blue's Chinese 3D modular origami

Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 23:08:00 +0000

I was first introduced to Chinese modular origami by my aunt when I was in elementary school. A friend of hers taught her how to make a pineapple (ball), we made one with 500 pieces of Chinese 1 cent bills, because of the color of the bill, dark yellow/brown, it actually looked convincing. She also told me that her friend had huge models of ships made out of same triangle pieces, I didn't really believe it was possible.

Summer of 1997, I visited a small Chinese museum in Chinatown that had these models on display. The models were amazing, range from full size American bald eagle, full size bikes, tea sets, to miniature ship models (about 5 feet long). The models were made by bunch of Chinese stowaways that got locked up. They represented their American dreams, sometimes these origami are also refer to as Chinese Refugees Modular Units. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures, and I didn't have enough time to figure out how they are made.

Winter 2001, I found a bunch of websites by other Chinese origami model fans. They had some amazing models that I had never seen, some where designed by themselves. One of them pointed me to a Japanese book store in NYC (Kinokuniya Bookstores) that had lots of books on these models. Apparently these type of origami are a lot more popular than i thought, Japanese call them block folding origami.

The thing I love about this type of modular origami, compare to other modular origami or normal origami, is that the individual units are very simple to fold, I often make them while watching TV. But once you assemble them, you can create wonderful complicated looking 3D models. Thanks to these wonderful websites and books, I was able to make a lot of different new models, not just the simple pineapple.

Etsy Shop

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:21:00 +0000

Now accepting custom requests, please send your order via Request Custom Item on Etsy.

Models currently available for sale through Etsy:

Love Swan

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:16:00 +0000

A pair of small love swan, each is about 2x3. Mostly made out of white paper, except the beak. Available for purchase on Etsy.

Picture Frame

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 04:38:00 +0000

I had some left over pieces from a color ball (similar to birthday ball), so I made this.

Birthday Ball

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 04:36:00 +0000

I didn't make this one, it was a birthday gift from a friend, my Chinese name on one side, and 98' on the other. My mom broke it by accident one time while cleaning the house, so I had to reconstruct it from memory. Using this method, you can pretty much put any sort of design on a ball.

Swan

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 04:34:00 +0000

I bought this kit from a store in Chinatown, the direction was in Korean, but I managed to make this based on the picture and some numbers. The neck is a little different then the original.

Pineapple

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 04:32:00 +0000

My aunt taught me how to make pineapple when I was a little kid, we made one out of 500 pieces of 1c Chinese bill. It didn't have this nice pattern and leaves. I made this one in 2001, based on some images of real and fake pineapple I found using google image search. This was a gift for my pineapple loving friend.

Love Swan

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 04:28:00 +0000

This was made by a friend for a valentine's day present. It's pretty much the same as my swan model, except that the neck is slightly modified, and body made wider. I think this looks a lot better than the original model (diagram available here). I helped him make it and so I get to post it here ^.~

Chinese Dragon Part II

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 04:16:00 +0000

I had to fix my dragon model recently, it was falling apart from moving and of course it got very dusty since it's almost 5 years old now. I took some close up pictures.

Putting the spiral in, starting at the arch in the back and slowly rotate it in place towards the neck.
Mouth, the whisker is bend inside so it will stay put. Unfortunately forgot to take picture before gluing the ball in, and the camera can't take picture any closer than this. iIf you look at it in person, you can actually see the tong, which is the single piece that connects the head and the spine/neck, and only piece where you can see the red side of the fold.
Back of the head, head is made with top and bottom sections, basically 2 slightly bended triangles and jabbed together, almost impossible without glue.
Tail, the body is pretty straight forward. I took two passes when assembling, first time to try it out and figure out where the arches should be, second time to glue it.
Head, the head by it self is not too difficult. This model in theory is possible to do with out glue, but there are too many parts that are joined by only one piece of triangle, so will probably fall apart even if you just breathed on it. I lost one of the 2 original eyes, and I couldn't find replacement that was exactly the same size, so now it has slightly larger new pair of eyes. For the whiskers, make sure you straighten the wires, pulling it back and forth around some sort of metal edge or rod, before bending them into the desired curve.
I have seen few other dragon models, but none as good as this one. This model came from a kit with instruction in Korean, you can probably find the kit in most Chinatown stationary/gift stores.

