Origami Projects

K7 by @byriah_loper AKA 20 interlocking tetrahedra

Love this model, and another in the K series! I added units to my previous K3 model to make this into K7.

8 interlocking Triangular Prisms by Michal Pikula

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When assembling this model, I cycled through three different models seen in Robert Lang's polypolyhedra. Would this be considered a poly-poly-poly-polyhedra?

K3 by Byriah Loper

Another in my K series. Hope to turn this into K7 soon, and make each triangle a tetrahedra.

Dodecahedron designed by Harrison Ainsworth using business cards cut with specific patterns.

Icosahedron designed by Harrison Ainsworth using business cards cut with specific patterns.

Cube designed by Harrison Ainsworth using business cards cut with specific patterns.

Octadron designed by Harrison Ainsworth using business cards cut with specific patterns.

Tetrahedron designed by Harrison Ainsworth using business cards cut with specific patterns.

I can't recall where I found the designs for this. Maybe on the geometry junkyard? A very snug and easy model to fold and assemble.

K4 by Byriah Loper

The joints in this model are way too delicate, as I scaled the model down too much. I also messed up the color scheme, but since it was so difficult to assemble at this scale, I'm still happy I was able to finish it.

K2 made with plastic straws, assembled by me.

Continuing my series of different mediums, this is Robert Lang's K2 model of 20 interlocking triangles, made with straws instead of paper. Designed by Zachary Abel.

I remade this model using some higher quality paper and with better colors. I think this model has the potential to be very beautiful, but it is hard to nail the right color scheme and scale.

"Impenetraball" Designed by Zachary Abel, Assembled by me from 132 binder clips.

"ZipTie Cubeoctahedron" designed by Andrea Hawksley. This was very fun to reverse engineer and assemble.

Used some old square dowels to assemble this classic tensegrity structure.

Found this idea on the IkeMath Instagram page. It is really fun to glue together because of the cuboectahedron's interesting properties.

"Six Interlocking Binder Clips" by Zachary Abel

"72 Pencils" by @george.hart.sculptor

"6 Intersecting Pentagrams #2" by Daniel Kwan. This model has the same unit design as #1 by @francescomanciniorigami , but has an octahedral symmetry instead of dodecahedral symmetry, with a weave that makes a much tighter model.

"Half Inverted Curler" by me. The name indicates how only half of the peaks of the model are inverted. The original unit had no inversion, and @kh.art.craft 's version inverted both the middle and arms of the unit. My unit only inverts the middle of the unit, leaving an interesting effect. 30 units.

K13 by J.H. Chen (@origami0911 )

I know I said I was going to take a break from origami, but once in a while, I stumble on a model so enticing that I can't set it down until it is done. This model is one of those where I fell in love with the weave. Although I just converted my old K2, this was still difficult to assemble, and it felt as if the model was fighting me at every step. At one point, I realized the original K2 model was woven incorrectly, so I had to disassemble a large chunk of the existing model and rebuild it.

"Pentilope" by @origami0911
The weave of this model is not very intuitive, but I am happy I folded this one! I made it two-toned after being inspired by some flowers in our garden.

I understood the weave much better when I realized it was a 3D representation of a 5-point star, where instead of each 2D point being made up of two edges, each point in the star weave is made up of 5 intersecting edges, where each unit represents an edge of a star.

Six Interlocking Squares (fit version) by @origami0911

Using a MacKenzie-child's color scheme, black and speckled white paper, I was able to achieve some interesting patterns and symmetry. A very fun model that can be made in one sitting!

"5 Wrinkled Octahedra" by Daniel Kwan :
This is easily one of my favorite and largest models, both size and unit-wise. The units are pretty complex, so folding all 60 units took very long compared to assembly time.

While most people making this model will opt for the bottom-up assembly method, you can see that I assembled this model one octahedron at a time, which gave me a better appreciation for its geometry.

"4 interlocking twisted triangular bipyramids (v2) " by @origami0911

This model is a great intermediate between FIT and more complex woven wireframe models. The colors make this model pop!

