Sunday, February 3, 2008

A Tall Box

One of this week's serendipitous happenings was the creation of a tall box. I was playing around with inserts for the Arrow Head (Fish Base) box and came up with a lid which held together in a novel way. It seemed to require a tall base so that came next. It was definitely the week for tall things.

It is a bit stark in black and white. The dark color obscures the criss-cross markings on the base. which match those on the white part of the lid.


I am not sure that I have finished with this idea. It may go through some more development. Crease patterns will have to wait. I am not sure that I could reverse engineer the result just yet. The problem with accidental foldings, especially if they have gone through several trial foldings, is that they may be impossible to get back together in the same manner once they are unfolded.

Tall Vases

Here is another venture into the realm of vases. These ones are based on a rectangle.

These are vases for paper flowers or other objects which do not need to be regularly infused with di-hydrogen-monoxide. Because of the side steam, these models would not hold water, even if the folding material were waterproof.

Of course, this limitation could be overcome if the seam was welded, glued or stuck up with tape but we will leave that to non-purists who are do not concern themselves with following the traditional rules: no cuts, no glue, no tape, no staples. Perhaps you are thinking of those beautiful kusadamas that would behave like falling rain drops were it not for the presence of sticky stuff at the joints.

The models are relatively easy to fold although the final floor moves are a little tricky. Crease patterns will be supplied later. Just enjoy the photos for now.

This Way Up!

It has been a very busy week of folding and design.

The Fish Base Box has now been supplied with taller bases.










One version has become a "This Way Up!" Box.



Another version preserves the arrowhead and disguises the shaft in mono-color.
















There are now a number of alternative lids, all of which continue to be useful as bowls when upturned.

One of the variations takes inserts. The possibilities for these are apparently endless. While most of the inserts serve no purpose other than decoration, some can be used to hide flat material placed in the center of the lid while others can be used to hide material within themselves.


Another version of the lid has an alternative folding for the arrow head which avoids the difficult task of tucking in the side pieces accurately. In my opinion, it is not as neat as the original but this may not be an important consideration for a beginning or novice folder.

Other variations of the lid provide sleeker or more minimalist creasings. A couple of these can be put together to form a short box of their own. In this case, the folding paper needs to be a quarter inch narrower for the one which will form the base.

















Here are some generic crease patterns for the tall bases. I have not supplied crease patterns for the new lids as most of the variations are not difficult to figure out once you have made a model of the parent design.