I’ve been really busy this month, so I’m feeling some casual blogging. Question: why don’t origami books take a page from music books? It’s a pun, because I’m talking about book bindings.

Music books are designed to stay open, because you can’t very well hold the pages open while performing. Origami is likewise an activity that requires the use of hands while also looking at the page. You see what I’m saying? Origami books pose a problem that has already been solved in music.

Music books come in a few different varieties. There are small books that are essentially stapled together. Larger books come with rings or spirals. And of course there’s the classic solution, no bindings at all, just put them in a trapper keeper, or stuff them in a folder, or leave them lying around in loose disorganized stacks. Problem solved?

But blogging has ruined me in a particular way. I can’t just ask inane questions anymore. I have to do my due diligence and actually look up answers to inane questions.

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This weekend, I’m at PCOC, the Pacific Coast OrigamiUSA Conference.  The funny thing is, I picked this photo and scheduled the post ahead of time, but when I got to PCOC I found this exact model in the conference booklet!  I swear it was a coincidence.

This model is made from four units, of successively smaller size.  Each star is inserted into the hexagonal pocket of the next.  I like it!

So let’s talk about photo organization.  I have 13 years of origami photos, and every month on this blog I select one to share.  How do I avoid publishing the same photo more than once?  Well I have a primitive but effective method.  I have one folder of unposted photos, and another folder of posted photos.  Whenever I post one, I move it from one folder to the other.

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Looking through my old photos, here’s one from 2014.  It’s a variant on the Passiflora Ornata, of which I have an example here.  The long points, instead of being used to make flower pettles, are twisted into spirals.  I believe the spiral design is quite similar to Tomoko Fuse’s Origami Spiral Star, so if you’d like to try a simple version you can look into that.

This is a pleat-based model that I made in 2020.  You can see some other examples of pleat-based models here and here.

This is made with 64×64 divisions.  Where the horizontal and vertical pleats meet, the paper is layered in a way that causes it to contort.  I really like this one.

Here’s a nice modular model.  Why is my hand in the photo you ask?  Because you can squeeze it.

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Back in 2017, I designed the Cube Tessellation. It’s one that I have shown off here on multiple occasions. I have a crease pattern, step by step instructions, and it appeared in the Geometric Origami Convention in 2024.

I recently discovered that a professional origamist, known as D. Hinklay, has been making a model titled “Stone Board” which is identical in design, down to the crease pattern. There are several  several youtube shorts from 2022 and 2023, totaling over 50M views. I also found an instagram post that explicitly claims it’s an original design. At time of writing, his website lists multiple Stone Boards, including one going for $3500.

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