Make: Online: Paper Crafts Archives

Archive: Paper Crafts

July 1, 2009

Breathtaking papercraft castle

By way of fellow papercraft enthusiast Cory Doctorow comes images of this incredible castle, posted on Tokyobling. Tokyobling explains:

I had the immense opportunity to see this wonderful paper craft art installation by a genius of the name of Wataru Itou, a young student of a major art university here in Tokyo. The installation is hand made over four years of hard work, complete with electrical lights and a moving train, all made of paper! Clearly, this man must have created one of the most stunning examples of Paper Craft in the world? At the exhibition you will also have the chance to see a video showing Mr. Itou at work in his studio, cutting and folding piece by piece. The exhibition is called Umi no Ue no Oshiro (A Castle On the Ocean ), 海の上のお城. It is exhibited at Uminohotaru, a place which in itself is a major attraction: a service area in the middle of the ocean, right between Tokyo City and Chiba Prefecture.

A Paper Craft Castle On the Ocean [via Boing Boing]

June 27, 2009

Future death machine nose art

I'm pretty sure this TrueType font designed in 1998 by the now-apparently-defunct "Dragon's Den Type Foundry" was intended for players of Games Workshop's Warhammer: 40K tabletop wargame.

But c'mon, seriously: what project wouldn't be improved by a little faux-fascist heraldry? Perhaps a flying skull transfixed by a dagger and with lightning shooting from its eyes?

I can't think of one either.

June 22, 2009

Well, me, for one, and probably a bunch of other folks who don't care to be constantly reminded of mortality. We seem to be in the minority, however, with most deriving some kind of weird existential thrill, or deep Buddhist-y zen calm, from staring deep into the empty, black sockets of eternally grinning Death. Whee!

So, in honor of you deranged necrophiles, (especially you, Noah Scalin) I've rounded up three years worth of skullaphenalia from MAKE and CRAFT. Whether your taste runs to soft-and-cuddly pink death or cold-and-creepy-with-tentacles death, you're sure to find something among these links that quenches your malevolent bloodthirst. You make me sick! Also: Enjoy!

Livejournaler vomitsaw's bracelet is made from an etched PCB, with solder pads for eyes and mating RCA connectors as a clasp.

Cute death:

Shawn Bowman's sugar-skull tutorial will have you smacking your lips on sweet death in no time.

Tasty death:

Mark Kilner's "Numbskull" is a plastic skull covered in painkillers.

Arty death:

Wayne Martin Belger's cenobite-esque "Third Eye" is a century-old skull fitted with a pinhole camera.

Downright creepy death:

My own "Deathblinger" clock is a rhinestone de-gentrification of a high-falutin' designer diamond watch.

Miscellaneous death:

June 17, 2009

How-To: Frabjous cardboard geometry sculpture

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories show us how to make this rad geometric sculpture:

George W. Hart is a professor at Stony Brook and is one of our favorite artists, making a wide variety of stunning geometric sculptures. On his of his many works that has particularly captivated us for some time is a sculpture called Frabjous.

When we realized that George had posted a template for this sculpture we dropped everything, grabbed the cardboard and hot glue, and raced to build our own.

Moleskine map preserves your street cred

From the MAKE Flickr pool

B_light's edge-printed notebook makes for some stealthy tourism -

My Moleskin hack entry hides the fact that you are a tourist and can only be used on a soft cover notebook. When you fold the notebook length-wise (when the spine practically touches the long edge of the back cover), the fore-edge of the pages fan out. Only when the notebook is folded this way, does a subway map clearly appear. This is due to the fact that the map is printed on the edge while the notebook is positioned like this. You can hide the fact that you are consulting a subway map and be spared the embarrassment and scorn from locals.

FYI -this 'mapskin' was created as an entry for the My Moleskine 2.0 competition. It would be cool to see this technique used for a convenient table of contents listing on pocket refs and the like.

June 16, 2009

Matt Cottam's Wooden logic: In search of heirloom electronics

Matt Cottam Heirloom Electronics

Matt Cottam, CEO of Tellart has posted his thesis from his degree work (Masters of Arts in Interaction Design) at the Umeå Institute of Design, Umeå University. The thesis explains his "process of sketching and swatchmaking (prototyping) with both digital and analog tools, using both electronic and organic materials":

This hands-on journey in search of "heirloom electronics" uncovers several possible relationships between the digital, material and natural through a series of working sketch models. Through these sketches and swatches I have sought to explore a harmonious intersection between tradition and technology, and between natural materials, high craft and digital functionality. I have consistent evidence that the emotional value of handling wood as an interface brought delight to people, and I believe that these studies suggest many possibilities for product, material use and manufacturing techniques.

