Origami Heaven

A paperfolding paradise

The website of writer and paperfolding designer David Mitchell

x
 
Modular Designs from Bronze and Double Bronze Rectangles
 
Bronze rectangles are rectangles which have sides in the proportion of 1:sqrt3. They naturally yield angles of 60 and 30 degrees. Double bronze rectangles are made by laying two bronze rectangles together long edge to long edge).

Where designs are not otherwise attributed they are my own.
 
Designs from Bronze Rectangles
 
  Terada Modules, named after their creator, Norishige Terada, are versatile modules folded from bronze triangles that can be configured to make numerous deltahedra such as the Double Kite Pattern Tetrahedron pictured here, which is made from 6 modules. I discovered that it was possible to fold much simpler modules that would make the same range of designs. When I showed this module to Tomoko Fuse she told me it was known as the Abe Module (presumably after Hisashi Abe). I would be grateful for any further information about this.
 
  The Modular Flip Flop is my reconstruction of a design by the Danish paperfolder Thoki Yenn which has become lost (probably because Thoki abandoned it in favour of his one piece version of the same design). The design is a version of a well known mathematical toy with the strange property that it will squash flat in two different directions.

Diagrams are not yet available.
 
  These two Cuboctahedra (with sunken square faces) can both be assembled from the same set of 4 modules. They are both slightly flexible.

Diagrams are not yet available.
 
  This Snub Cube is also a 4-part design. If all the creases of ghe modules were reversed they could be assembled into the enantiomorphic form.

Diagrams are not yet available.
 
  This 2-part Truncated Tetrahedron is a delicate design with sunken triangular faces. Four modules of the same design can be assembled into a Truncated Octahedron.

Diagrams are not yet available.
 
  It is also possible to fold modules from bronze rectangles that will allow the construction of a 4-part Truncated Tetrahedron with open triangular faces. 8 modules of identical design will go together to make a Truncated Octahedron and 20 to make a Truncated Icosahedron.

Diagrams are not yet available.
 
  It is also possible to create modules that will make a 6-part Truncated Tetrahedron.

Diagrams are not yet available.
 
  Modules folded from bronze rectangles can also be used to make more robust polyhedral designs such as this 10-part Icosidodecahedron.

Diagrams are not yet available.
 
Designs from Double Bronze Rectangles
 
  This is my 12-part Nolid Cuboctahedron, from 1988, which can be seen as consisting of four interpenetrating hexagons. The original modules were folded from hexagons, but they can equally well be folded from squares or double bronze rectangles.

Diagrams for modules folded from double bronze rectangles can be found in Mathematical Origami - Tarquin Publications - ISBN 1-899618-18-X.
 
  I designed this 2-part Tetrahedron, which is made by combining mirror-image modules folded from double bronze rectangles in 1988.

Diagrams can be found in Mathematical Origami - Tarquin Publications - ISBN 1-899618-18-X.
 
  Double bronze rectangles can also be used to make corner-pocket modules analogous to the Sonobe Corner-pocket module, but folded using 60 degree geometry. 4 of these modules will go together to create a robust 4-part Octahedron.

Diagrams are not yet available.
 
  10 of the same type of modules will also go together to create a robust Icosahedron.

Diagrams are not yet available.