This month's theme at the Origami Society of Madras is a little different from usual. This month, we are working on a theme author instead of a theme object. And the author we have voted for is the grand-master of origami - Akira Yoshizawa.

The beauty of Akira Yoshizawa's models lie in the simple, elegant lines of his fold. His genius is evident in the way he captures an animal or an insect with the fewest folds possible! Ofcourse, there are a number of complex models to his name but his simple ones are the ones that capture the attention of even a beginner origamist.

His most popular model is the butterfly. I love this butterfly. When I first started teaching my Little Miss some basic origami, this was among the first models I taught her. And she became quite famous in her class, because she could fold a butterfly while most of her classmates folded only boats :) And inspite of the butterfly being an easy model to fold, it still looks amazingly like a butterfly! No wonder Akira Yoshizawa is credited as an origami grand master!

So today, what I folded was the origami shrimp from his book "Origami Museum Animals". Though the model is called a lobster, I think it resembles the shrimp more than it resembles the lobster. Again, with the fewest of folds, the grand-master has beautifully helped me fold a couple of cute little shrimps! Each shrimp is folded from a triangle formed by cutting along the diagonal of a square. In the notes, he has said that if the paper is thin enough, we can fold the square along its diagonal and then proceed with the shrimp, but I preferred folding it from a triangle. It helps that we can fold 2 shrimps from a single square which is what I did.

Model Details:

Model: Shrimp / Lobster

Creator: Akira Yoshizawa

Book: Origami Museum Animals
 
Author: Akira Yoshizawa
 
Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Triangle

Paper Size: 9.5 inch square cut along the diagonal

Model Size: The body measures ~ 3.5 inches and the antennae measure ~ 3.25 inches

The origami buckyball is the representation of the Buckminster Fullerene molecule - a stable form of carbon. The other 2 are, of course, diamond and graphite.

Some interesting facts about the buckyball:

• The buckyball family is an allotrope (different forms of an element - here, carbon) of carbon, very different from diamond and graphite.
• The buckyball is made from 60 atoms of carbon
• The shape resembles a football - 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons
• Each atom has 2 kinds of bonds - double bonds between 2 hexagons and single bonds between a hexagon and a pentagon

That is enough Chemistry I think!

As for the origami buckyballs, one version of these buckyballs can be made using PHiZZ Units. These buckyballs are very commonly done as they are made from squares and are relatively easier to complete. 

The other version of the buckyball, what I have done here, is folded from units created by Rona Gurkewitz and Bennett Arnstein. The units are folded from equilateral triangles. Cutting the triangles, 60 of them, is 50% of the  job! Folding those 60 triangles into the buckyball units completely another 30%. Assembling the units is what I found easiest and I believe that amounts to only 20% of the entire process :) And behold, a buckyball!

It is usually suggested that you use paper coloured on both sides. That ensures that the buckyball has the same colour throughout. But when I assembled with single-sided paper, I realised that the contrasting colours meant that I can clearly see those stars in the hexagon/pentagon faces. I like that. And maybe, one day, when I give it another go, I will try using copy paper and see how that compares to this one.

Model Details:

Model: Buckyball

Creator: Rona Gurkewitz and Bennett Arnstein

Book: Multi Origami Polyhedra

Authors: Rona Gurkewitz and Bennett Arnstein

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Triangle

Paper Size: 4 inches

Model Size: ~ 5 inch in diameter

Modules: 60

Tutorial: Youtube 

Well, after a long time I worked on some modular origami - the origami football (soccerball). Absence really does make the heart grow fonder, cos I absolutely loved making the football. It helped that it very closely resembles a real football, so much so that my daughter wanted to kick it around! And everyone in my house is in love with it 😊

Unlike most modular origami, the individual modules are made from equilateral triangles. For my football, I had used A5 sheets (If you have A4 ie., the regular copy paper, cut it in half horizontally to give 2 A5 sheet). Each A5 sheet gives 2 white triangles and 3 black triangles. A total of 20 white pieces and 12 black pieces are needed. So that makes it 10 white A5 sheets and 4 black A5 sheets (In A4 terms, it is 5 white and 2 black A4 sheets).

The white and black pieces are folded differently, as we need white hexagons and black pentagons. While assembling the ball, each black pentagon will be surrounded by 6 white hexagons. You should be aware that of these 6 white hexagons, one side will have a pocket which will be empty. That is because of the combination of hexagons and pentagons and nothing to worry about :)

So give it a go and have fun with the football. It is pretty robust, so you can even throw it around a bit!

Unfortunately I am no longer able to find the diagram for this model. It used to be hosted on Mark Leonard's site but it is no longer available. But all is not lost! I have linked below a youtube tutorial for making said football.

Model Details:

Model: Football

Creator: Mark Leonard

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Triangle

Paper Size: A4 and A5 paper

Model Size: ~4 inches in diameter

Modules: 32

Tutorial: Youtube

After making origami prisms in the previous post, it seemed natural to try out the antiprisms next. Antiprisms are similar to prisms but the difference is that the side faces are triangles instead of parallelograms. Also, the top and bottom parts are twisted, relative to each other.

For these antiprisms, I used 3.5 inch squares - 3 squares for the triangular antiprism, 4 for the quadrilateral one, 5 for the pentagonal antiprism and 6 for the last one. The model isn't very stable though, and requires a dab of glue to hold it well in place.

A variation to the prisms gives a slightly different shape, when the sides are creased in. This gives a multi-sided star shape - like the 3-sided star and the pentagonal star in the pic.

This modular origami is again from Miyuki Kawamura's book - ‘Polyhedron Origami'.

Model Details:

Model: Antiprisms

Book: Polyhedron Origami

Author: Miyuki Kawamura

Difficulty Level: Simple

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 3.5 inches

Model Size: 2 inches in height

Tutorial: Youtube

Prisms in Mathematics are polyhedrons where the top and bottom faces are polygons that are identical. The sides are parallelograms.

I was trying out the prisms from  Miyuki Kawamura's book 'Polyhedron Origami' for beginners. And it turned out to be really simple. Each of the prisms can be done in 10-15 mins in all.

Well, there really isn't much more to say! Give it a go :)

Model Details:

Model: Prisms

Book: Polyhedron Origami

Author: Miyuki Kawamura

Difficulty Level: Simple

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 4 inches

Model Size: 2 inches in height

Tutorial: Triangular Prism, Square Prism, Hexagonal Prism

The Just Twist Twirls are these beautiful modular flowers created by Krystyna Burczyk. These twirly creations, when curled correctly and tightly, hold together very well and form quite sturdy structures.

This flower is made from 10 triangles cut out of a square on the diagonal. And there is absolutely no folding involved; only twirling :) The twirls come out much better when the paper is coated with a dab of water. The water helps the paper to bend much better and once it is dry, the shape is also held better.

Thick paper is recommended, since regular origami paper will not be sufficiently strong to hold the shape. I have used 120 gsm paper in 2 different colours and am very happy with the way these flowers turned out.

Model Details:

Model: Just Twist Flower 

Creator: Krystyna Burczyk

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Triangle cut along the diagonal of a square

Paper Size: 3.5 inch squares

Modules: 10

Tutorial: Youtube