Stephen Hill's website

Hydrangea packing

I think that's the right name, but I can't read Japanese and I've created this model using the diagrams in the Shuzu Fujimoto Hydrangea folding book.

I've had this book for years, but I've never had the nerve to try folding a five by five hydrangea lattice, as it's rather hard, even for someone who's tessellated Fujimoto Hydrangeas. My first attempt failed within moments of starting the collaspe, as it immediately became clear that the paper wasn't just strong enough to take the ridiculously small creases. I then managed to find a large piece of high-quality craft paper which was just about capable of surviving the folding process.

The initial pre-creasing is relatively straightforward, as you just need to create a 16x16/32x32 grid. The hard part is to create the individual petals, as they're less than a centimetre wide. The model is created out of a series of compression folds, and in order to make these folds precisely, you need paper that's very thin, very strong, and extremely stiff, which is an odd combination. My craft paper wasn't quite ideal, but it was surprisingly strong and I was happy that it managed to stay in one piece long enough for me to complete the model. I've no idea how the model is supposed to be folded, as the crease pattern in the book doesn't make that obvious, at least to someone who doesn't read Japanese. My own method involves starting in the center and folding each layer of petals in turn, so I begin with a 2x2 grid of petals, convert that into a 3x3 grid and continue until I've got a 25x25 grid.

I can't deny that the resulting model is messy, but I'm happy enough with the result. My next task will be to try folding it on a significantly larger piece of paper, as this ought to allow me to convert each group of four petals into a proper Fujimoto Hydrangea.