tomoko Fuse.

It took approximately three hours to fold all of the individual units. This is about two thirds of the way through. I’ve done preliminary folds on all of the sheets of paper, and then finished folding about half of the full units.

These are the completed units:

Once all of the units were folded, it took about half an hour to assemble the model. This is an alternate view - the five pointed star motif is repeated around the entire model.

And for those who are curious, the star is sitting on an ecosystem journal - the very same one I use to write my poems.

origami box

This origami box was folded from 8 uncut sheets of paper: 4 double sided (lid) and 4 patterned (base). The box was assembled entirely without glue or fastener of any sort, as the four units for the base and lid all slot together to form a structurally stable unit. The completed box measures about 3 inches square.

The box pattern was created by the celebrated origami master Tomoko Fuse, and can be found in her book Origami Boxes.

The units for the base of the box.

The assembled base.

The units for the lid of the box.

The assembled lid.

An alternate view of the completed box.

i fold paper

The above is a kusudama folded from 30 squares of paper. Each square of paper is folded into a modular unit, and then the units are assembled without any adhesives or other external connections - they are simply slotted into each other. This model took approximately four hours to fold and assemble.

The folding of the modular units in progress. This is about 1 hour into the process.

The fully folded modular units. This is about 3 hours into the process.

Folding the units themselves is straightforward, if time consuming. However, the units are connected internally within the model, which makes the final assembly quite a challenge.