🌚🌚🌚 by @plmlntln
180 units

Much more dense than the Mother's Day design, this curler has 60 more units than the other one, and was made at 2/3s the scale of the previous one.

Here is a curler inspired by @plmlntln

This was made as a Mother's Day gift, and it was definitely worth it! It's much more stable and dense compared to my previous attempt a year back. I plan on revisiting this model with a different scale and color scheme.

Daniel Kwan's "Four Interlocking Triangular Prisms #2" 

I previously made @origami0911's version of "Four Interlocking Triangular Prisms #1", and ever since, this model has been on my to-do list.

"The Fifth #2" by @francescomanciniorigami

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This is a personal favorite piece, and because it shares the same unit ratio, I used the units from my deconstructed K6 to make this one.

"The Fifth #1" by @francescomanciniorigami
 

This one is also a bit chaotic, but a very nice model as well. In this case, the white tetrahedron is flipped 180 right side up relative to the other tetrahedron when compared to #2.

"Five Intersecting Squares" by @byriah_loper

This is the first in the wireframe planar series. Ill continue this with a revision of six intersecting pentagrams, and seven hexagons.

"26 Rupees" By Daniel Kwan

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"3 Gyroelongated Square Dipyramids: The name is really not that confusing if you break it down one prefix at a time. I nicknamed this model "26 Rupees" specifically for folding it from green, blue, and red, because that would be it's value in rupees from the Zelda game series (1 + 5 + 20). This instance of the model is technically 71 rupees (1 + 20 + 50)

The unit is actually extremely simple to describe.

If you are already familiar with the Francis Ow 60 degree unit (if not, go here kahuna.merrimack.edu/~thull/fit.html )

Instead of folding it from a 1 x 3, use a 1 x 4... Then, just add two 30-degree (or 60, depending on how you think about it) crimps, one on either side of the unit, and each 1/3 from the ends of the unit. At each corner of the crimps, add 60-degree creases to emphasize the triangular faces of the completed shape."

5 Intersecting Tetrahedra or FIT. Designed by Thomas Hull. I made this out of scrap paper from my K6—a really fun, simple model to make in one sitting.

"10 Equatorially Diminished Triangular Dipyramids" by Aaron P

This is a simplification of Byriah Lopers Interstellar, where each of the points seen are truncated in his design. Instead of 60 units, I doubled the length of each unit and placed a 120 degree crimp in the center. This was a very fun and challenging weave!

"10 Interlocking Triangles" by @origami0911

I saw this model on his flicker, and I also deconstructed my k6 for units, so I built this one.

I love how curvy the model turns out, and how surprisingly stable it is. I would use slightly smaller units next time around, but a fun model nonetheless.

"Double Gasherbrum" by @byriah_loper

This is the first "double" Lang polypolyhedra that I have made. It is much tighter than my original Gasherbrum, which I like a lot. I made it from scrap paper I had from the 4 interlocking triangularly distorted dipoles I posted earlier, hence the color scheme.

"Three Interlocking Rhombi" by Martin Sejer Anderson

Originally designed by TK Lam, this model has made its laps around the wireframe community. While some like the openness of TK Lams version, I prefer this version much more due to how tight it is.

"Five Interlocking Octahedrally Distorted Tetrahedra" by Martin Sejer Andersen

This model looks the most complex, but when you see the single frame, it becomes much easier to conceptualize. I love the weave as it is very very easy. If you can fold the FIT, you can probably fold this as well.

"Crystal Stars" by Hideaki Kawashima.


Loose leaf paper has to be the most difficult paper to work with when it comes to wireframes. I will never run out of astrobright again!!

12 Intersecting pentagons by @origami0911

I really liked the colors on this one. 60 units.

"Four Interlocking Triangularly Distorted Dipoles" by @byriah_loper


This is @langorigami polypolyhedron #10 in origami form. For those who want to make it, it is a 1:2.5 ratio with 60⁰ ow and 120⁰ ooh angles. The weave is the most difficult part, as even after I have made this, I still don't understand it.

