UVWXYZ - 6 Intersecting Planes - Rectangular planes

Six intersecting rectangular planes. Starting from here the pattern is that one of the planes lies horizontal. In my model it is red.

Reference :  Ornamental Origami: Exploring 3D Geometric Designs
No of units: 6 x 5 = 30 units, 6 intersecting planes, 5 units each.
Difficulty: Easy (Felt easy after doing 3, 4, 5 planes)
Paper size: 3 inch x 6 inch as given in the book
Time required: 3-4 hours.
Base angle = 360/5 = 72 degrees, Base angle reduces as no. of intersecting planes increases.

Assembly guide is also available here : http://www.davidpetty.me.uk/origamiemporium/images/mm_uvwxyzrect.gif

Assembly:  First join 5 units to form a pentagon. To further continue, keep in mind the icosidodecahedron structure and that all colors should lie in one plane.

Note: An icosidodecahedron has 20 triangles and 12 pentagons. The structure is simple (unlike it's name sounds complex). Pentagons are surrounded by triangles on each side. Triangles are surrounded by pentagons on it's 3 sides.Will be posting an article on icosidodecahedron soon.

VWXYZ - 5 intersecting Rectangular planes

Five intersecting rectangular planes. Great for beginners! Assembly is easier than 3 intersecting planes, don't have to squeeze the units.

Before starting 6 intersecting planes given in the book Ornamental Origami: Exploring 3D Geometric Designs I wanted to try this one. Just to get some extra confidence!!

Reference: http://www.davidpetty.me.uk/origamiemporium/images/vwxyz.gif
Number of units: 5 x 4 units. 5 planes 4 units in each.
Difficulty: easy to make units and easy to assemble.
Paper size : Printer paper , I think I took 6 cm x 12 cm. Paper size should be in 1:2 ratio
Time: Can be finished in 3 hours

Base angle = 360/4 = 90 degrees.
Notice that the angle obtained when we fold the unit is 45 degrees. (If we take a single unit, there's 90 degrees and when we fold that, we are actually obtaining angular bisector, so after the fold the angle we have is 45 degrees )
When we join two units, the angle is 45 + 45 = 90 degrees which is clearly evident from the figure.

Assembly: Connect 5 units of different colors and go on joining keeping pieces of same color in one plane.

WXYZ - 4 Intersecting planes - Triangular Planes

Four intersecting rectangular planes(Number of colors = Number of planes).
Two planes green and orange can be clearly seen. Other two yellow and purple lie pointing to us. I did this before trying 4 intersecting rectangular plane. This is an easy one. Fun to do. Assembly is also simple. Here's the reference given in David Petty's web page.

Reference: http://www.davidpetty.me.uk/origamiemporium/images/lam_wxyz.gif
No of Units: 4 * 3 = 12. 4 planes and 3 units in each plane.
Difficulty: easy to make units and easy to assemble. Very sturdy module
Paper used: I used regular color printer sheets.
Paper size: 5 inch x 5 inch square
Time taken: do not remember: but can be finished within 2 hour or even 1 hour.

If we consider one triangular plane, there are 3 units that makes a triangular plane. To calculate the angle between each unit, 360/3 = 120 degrees (similar to rectangular plane).
It can be proved that each triangular plane is an equilateral triangle (all angles of triangle = 60 degrees).

(Proof: We know that one angle is 120 degrees, the other two are 90 degrees. When we divide the basic unit into two parts, we get two triangles, one angle is 120/2 = 60 degrees, other is 90 degrees, so the third should be 30 degrees. Hence 30 x 2 = 60 degrees)

Assembly Technique: Join four color units by inserting one unit's flap in the others pocket. Continue joining remembering that all colors should be in a plane.

Next one I did was 5 intersecting planes.

3D Origami Flower

This is my 25th post, I was saving this post for the 25th post. This should have been my first post but I didn't plan well when I began blogging. I didn't even know I would do these many modules (whatever little I have done).

This was the first Origami I did, to be precise on 19th Jan 2013. A beloved friend of mine A**a auntie showed this since I loved to try one myself. I guess we referred this link below.

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60n6aiSig8U
Units: 76 , one of the lowest no of units model in 3D origami
Paper: normal printer paper
Duration: Can finish in 4 hours or less.
Difficulty: easy, great for beginners

All I wanted was to make a 3D peacock to keep in my house for decoration. It all started with this simple and easy flower. I went on to try a mini peacock, 3D swan, flower basket, a big peacock etc. looking at videos on YouTube.