Chinese Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 04:14:00 +0000

I bought this kit from a store in Chinatown, the direction was in Korean. I had a hard time making the head and putting the different parts together, everything manage to stay together after applying lots of glue. This is the best dragon model I have seen. See diagram and direction here.

Flower Basket

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 04:06:00 +0000

I saw a pre-made model similar to this in a Chinatown store one time. This model is sort of the basic pineapple model inside out :p. I couldn't remember how the handle was like, so I just made it up, it looks some what like a heart shape.

Hello Kitty

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 04:04:00 +0000

Made in 2002, a birthday present for a co-worker who is a big Hello Kitty fan. I found 2 Hello Kitty models in my book collections (one of them available here), so I took a little here and there and made this.

Batsu Maru

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 04:01:00 +0000

A belated birthday present I made for a friend in 2002. This is a Sanrio character, named Batsu Maru, his a little mischief penguin. It turned out quite nicely.

Snowman

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 03:53:00 +0000

Made in 2002, this is a birthday present for a friend who's online handle is snowman. Since he is very tall, I decided to modify the original model and made it extra tall.

Doraemon

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 03:49:00 +0000

I made this Doraemon in summer 2002 for a friend, who is a big fan of this classic Japanese anime character. Doraemon is a robot cat from the future. I forgot to take a picture of the model before giving it to my friend, by the time I asked him for a picture, the eye had fallen out.

Mashimaro

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 03:32:00 +0000

Mashimaro is a Korean cartoon character, his known for mischief. Link to character's website here. Made this model for a friend in Spring 2003. This is an original model I created, based on one of the episodes where mashimaro puts the plunger on his head, like in the picture.

Hello Kitty - Diagram

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 03:07:00 +0000

Diagram and template in Japanese:

Peacock - Diagram

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 03:03:00 +0000

Digram in Japanese:

Butterfly - Diagram

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 02:58:00 +0000

High res image and diagrams in Japanese:

Basic Unit - Diagram

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:48:00 +0000

Direction for basic unit and assembly in Japanese:

Swan - Diagram

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:21:00 +0000

Diagram in Korean:

Chinese Dragon - Diagram

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:17:00 +0000

Box cover:

Diagram in Korean:

Books I Own

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:39:00 +0000

Here are books I currently have in my collection, with links to online stores

Books from Amazon.com: all are available for purchase online!

Books from Kinokuniya: some are available for purchase online!

ISBN4-528-01436-X ISBN4-537-12044-4 ISBN4-07-229323-7

ISBN4-277-75329-9 ISBN4-8347-1581-7

Some of these Japanese books are also available on amazon.co.jp, just search by ISBN

Links

noreply@blogger.com (blue) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:18:00 +0000

Here are some links I found around the web:

Kinokuniya Bookstore - Rockefeller Plaza, 10 West 49St, NYC, (212) 765-7766
Museum of Chinese in the Americas (MoCA) - 70 Mulberry Street, 2nd Floor, NYC, (212) 619-4785

http://users.animanga.com/arlip/origami.html - many custom models based on anime and video game characters
http://www.wgn.net/~nienhuis/chinese.html - general info about Chinese modular origami and pictures
http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/alabama/179/module.htm - instruction for unit, many great model pictures
http://origami.kvi.nl/models/units/00sub/refugeeb.htm - instruction for unit on origami interest group
http://free.prohosting.com/~origami/pictures.html - lots of pictures of giant swan models and other type of modular origami

http://www.origami.com.au/ - origami supplies, check out the kit packs
http://www.origami.as/ - joseph wu's origami site, not Chinese modular but still amazing stuff
http://www.paperfolding.com/ - general origami site