The Origami Forum

Hi,

After trying for the last 3 weeks, I have been able to fold some human figures using simple box pleating. However I need some help with these:

1. I tried to create insects with multiple legs and wings initially. For this I devided the paper into 4 quadrents and folded each as a hyperbolic paraboloid. However, the paper bend at the centre into a pyramid. How can I avoid this and keep the paper plain and still get multiple limbs?

2. Instead of alternate top to bottom lines and left to right lines (pleats at 90 deg) I tried to pleat using the top to bottom and the diagonals (45 deg). I was unsuccessful since the distance between two creases of a diagonal is greater than that of between the creases of the top to bottom. Is this type of pleating possible? How?

3. How can I hide the pleats after finishing the figure? The arms and legs look very ugly with the pleats showing as lines, and the point where the legs join is overflowing with pleats.

4. Any suggestions on how can I shape the arms and legs to resemble actual human shape instead of parallal lines?

5. I have read lots of suggestions for new folders to try to fold CPs to gain exp. However, one step is missing in all the tutorials. The CPs are generally very small images. Are we supposed to draw them first on the paper? How is this projection done for complex CPs?

Thanks!

ad 1.) If I understand your problem correctly, you have to leave a small square in the very middle and fold the legs sideways. Alternative fold the middle triangular part to one side and spread out the legs as you need them.

ad 2.) Diagonal Boxpleating is possible. Like with the usual horizontal one you have to start by folding a grid (rotate the paper 45 degrees and fold like you would fold a horizontal grid) and then inserting the "diagonals".
Sunburst has some pretty amazing examples of diagonal boxpleating. That the pleats are wider doesn't matter as long as they have an equal distance to each other. It also doesn't matter whether you begin with a division into 16, 20, 22, or whatever, the only thing that is important is that the distances between the Creases stay constant.

ad 3.) One way is to mountain fold the corner with the pleats inside, another one would be to pull out some paper from the outermost pleat and wrap it around the other pleats to hide them.

ad 4.) Rounding the layers and making ellbows and the like by folding a valley fold and next to it a rounded Mountain fold like that: I)
Boxpleating is a lot about shaping, you just have to try until it looks right.

ad 5.) It is not necessary to draw a CP onto paper. Especially for Boxpleated CPs you just fold the necessary grid (count how many pleats you need first), then add the diagonals and you are done.
For other CPs you have to find the Reference Points and Creases first. Some are obvious like Bird Bases, some might need some trial and error. You can print a CP to try out how to get the Creases, but I would always recommend to fold a clean version after you figured out how to get all those Creases. It is part of the challenge of a CP and might actually be fun.

Thanks a lot!! Sunburst's thread helped a lot.