Making Maths

These have been great to do in lessons with students.  Firstly it's nice to talk about fractals, but they are also great looking and can be Festive if you want (green paper, tree looking?) Instructions are here  on the Fractal foundation's website and video link is here .  I originally found them on ArtfulMaths These look particularly nice when lit from beneath with a battery operated tea-light/candle.

I was taught how to make this little Santa when I first started teaching by a fantastic maths teacher called Jane.   I have been making these with classes every year since.  I shudder to think how many students I have taught this to. I have a massive version that appears in my classroom every Christmas.  He wears a smaller version of himself as a badge, that one wears a smaller version and so on. To make these I use the paper used in schools to cover display boards.  This paper is coloured on one side and white on the other.  So I always look out for the red backing paper.   All you need for this is two small squares of paper.  The two pieces will require sticking together at the end, so not strictly speaking origami. Even better if you can get the display board edging that comes in rolls as then you can cut squares from the strip.  Much quicker. One year I made different coloured ones to make elves in different coloured suits to use as ...

Back to Philip Chapman-Bell (Oschene).  This is his "Ten sided Yin-Yang Globe".  There are a few versions of this on his Flickr account but the third looks to be the easiest and this is it.  https://www.flickr.com/photos/oschene/6702378705/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/oschene/6702439719 He has put an image of a single unit onto his account and so I used that as many copies on an A4 sheet.  The image of this is here. I have also found this being called "CandyWrap" by DutchPaperGirl on YouTube but it looks to me that she is using the image that Oschene shared originally for the template. 10 units (5 each in two colours) using the template above on A4 creates a model 6cm tall and about the same in diameter.  To me it looks like it can be added to the list of "Festive" makes. :) Dutchpapergirl has a tutorial video here

Snapology is method of creating objects using strips of paper folded up and linked together using other strips of paper.  The process was invented by Heinz Strobl.  His website  www.snapology.eu   has images and instructions.  Other instructions are here   https://www.instructables.com/How-to-make-Snapology-Origami/  and places like here . To be honest you can just search snapology origami and loads of instructions and images come up. Heinz Strobl's website also mentions that many researchers are developing structures and devices that can be on a large or tiny scale that use Snapology as its basis. This presentation has images of models that can be made based on Platonic and Archimedean solids, which might be helpful to see what things can be built. In the first image a selection, Tetrahedron (4 triangular faces), Icosahedron (20 triangular faces), Rhombicosidodecahedron (12 pentagons, 30 squares, 20 triangles) and snub dodecahedron ( 12 pentago...

  I discovered Philip Chapman-Bell's (Oschene https://origami.oschene.com/ ) Flickr page a while back and rediscovered it again recently.  He has created a wealth of interesting ideas and models and he very generously shares pdfs templates and explanations.  The link to the pdf for the tetrahedron is here  https://www.flickr.com/photos/oschene/5254953370/  (6 modules, 2 of each of 3 colours) and if you look through the rest of his photos you will find the others.  I will add links as I re-find them. A lot are posted in his album Origamish  https://www.flickr.com/photos/oschene/albums/72157604393296138/

  A quick post as I have just been experimenting, as I found some off-cuts of acetate and also some smaller bits of graph paper that couldn't be used for any graphs.  The acetate one is very satisfying and crying out for some lights inside.....🤔🤔