Facebook IS the bully

Once upon a time, I created a Page on Facemuck. It was just a place to share my origami. It was nice, people liked it. It was like a cozy, sunny room with an open door. I could come and go as I pleased.

But this was Facemuck, land of the whore and home of the knave, where all that matters is making money. Big Bully constantly annoyed me with nags about my “business”. Then along came the NEeeew PAyage Expeeerayance. The door slammed shut. I could still go into my Page, but it wasn’t mine any more. I had to change clothes every time I went through that door, and the door was always locked behind me until I changed back.

I locked the door and barred it.

Now I have a Group. It’s another pleasant room, a cheerful place where there’s always a little party going on. I can freely go in and out.

I wonder how long it will be before Big Bully thinks up a way to ruin that too.

wait until Facebook sees my flamethrower

Bowl420 origami diagram

I have a hard time all around with diagrams. I first learned origami from diagrams, but I’ve found that, for me, videos can be much easier to follow. Then there is the software. Certainly, Inkscape is absolutely marvelous. Too damn marvelous. It has like 369 different line styles, and I can never find the same one again in the mile-long dropdown. Drawing is tedious anyway.

So I’ve decided to use photographs to create diagrams. There’s still a problem with lines. I’d like to use the standard dashed lines for valley and mountain, but programs that have simpler line tools have other problems.

For this prototype photodiagram, I used IrfanView, and differentiated the lines by color. Eventually I’ll find the right combination. Meanwhile, I have plenty of gray kami XD

Bowl420 photodiagram PDF

I set it up in Libre Office Writer and exported to PDF. The dark background is a default for me because my eyes dislike glare.

More-igami, MOAR!

Couple of days ago I started to play with a Closed Sink fold in a Waterbomb Base. Things got interesting. As usual, I explored, tweaked, twisted, and inside-outed every possible angle. Sure enough, I found my own way around the thing. Ended up with cube holders all over the place.

Then I took a look around Youtube to see how everybody else made cube stands. I saw ONE guy, out of I didn’t count how many, using a waterbomb base. All the rest are doing some kludgy thing with too many creases, and brute-forcing the poor sink. So I had to make a video.

Here are some still shots showing better detail:

lock fold
Creasing the lock fold before finishing the sink is especially useful with a very small model. It’s a butt-pain to make an accurate fold inside a corner anyway, so why not make it easy.

The side that I mark the center crease on to help get the point positioned is the one that dives inside, so that’s where the lock fold goes.

Starting to close the sink

turn over

creases

folding

coming together

The pre-existing creases allow the closed part of the sink to collapse into place. Then you flip it over to get at the pre-creased locking fold, and voilá! Open it out and park your pet cube.

I will be making more folding vids — stay tuned. Really need to find a way to set up my good camera where it can see my flying folding fingers. The cheap webcam I used for this one…meh.

Masu Module Drawers

I love small things. Looking at origami furniture models, I thought how fun it would be to assemble a paper suite for Borrowers. But out of all the chest-of-drawers type models available, I found none that I really wanted to fold. Either they were fussily complex, or not proportioned right.

So I took paper in hand and started experimenting. This is what I came up with. Based on the traditional masu box, it works and looks pretty cool. I’ve constructed three so far, and I’m sure there are some variations that will be lots of fun to discover.

For the shelf units, start with a square of paper folded for a masu. You need to know how to do that anyway. 😉
shelf unit base

Fold two of the triangular sides back. The points are going to remain outside the box.
fold sides back

Fold the front flap inward. This leaves the front open, and creates side pockets that will receive the pointy tabs of another unit.
fold the front flap in

Fold the rear point down, because we don’t want it getting in the way of the drawer!
fold point down

Collapse the back in as you would a normal masu. A little glue here is good, because you can’t get back in there handily after the whole thing is assembled.
close the back

Here are some finished shelf units.
shelf units

Now for the drawers. They need to be a little smaller so they slide well. Exactly how much smaller depends on the paper. Using heavy paper for the shelf units gives greater solidity, but it also fattens the sides, leaving less room inside. You will have to do a test fold to see exactly how much smaller your paper should be. It could be cut smaller, but I prefer to fudge-fold it so I can use the same size sheets for all parts. The fudge-fold also strengthens the drawer and helps make a nice pull.

Before finishing a drawer, you might want to test your fudge. This is also useful in making covered boxes.
fudge test

Fudge folds are done on the backside of two-color paper. They must be straight and even. If your fudge is sweet, the paper will still be perfectly square 🙂
fudge folds

Anyway, on with the folding. Do the same old masu folds, with the fudge-folds inward. Then open it up and find the point where the fudge-folds meet. Fold it up so that the double fudge triangle peeks over the edge.
front point

Now fold the point over the edge to make a nice drawer-pull.
fold point over

Bring the front and back up, ready to fold in the sides. You can fold the side and back points under first; if your Borrowers are neat-freaks they’ll appreciate this. We’re doing the collapse-in on the sides because 1. the front flap is altered and 2. it makes the sides of the drawers stronger.
ready to bring it together

Finished drawers
drawers

Putting it all together!

Now, put the loose flaps into the pockets. Put a dab of glue in the pockets first, and make sure all sides are aligned and tight together before clamping.
tab A, slot B

There’s nothing like a bunch of cheap made-in-China hair clips for origami clamping.
glue clamps

When it’s all solid, in go the drawers.
all done

Note that the top unit has its “ears” folded in. Even if you forget to do it while folding, they should tuck in fairly easily…usually with a little help from a paper creaser and a sharp knife point. I always forget. :p

The bottom shelf unit can be folded differently to give it a more polished appearance. It doesn’t need the gozintas anyway.
bottom unit

Fold it down onto the underside. The side flaps will cover the odd bits, and lock it in place.

If you don’t want an open space in the bottom, you can simply make a base with all four sides by not folding the front side in, or maybe do something creative with a menko or modified Sonobe unit or whateverg. It has to have something under the bottom drawer, but it doesn’t have to be a space to chuck shoes in.

Number of drawers is up to you too, of course. The ceiling’s the limit. It should also be pretty easy to side-connect two or three sets for a wide storage unit. I can imagine two linked by a flat piece for a desk or vanity. That kind of flexibility was one of my requirements for this project.