A link to the PDF is available at: Wooden logic: In search of heirloom electronics

June 10, 2009

Build your own Chicago

No longer do I have to be homesick for my beloved Chitown thanks to the fine folks over at Wurlington Brothers Press, who publish the Build Your Own Chicago series of scale model postcards. Each card can be cut and assembled into a miniature paper model of a prominent Chicago landmarks. Inspired by the "Micromodels" designed by Geoffrey Heighway in the 1950s, all the Wurliington Brothers Press postcards are designed and drawn by Matt Bergstrom. Pictured above is the Red Line and the El Tracks. Check out their awesome selection. They even offer some as freebie PDFs. If you're of the NYC persuasion, they also have a Build Your Own New York selection.

Winners of the Paper Yachts book contest

Thanks to all those who wrote in to share their love for origami and entered to win one of three copies of Paper Yachts by Nic Compton and Nick Robinson. The winners are commenters w15p, verticalfuzz, and Sixth Grader (who will donate the book to his/her school library). Congrats! Email becky@makezine.com to claim your prize.

June 8, 2009

Paper Yachts contest last call

Just a reminder about our Paper Yachts book contest, closing tomorrow at midnight PDT. Please add your comments below, or in the original post, if you want to be considered for the drawing.

More:
Paper Yachts book contest

June 4, 2009

Paper Yachts book contest

I've always been fascinated by origami, but never had the patience for learning it. If you think you do have what it takes to model the world in folded paper, here's an opportunity to get a free copy of a unique origami book. Our pals over at Potter Craft have given us three copies of their new Paper Yachts book to give away to MAKE readers. Created by origami masters Nic Compton and Nick Robinson, the book has origami models of four famous racing yachts. You get sixteen water-resistant templates of the four models that you can use in the tub, in a puddle in your backyard, or other miniature waterway.

If you'd like a copy of one of these books, tell us why in the comments, tell us some of your origami experiences, making paper boats, or related tales. Link to pics if you have them. Next Tuesday, we'll choose three winners.

May 29, 2009

Sun papercraft

Canon has a bunch of free papercraft models available, including this awesome sun papercraft. Via New World Geek.

Paper architecture

Richard Kaufman won one of the Dover Paper Architect books we gave away in a contest back in February. I love that he's doing the projects and tweeting the results. Nice going, Richard!

May 3, 2009

Toilet paper tube faces

At last, something to do with that pile of toilet paper tubes you've been saving all these years! (There's no point denying it; we know how you are.) Then again, you'd be lucky to have the mad skillz of sculptor Junior Jacquet, who's made a career out of sculpting cardboard. His toilet paper tube faces, on display over at LOUDreams , are pretty amazing realizations of the hidden potential of even the most mundane objects.

April 30, 2009

Glue anything to anything

Ever get confused about what sort of glue to use on a project? I'm twice degreed in Chemistry, and I certainly do. A great resource is This to That,, a comprehensive "glue advice" database run by a theatrical prop-builder and some buddies. They say:

We aren't a front for any manufacturer or some National Glue Association (if such a thing even exists.) Our recommendations are totally impartial. We have advertisers but they don't influence our selections at all. And they never will. We promise.

The folks at This to That were kind enough to give MAKE permission to reprint their main glue chart in The Maker's Notebook, so it's available in the notebook's reference section in the back.

In the Maker Shed:

Pick up The Maker's Notebook ($19.99) for all your big ideas, diagrams, patterns, etc. Exclusive to the Maker Shed: Sticker sheets and a band closure to customize your book.

April 27, 2009

Brian Dettmer's "Adaptations"

Brian Dettmer carefully dissects books into these lovely sculptures that reveal their inner relationships. They'll be on display in Chicago through May 9 at the Packer Schopf Gallery. Via Cool Hunting.

April 22, 2009

The ledger art of Jill Sylvia

These paper sculptures by Jill Sylvia blow my mind. If Brian Dettmer and Jen Stark had a love-child... With all three of these artists, I just can't get over the anality involved, the obsessiveness and precision required.

Jill Sylvia
[via Boing Boing]

More:
Book Sculptures by Brian Dettmer
Old books sculptures
Jen Stark - Construction Paper Coolness!

April 16, 2009

Wing Commander papercraft

By way of the fine folks at Boing Boing comes word of this awesome site featuring dozens of papercraft spaceship models from the Wing Commander series of games, from the main Wing Commander titles, through Privateer, and spin-offs like Armada.

Paper Commander

April 9, 2009

Spinning papercraft

Patti writes on New World Geek:

I really like playing with papercraft - it doesn't cost much to make projects, and they can be incredibly complex and interesting. Paper Forest posted about this wonderful spinning star - I've watched this video over and over, trying to figure out the movement and why it's so elegant. They say the original design is by Ramin Razani, and there are directions to make a similar cutout here.

Papercraft popup spinner

April 1, 2009

Print your own Moleskine pages

Moleskine is offering a new service where they let you print whatever you want on the pages of one of their notebooks. Great for keeping your address book handy without re-writing it every time you get a new notebook. Via Core77.

March 13, 2009

Maarten van Gelder's origami

This in from the comments:

Back in the late 80s, