Folding activities - June 2018

Sunday, the 24th of June

I've spent the day attempting to fold a two colour hydrangea pattern out of four pieces of paper. I've always believed that it might be possible to fold each corner of the hydrangea separately and link them together into a single hydrangea.

My latest attempt involved folding the corners on a 4x4 by 8x8 grid, sliding them together and compressing the centre into a four-sink base. It sort of works, but the resulting model is ridiculously thick. There has to be a better way!

Sunday, the 17th of June

I've just finished folding the models in Project - F - Hydrangea folding by Shuzu Fujimoto. It's been an interesting experience, and I've learned a lot. I've also found myself buzzing with ideas, as there are a number of possible variations to the models in the book which I'm looking forward to exploring.

Here are my notes:

Hydrangea packing

This is a 5x5 hydrangea tessellation, and I've finally managed to finish it, having found some high-quality Craft paper that's capable of doing it justice.

The only downside, is that the petals are less than a centimetre wide and are slightly messier than I'd like. I'll have to try folding the thing on a larger piece of paper.

Since I was unable to read the Japanese instructions, I've folded this model in the same way that I've folded my hydrangea tessellations, starting at the centre and folding each level outwards from there.

I've used a paper-folding tool that I bought from HobbyCraft for just a couple of pounds, and it's proved invaluable. I'm not generally a fan of folding bones, but for this type of tessellation, you really do need something that's able to strenghten the creases before you fold down each petal. As with the hydrangea tessellation, and indeed the hydrangea itself, it's important to work on both the front and the back of the model.

Large and small flowers

A nice change from Hydrangea packing model, this is an easy fold and is a fun model to create.

Hydrangea lattice - 5 flowers

I've currently folded this on a 20cmx20cm square, but the paper is too small to create something really neat. I'll try this again on a larger piece of paper.

Hydrangea lattice - 5 space

Another fun fold. Finding the centre wasn't straightforward, but once I'd managed to fold the middle four petals, the rest were relatively easy.

Hydrangea lattice - packing

This is a lovely model and it's surprisingly easy to fold once you've mastered the hydrangea packing model. The petals are folded on the diagonals.

Rose bloom hydrangea 1

This is the classic Fujimoto Hydrangea and is created using the inside-out method, where you fold the inner petals first and fold the larger petals afterwards. The folding method shown in the book is different to the one that I use myself, as it includes a number of additional moves that I've learned how to avoid. There was a nice variation at the end that I'd completely forgotten about.

Rose bloom hydrangea 2

This one's very different from the standard hydrangea, and it was great fun to fold it again.

Hydrangea group

Simple, fun to fold, this model has the potential to be expanded, as it ought to be possible to create additional hydrangea levels in the centre.

Hydrangea plaque

An interesting fold and a nice model

Small flower hydrangea

This is my third least favourite model in the book. There's nothing wrong with the design or the way it looks: the issue for me is the folding method which requires you to collapse the hydrangea through several layers of paper. Make a tiny mistake and the result appears messy, and I can't fold the thing without making mistakes. Sigh...