I then happened to see an Origami exhibit of Meenakshi Mukherji in nearby Sunnyvale library. I came to know about modular origami. I borrowed a book and tried Star burst, Sun burst etc.. from her book. Somehow I got a hang of it and continued to do several more simpler modules in a span of 4 months. It's exactly (just) 4 months now since I started Origami.

This post is a small tribute to A**a auntie who gave me a kick start, book authors and other origami enthusiasts for their videos and blogs. Hoping to carry on for many more years to come.

I will be continuing with intersecting planes from next post.

WXYZ- 4 Intersecting Planes - Rectangular Planes

The next one I tried was four intersecting planes, yet another easy module.
Number of colors = No of planes.

Two fundamental points in any intersecting plane:
1) Each plane intersects every other plane.
2) All planes meet at one center point.

Reference:  http://www.davidpetty.me.uk/origamiemporium/images/ow_wxyz.gif
No of units: 4x3 units. (4 planes, 3 units in each plane)
Paper size used : 5" x 5"  
Difficulty: easy to make units and easy to assemble.
Paper used: normal color printer paper
Time: 2-3 hours

Since the total number of units in each plane is 3, the angle between each plane = 360/3 = 120 degrees.
In case of 3 intersecting planes, total number of units in each plane is 2, angle between each plane = 360/2 = 180 degrees.

Assembling technique:
I started by assembling four units, each of different color/plane, like a valley surrounded by 4 walls. Continue to assemble making sure same colors lie in same plane.

XYZ - 3 Intersecting Planes

After trying out some simple basic polyhedra I started with intersecting planes. I came across this set of modules in the book  Ornamental Origami: Exploring 3D Geometric Designs. In the book instructions are given starting from 6 intersecting planes. I was not very clear when I went through the folding diagrams. To start with I took the very simple 3 intersecting planes/XYZ coordinate planes.

Reference:  To make units: http://www.davidpetty.me.uk/origamiemporium/images/ow_xyza.gif
                   To assemble:  http://www.davidpetty.me.uk/origamiemporium/images/ow_xyzb.gif
No of units: 6 units.
Paper size used : 5" x 5"  
Difficulty: easy model.
Paper used: normal color printer paper
Time: 1.5 to 2 hours

Easy model. Easy to make. As mentioned in the above David Petty link, I felt it is easy to assemble four units, had to squeeze in the last two for the third coordinate tearing the paper a bit here and there. Good for beginners though.

I finally changed my blog template, making it easier to navigate between posts and to browse blog.

Icosahedron - skeleton

Take a look at my blog in Flipcard style, (hover mouse pointer over Magazine in upper left corner of the page,select Flipcard option from the drop-down menu ) to view all models together. It looks very colorful.

Let me finish off by posting this model, icosahedron skeleton type. I also did tetrahedron and octahedron skeletons but I am not going to post it. They are easy models and good for beginners to understand platonic solid structures.

Reference:  Ployhedron Origami for Beginners - Miyuki Kawamura
No of units: 30 units.
Paper size used : 5" x 5"  
Difficulty: easy model and strong enough, easy to assemble.
Paper used: normal color printer paper
Time: 1.5 to 2 hours

No glue used, no paper clips used while assembling. 

Dodecahedron - skeleton

I am so changing my mind regarding my blog template. I love the old classic style and change to that and suddenly feel dynamic view is good and revert back.

I wanted to start intersecting planes, but haven't had time to take photos and copy to my laptop. Hope to do that soon. Meanwhile here's a dodecahedron skeleton model.

Reference:  Ployhedron Origami for Beginners - Miyuki Kawamura
No of units: 30 units.
Paper size used : 5" x 5"  
Difficulty: easy model but didn't find it sturdy.
Paper used: normal color printer paper
Time: 1.5 to 2 hours

Remark: I didn't find this model sturdy. I felt I could've taken a 3" x 3" size square sheet. The pieces didn't sit tight and kept falling apart. After trying for a long time I finally used glue. I try as much as possible to avoid using glue since true Origami should not use glue. I tried hard to make it fit and in vain. Even after assembly the model won't stand firm.
So far out of all modular origami models I have done, I have used glue for 2 or 3 models.