I’ve been doing a lot of “idea work” lately- also known as playing around and not doing anything seriously. Here’s some examples of work in progress, which I intend to keep developing into some new things.

This came out of some explorations with complex 3D surfaces with non-convex edges in the shape of a zig-zag. This came out quite nicely but the large zig-zag shape made the paper curve into a circle… so I added some compression in the center, which made a corrugated pattern in the midst of it all. It’s sort of a strange mix between my normal tessellation techniques and origami corrugations, as done by Ray Schamp and Polly Verity.

Working on completing this piece- it’s sort of a triptych, although it’s on one sheet of paper. Once I wrap it up I’ll be documenting the process via some instructional material to be posted on this site.

I’ve been fascinated by “pleat explosions” after seeing the work of paper artist Jen Stark. I wanted to riff off her work, transposed into my chosen methodology; it’s been difficult due to inherent limitations with uncut folded paper techniques. So I decided it was high time I start trying new things, and I cut the paper in specific locations to free up some pleats.

I haven’t spent a lot of time doing the modeling and shaping of this trial attempt, but I think there’s some nice possibilities in it. I think there’s a whole family of floral shapes that can be pulled out of this, and I’m contemplating a large tessellation of these floral designs. It will also allow me to try some dye techniques, using some ideas from Jane Araújo and Joseph Wu, both of whom have done a lot of experimentation with dyes of various sorts. More on this to come.

I found a new geometrical pattern to be exploited on a triangular grid- also used sparingly in the tessellated corrugation piece above. It yields a large 3D cone shape- I’m sure there’s something that can be done with this. For the meantime it’s being filed away under the “things to be explored later” category.

Last but not least, my publisher sent the final lasers for my book to me for last-minute corrections. After a few tweaks I sent it back, and it was shipped off to the publishers last week! I’m glad to have this project completed; it’s been a lot of fun but also a bit stressful at times. It was also a very valuable learning experience, and I’m better prepared now for the next book.

-Eric