yet another origami box divider
May. 31st, 2008 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wombat1138This is pretty nifty-- a five-section divider with a large half-area square/diamond/star-shaped central compartment and four smaller 1/8th-area right triangles in the corners. Fits into Tomoko Fuse's standard four-part modular square box bottoms.
I'd been wondering about the feasibility of something like this for a while, and finally started messing around with paper today to see if it could be done. What I ended up with is a mutant version of the traditional one-piece masu box, sorta turned inside-out or upside-down or something. It uses the same size of paper as the box modules.
1.) The underside of the paper in this starting step will be the one facing upward at the end. Make precreases by mountain-folding both opposite pairs of edges together and valley-folding both opposing corners together. (The directionality of the second pair doesn't matter too much, actually-- they're mostly there as markers.) Unfold all of the precreases as you go.
2.) Blintz all four corners into the center and turn the blintzed square upside-down. The edges of this blintzed square will end up as the tops of the central compartment.
3.) More precreases: cupboard-fold one pair of edges in to meet at the center while simultaneously flipping the corresponding blintzed corners out flat from underneath; cupboard-fold those corners inward to meet at the center. Unfold all of these back to the upside-down blintz square. Repeat with the other pair of edges.
4.) Unfold one opposite pair of blintzed corners from underneath and orient the resulting long hexagonal shape so that those corners are pointing toward/away from you. For each of those corners, the corresponding (former) edge of the blintz square will still be evident as a mountain-folded crease sandwiched between two valley-folded creases. A pair of long valley precreases will also be visible running parallel to the hexagon's long edges, equally divided into thirds by the pair of inner "sandwich" valley creases.
5.a.) This step starts to pop the walls of the central compartment up into three dimensions, standing perpendicular fo the base. Fold down the top corner toward the center of the opposite (former) blintz edge, but with your thumbs remaining inside the ends of the valley-fold.
5.b.) Use your thumbs to push the upper thirds of the long precreases into mountain-folds while simultaneously using the rest of your hands to push the precreases' central thirds into valley folds. As the first three compartment walls pop upright, the hexagon's upper pair of corners will meet in the middle underneath the top of that compartment edge, outside the actual compartment space. Let the left/right pair of blintzed corners partially unfold so that they're pointing straight downward from their corresponding compartment edges.
5.c.) Mountain-fold the (former) edges of the blintz square downward to finish forming that side of the central compartment, semi-locking the pair of hexagon corners inside the walls.
6.) Repeat all of step 5 with the opposite side/corner. All four of the paper's original corners will now be pointing straight down along the central compartment's sides; use the existing valley creases to tuck those corners upward, touching the centers of the compartment's edges.
7.) The shape isn't stable until it's installed into the parent box, but this is true of most of the other dividers as well. With all four paper corners still tucked up along the edges, insert it into the parent box as a diagonal diamond, with each corner of the central comparment at the midpoint of one side of the parent box. Flip down the compartment's external corner flaps, tucking each one to fit into the corresponding corner of the parent box. If the central compartment's initial fit seems a bit bulgy, gently squeeze its sides inward to reshape the square's sides into concave arcs, forming a starlike shape.
Yeah, I need pictures. Will have to find the camera again.
If you follow the Wikipedia diagrams for the traditional masu, the main differences involve flipping the blintzed square upside-down relative to their step 3 (causing the difference in precreases between their step 5 and my step 3), and turning their step 7 inside-out to put the diagonal flaps outside the compartment in my step 5b. Instead of the paper corners meeting inside the center as in the original, they're flipped outward to fill out the lining of the parent box.
Addendum-- the central compartment's sides can be relocked in a more stable fashion by folding the "hexagon corner" tabs with rotational symmetry, i.e. flipping them so that each of the four sides has one tab tucked underneath. However, at the moment I don't have straightforward instructions to do so from the start (from my step 4 onward) instead of rearranging them at the end.
I'd been wondering about the feasibility of something like this for a while, and finally started messing around with paper today to see if it could be done. What I ended up with is a mutant version of the traditional one-piece masu box, sorta turned inside-out or upside-down or something. It uses the same size of paper as the box modules.
1.) The underside of the paper in this starting step will be the one facing upward at the end. Make precreases by mountain-folding both opposite pairs of edges together and valley-folding both opposing corners together. (The directionality of the second pair doesn't matter too much, actually-- they're mostly there as markers.) Unfold all of the precreases as you go.
2.) Blintz all four corners into the center and turn the blintzed square upside-down. The edges of this blintzed square will end up as the tops of the central compartment.
3.) More precreases: cupboard-fold one pair of edges in to meet at the center while simultaneously flipping the corresponding blintzed corners out flat from underneath; cupboard-fold those corners inward to meet at the center. Unfold all of these back to the upside-down blintz square. Repeat with the other pair of edges.
4.) Unfold one opposite pair of blintzed corners from underneath and orient the resulting long hexagonal shape so that those corners are pointing toward/away from you. For each of those corners, the corresponding (former) edge of the blintz square will still be evident as a mountain-folded crease sandwiched between two valley-folded creases. A pair of long valley precreases will also be visible running parallel to the hexagon's long edges, equally divided into thirds by the pair of inner "sandwich" valley creases.
5.a.) This step starts to pop the walls of the central compartment up into three dimensions, standing perpendicular fo the base. Fold down the top corner toward the center of the opposite (former) blintz edge, but with your thumbs remaining inside the ends of the valley-fold.
5.b.) Use your thumbs to push the upper thirds of the long precreases into mountain-folds while simultaneously using the rest of your hands to push the precreases' central thirds into valley folds. As the first three compartment walls pop upright, the hexagon's upper pair of corners will meet in the middle underneath the top of that compartment edge, outside the actual compartment space. Let the left/right pair of blintzed corners partially unfold so that they're pointing straight downward from their corresponding compartment edges.
5.c.) Mountain-fold the (former) edges of the blintz square downward to finish forming that side of the central compartment, semi-locking the pair of hexagon corners inside the walls.
6.) Repeat all of step 5 with the opposite side/corner. All four of the paper's original corners will now be pointing straight down along the central compartment's sides; use the existing valley creases to tuck those corners upward, touching the centers of the compartment's edges.
7.) The shape isn't stable until it's installed into the parent box, but this is true of most of the other dividers as well. With all four paper corners still tucked up along the edges, insert it into the parent box as a diagonal diamond, with each corner of the central comparment at the midpoint of one side of the parent box. Flip down the compartment's external corner flaps, tucking each one to fit into the corresponding corner of the parent box. If the central compartment's initial fit seems a bit bulgy, gently squeeze its sides inward to reshape the square's sides into concave arcs, forming a starlike shape.
Yeah, I need pictures. Will have to find the camera again.
If you follow the Wikipedia diagrams for the traditional masu, the main differences involve flipping the blintzed square upside-down relative to their step 3 (causing the difference in precreases between their step 5 and my step 3), and turning their step 7 inside-out to put the diagonal flaps outside the compartment in my step 5b. Instead of the paper corners meeting inside the center as in the original, they're flipped outward to fill out the lining of the parent box.
Addendum-- the central compartment's sides can be relocked in a more stable fashion by folding the "hexagon corner" tabs with rotational symmetry, i.e. flipping them so that each of the four sides has one tab tucked underneath. However, at the moment I don't have straightforward instructions to do so from the start (from my step 4 onward) instead of rearranging them at the end.