Itchy Fingers
Well, I got the urge to play with paper again. This time, the idea came up when I expressed dissatisfaction with just folding a sheet of paper into regularly sized squares and cutting in interesting ways (see the 20-crane-chain). balmy_fool said to me, "Why don't you fold two big cranes with one little crane in the middle?"
Well. The simplest way to do this is to have a large square touching a small square touching another large square, so that it's all in a line.... But I'd already played around with closed circular crane chains, so I figured I'd go ahead and make it more challenging and fold two connected large cranes, both touching the small crane, out of a single sheet of paper.
Actually the hardest part wasn't the folding itself, but rather how to create the squares themselves. You can see that I had to go through several iterations (including one not pictured, in which I succeeded, but popped the ring open on accident).
Here's the sheet of paper I used, finally, distilled down to its two large squares and one small square. The edges are ragged and messy, because the folds were a touch imprecise, and also because torn paper holds together better than cut paper. Scissors or razors make these really clean, sharp cuts, but also make the tiny joint extremely fragile. I sacrificed beauty for a little more ease in working with it.
Here I am, making faces at the cranes. Bun wants to help!
It's a really delicate process when you can't put the paper down to really get nice, precise, tight folds, because the piece just isn't flat. If you press it down onto a table, often the joints will just pop open because of the strain on the other squares.
It gets briefly easier after the wings are formed, and then difficult again when you go to fold in the neck and tail lines. The most frustrating thing is if the piece pops apart when you're going to form the head and tail. In this case, I was especially worried because there were two larger cranes pulling on the smaller crane. I had to form the large cranes' heads simultaneously because I was afraid the strain would disconnect the little crane. After that it was pretty straightforward.
Finally done. I am pleased with the result. It's pretty darned cute. I think I could have made the little crane even littler, but I think that would have made it much harder to fold. It's not just that smaller squares are harder to work with, but that it would have changed the angle at which the cranes met, and made the entire thing more fragile, I think.
You can find more photos here.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that. ^_^
Well. The simplest way to do this is to have a large square touching a small square touching another large square, so that it's all in a line.... But I'd already played around with closed circular crane chains, so I figured I'd go ahead and make it more challenging and fold two connected large cranes, both touching the small crane, out of a single sheet of paper.
Actually the hardest part wasn't the folding itself, but rather how to create the squares themselves. You can see that I had to go through several iterations (including one not pictured, in which I succeeded, but popped the ring open on accident).
Here's the sheet of paper I used, finally, distilled down to its two large squares and one small square. The edges are ragged and messy, because the folds were a touch imprecise, and also because torn paper holds together better than cut paper. Scissors or razors make these really clean, sharp cuts, but also make the tiny joint extremely fragile. I sacrificed beauty for a little more ease in working with it.
Here I am, making faces at the cranes. Bun wants to help!
It's a really delicate process when you can't put the paper down to really get nice, precise, tight folds, because the piece just isn't flat. If you press it down onto a table, often the joints will just pop open because of the strain on the other squares.
It gets briefly easier after the wings are formed, and then difficult again when you go to fold in the neck and tail lines. The most frustrating thing is if the piece pops apart when you're going to form the head and tail. In this case, I was especially worried because there were two larger cranes pulling on the smaller crane. I had to form the large cranes' heads simultaneously because I was afraid the strain would disconnect the little crane. After that it was pretty straightforward.
Finally done. I am pleased with the result. It's pretty darned cute. I think I could have made the little crane even littler, but I think that would have made it much harder to fold. It's not just that smaller squares are harder to work with, but that it would have changed the angle at which the cranes met, and made the entire thing more fragile, I think.
You can find more photos here.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that. ^_^