David Mitchell's Origami Heaven - History - Rotationally Symmetric Fold and Cut Designs

Origami Heaven A paperfolding paradise The website of writer and paperfolding designer David Mitchell x

Rotationally Symmetric Fold and Cut Designs

This page attempts to record what is known about the origin and history of rotationally symmetric fold and cut designs. This technique can be used to make geometric paper patterns and paper flowers of many kinds. Please contact me if you know any of this information is incorrect or if you have any other information that should be added. ******** Designs from Squares with Fourfold Symmetry A fold and cut design that resembles a flower, although it is called a Candle Ornament, appears in 'The Girl's Own Book' by Lydia Marie Child, which was published by Clark Austin and Co in New York in 1833. ****** A similar, but more complicated, design, which is also intended as a decoration for a candlestick, appears in 'The Girl's Own Toymaker' by Ebenezer and Alice Landells which was published in 1860 by Griffin and Farran in London and Shephard, Clark and Brown in Boston. ****** Similar designs appear: In 'Cuestiones de Pedagogía Práctica: Medios de Instruir' by D Vicente Castro Legua, which was published by Libreria de la Viuda de la Hernando y Ca in Madrid in 1893. ****** Designs from Squares with Eightfold Symmetry Instructions for a still more complex design with sixteen-fold symmetry appear in 'Hanky Panky', a book of magical effects, puzzles, recreational mathematics and other amusements, by W H Cremer, Jun, which was published by John Camden Hotten in London in 1872. The result would be essentially the same as what we nowadays call the Paper Doily. ****** 'What Shall We Do Now?, by Edward Verral Lucas and Elizabeth Lucas was published by Frederick A Stokes Company in New York in 1900, contains instructions for making a 'Paper Mat' with eight-fold symmetry. ****** Designs from Squares with Sixteenfold Symmetry Geometric patterns with sixteen-fold symmetry cut from squares are sometimes known as Paper Doilies. There is a separate page devoted to these. ********