In the book Extreme Origami, by Japanese origami master Kunihiko Kasahara, the author displays and discusses a small collection of colorful square patterns made from what is known as “Froebel’s basic form”. Kasahara points out that it is possible to make infinite variations from this basic form.
As I examined the possibilities more carefully, and folded a few patterns, a new window of possibility opened through which I could glimpse the infinite.What fascinated me in these forms was the realization of their graphic potential as individual images. I chose to work in black and white as I wanted to examine them in terms of structure, essence, and the play of positive and negative. Over time I have folded over four hundred and fifty variations of this basic form, also known as a windmill base.
View the complete collection in my flickr page
Diagrams to fold the windmill base
By slightly changing the way the top flaps of this base are folded, the number of different resulting patterns are enormous.
I have played with these Froebel patterns as designs for t-shirts and other items.
About Froebel: The German educator and crystallographer Friedrich Froebel, who first developed the concept of kindergarten, was one of the first people to point to the creation of folded patterns like these. Using white paper, Froebel himself created his own collection of folded “forms of beauty”, which is found at the Froebel Museum in Bad Blankenburg, a small town in eastern Germany.
For more information about Froebelian folding, visit the British Origami Society site and read a great article written by DAVID LISTER.
Hi Leyla,
These are beautiful. Do you have them in a frame displayed together as in the photograph?
Did you fold them randomly or follow a set sequence worked out in advance?
If in sequence, did you come to any conclusion as to whether there are an infinite number of them? I’m guessing the number cannot be limitless as all of them are folded from the same base are the same size when finished and are symmetrical.
Have you tried forming any of them into boxes as described by, I think, Kasahara in one of his other books?
Sorry for all the questions but these are fascinating!
Matthew
Hi Mathew:
I don’t have these pieces framed. I have them well protected in a book inside plastic sleeves!
I did not fold them randomly. I set myself to systematically make sets of 16 or 20 based on one initial move. For example, I made a set initially folding the central tips all the way out to the corners and then I did variations from there. Then I did another set, folding the central tips half way to the corners… and so on. That alone gives us a lot of variations.
From my experience doing these so far, I don’t know if an infinite number can be made, but my sense is that millions could be made! I feel that I have just scratched the surface.
I have not tried making them into boxes. I’m afraid to run out of places to store all this.
Here is a link to Ilan Garibi’s flikr page He has his own colorful collection of Froebel’s forms. And here he shows an alphabet based on these forms.
WOW!!!!!
Amazingly done! Choosing Black & white – a briliant idea!!
neat folding, accurate and sharp!
I did have in mind the idea of systematicly fold a big nomber of folds, but now there is no point in doing it – it is done already..
tHANKS FOR THE CREDIT!
Ilan.
Leyla
These are stunning and the idea of using the negative space in black works powerfully. i contrast your group to the link you provided and visually, your alterations of form provide better contrast. with the color bases, color obscures the interior folded layers.
again, you provoke us to experiment. could you bring these to display at the convention?
joyce
Am interested in all forms of reference to Froebel’s interaction with Origami. See a lot of sequelae for teachers teaching science, poetry and literature in all grades. In teaching physics, and training teachers, P-16, at a University I used Origami to teach the electro- magnetic spectrum.Wonderful ,creative moments in allying all of these forms of knowledge through Origami. Froebel, the Educator, is smiling. Thank you. R^2