Fox diagrams

Remember these? Diagrams are finally available, with thanks to my friend Brendan for test-folding them.  Would you believe it’s been so long that I can’t honestly remember when these were designed? I’m not even certain what year it was.

Diagrams for fox

The biggest hurdle here is all of the 60-degree angles. If you’re already comfortable folding those, this should all fall into place quite easily. If you aren’t used to them, you will be after this lot!

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Reweaving the Rainbow

Tags

modular, origami

I do not have a proper source for Keats’ alleged accusation to Newton – that he had destroyed the wonder of the rainbow by reducing it to prismatic colours. It might be that he never said any such thing. I’m sorry, Keats, if this is only a rumour that keeps following you around. It must be maddening. Especially when you went on the record with Beauty is truth, truth beauty.

But I should think most people who’ve heard that line have thought the same thing in response to it. It’s a bit dog-in-the-manger. Just because you’d rather not know why certain things are as they are, that’s no reason for everybody else to avoid thinking about them. For lots of people, understanding how something came about is a gain, not a loss. (Richard Dawkins spent a whole book saying so, and it’s rather a good read.) 

Here, Keats. I put this rainbow back together. There aren’t any diagrams (yet), so you can rest easy. There probably will be, though, so enjoy the mystery while it lasts.

Divot units and a small rant about swimsuits

So last week I went shopping for swimwear. Did you know that it’s almost impossible (except in a sports shop, where people presumbaly care about other features) to buy a swimsuit without something called “shape control panels” or “absolute tummy control” or “your total shape solution”? A total shape solution, by the way, seems to mean a special reinforced panel around the tummy region. I don’t like the idea much, partly because I’m obscurely irritated by amount of products which have become solutions. (Your complete coloured paper solution! Your ultimate clothes peg solution! Really, people?)

Clockwise from top: 30 units, a stack of 12 units as yet unassembled, 12 units, 6 units, 6 units.

Anyway, this business of shaping solutions also annoys me because where a solution exists, the existance of a problem can be inferred. And what is a shape problem? It seems to be a synonym for having an abdomen. There are almost no swimsuits that don’t assume you need some kind of solution for your stomach region, however small a swimsuit you wear. It makes me sad. Tummies are not intrinsically problematic, are they?

These units will present you with a shape problem if you use paper that is almost-but-not-quite square. But they are quite easy to fold and quite pretty, I think. Would you like some diagrams? There could be diagrams. Sorry, I should have said – there could be a complete diagram solution. If someone volunteers to test-fold them (offers a test-folding solution?) to see if they make sense.

Now I’m off to find a solution to the problem of washing up. I think it probably involves washing the dishes, don’t you?