These are some of my very early attempts at origami tesselations. In the future, I plan on using larger paper.

"2 Interlocking Triangles #2" Designed by @dirk.eisner

"2 Interlocking Tetrahedra #3" Designed by @dirk.eisner

Assembly was very difficult. Although it may seem like a simple model, it takes lots of patience to assemble without wrinkles.

"2 Interlocking Tetrahedra #2" Designed by @dirk.eisner

"2 Interlocking Tetrahedra #1" Designed by @dirk.eisner

Twelve-unit Magic Frame Dodecahedron by Origami0911
-3:5 ratio paper
-12 units
     Yet another very simple model which tests my crimping skills. As described by the designer, this model seems almost magical that it uses only twelve units to make a dodecahedral model. What I find interesting is that each unit used corresponds to one side of the dodecahedron, and the neighboring units only provide one more side of the 5 edge face.  There is also a missing side to each of the 12 sides, which is also interesting.

Six Joint Tetrahedron

-2:3 ratio paper
-12 units
Another simple model which is very nice looking, and a bit counterintuitive. This was a great model to test my crimping abilities, as it contains two different size crimps in the middle of the unit.

​N27/Ankh/Twisted Truncated Tetrahedron by Neal Godse
-1:4 and 1:2 ratio paper
-18 units
     Simple, quick, and really good-looking perfectly describe this model. If you can make FIT, you can easily make this as it shares the same unit design, but with two different ratios.

Twenty interlocking tetrahedra by @byriah_loper
-1:3 ratio paper
-120 units
     This model started out as a Robert Lang polypolypolyhedra. When Byriah Loper made the model of twenty interlocking triangles, he thought to also add 3 extra units to each triangle, making them tetrahedra. The resulting polyhedra makes an illusionary FIT, which you can see by looking at the 4 tetrahedra with the same color. They form another tetrahedra. If you look at all of the imaginary tetrahedra, it forms another FIT with dodecahedral symmetry.
     This model took me over a month. While the weave is pretty easy, the assembly is very difficult without help.

6 Interlocking parallel rectangles by @origami0911

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Using 12 units of 6:16.75 cm paper

K2 by Robert Lang. This is the fourth of his Himalayan Peaks. 

It is based on the classic FIT.

-ratio:1:6
-60 units

My variation of @origami0911 Spiral Cube 1.

I couldn't make the workshop so I wanted to reverse engineer the cp.

My variation is using the SEU(Simple Edge Unit) and the classic wrinkle and joint. 24 Units

Dodecahedral model by @george.hart.sculptor . Not origami, but each card represents an edge of a dodecahedron. However, the stars formed make the model look more like the great inverted snub dodecahedron.

8w

Five Intersecting Wrinkled Tetrahedra by @origami0911

Instructions will be available in his upcoming book.

I love how the majority of his models use identical units.

​Six intersecting squares.
This was designed by Jorge C Lucero. Each color represents an axis.

24 units with a 4.5:10 ratio paper

I played around with the ratios of the Bascetta star by @paolo.bascetta and got this.

90 units made out of copy paper.

Four intersecting wrinkled irregular hexagon by @origami0911 folded out of copy paper.

​Bascetta star nested in skella gamma icosahedron. I used scrap paper for the skella gamma and 2-inch square kami paper for the Bascetta star.

By @paolo.bascetta and @mariasinayskaya

120 unit curler variation by @kh.art.craft with dodecahedral symmetry.

Folded from square cut copy paper.

120 unit curler #Kusudama by @kh.art.craft with dodecahedral symmetry.

Folded out of square cut copy paper

Makalu by Robert Lang. This is the second in his series of Himalayan peaks, being the second easiest after Gasherbrum. Its technical name is Six Intersecting Pentagons. 30 units of 1:2 ratio paper.
Instructions here.

Gasherbrum by Robert Lang. He named a few of his models after the Himalayan peaks, hence Gasherbrum. Easiest Himalayan peak to fold. Its technical name is Four Intersecting Triangles. I used Francis Ow's 60-degree unit with 1:2 ratio paper.

This has the same symmetry and weave of Makalu, but all angles are accentuated. This was designed by Francesco Mancini using his Star Holes Unit. Instructions here.

5 Intersecting Tetrahedra or FIT. Designed by Thomas Hull. I made this over the course of 4 days. Each unit of the 30 used has an edge length of 90 cm. Really fun project to accomplish. I think I now have the biggest FIT made to date! Another good example of polypolyhedra. Instructions here.

Folded from 30:90 cm paper.

16 interlocking triangles designed by Byriah Loper. A good example of polypolyhedra.

This was a tough one, but once I understood the weave, it was pretty intuitive. Folded out of 1:4 in kami paper. I used Francis Ow's 60-degree unit and reverse-engineered the weave.

This is my Cumulated Octahedron.

Designed by me
Folded out of 30 6-in square kami paper

This is my Pentakis Dodecahedron, made using Lewis Simon's triangle edge unit. 90 units of 6 in square paper. This may have been my first modular origami piece!

This is my Wrinkled Rhombic Tricontahedron by @origami0911.
Folded from cardstock. My first of many wireframe models! Instructions here.

​120 Unit Rhombicosidodecahedron(impossible to spell correctly) made from Tomoko Fuse's Little Turtle units. This Archamedian solid has triangles, pentagons, and squares... all the shapes found in the Platonic solids!
I especially like the inside view, because it is an insight into how complex the units are. The units are a bit flimsy when this many are used. I ended up using a bit of glue on each joint for reinforcement. Instructions for the unit are here.

90 Units Skella Alpha truncated icosahedron by @mariasinayskaya
I love these units! They are very versatile for any type of geodesic sphere. While this can be called a truncated icosahedfdron, it can also be called by its geodesic classification: which is 2v

4 interlocking wrinkled triangular prisms by @origami0911 . Folded from cardstock. This is probably one of my favorite intersecting models because of its compactness, and its simplicity, needing only one type of unit for the whole model.

This was an experiment of mine. I wanted to see if I could make archimedean solids from a simple type of unit. I ended up using 90 units to make this compact sphere. Very fun!

This model was designed by @kh.art.craft. Requiring no folds, and only curls, this model is surprisingly sturdy. The tension of the combined paper holds this piece together. Very interesting!

Curled out of 1:1.75 in cardstock

This model was designed by @ekaterina.lukasheva where it uses a fish base to form the curls. This was made up of 30 units, each requiring precision curling due to the small size.
Folded from 2 in square kami paper. Banana for scale.

The Rose unit was designed by Tomoko Fuse. 1:2 in kami paper. The Phizz unit was designed by Thomas Hull. 2 in square kami paper. The interesting thing about this piece is that each rose unit has a corresponding phizz unit trapping it in. Therefore this model needed 60 units to complete.

These are my Miniature Origami Kusudamas. Banana for scale.
30 Unit sonobe folded from 1 in square paper.
Omega star designed by Philip Shen and folded from 2 in square copy paper.
Simplified Bird tetrahedron by Tomoko Fuse folded from 2 in square copy paper.

Bascetta Star by @paolo.bascetta . Folded out of 2 in square Kami paper. 30 Units. What is interesting about this kusudama, is that if you hold two opposing peaks with two fingers, you can blow and spin the model in your hand!

This is my Origami Kusudama Curler.
It was designed by Herman Van Goubergen. I folded it out of 2 in square cardstock with 2 colors.

This is my Origami Kusudama Curler.

It was designed by Herman Van Goubergen. I folded it out of 3 in square kami with 3 colors.

This is where my origami journey started! I made 90 units of 2-inch paper from all of my failed Latin grades to form something beautiful! There is no hiding the fact that I failed 6 quizzes, but at least I can show them off in a nice way.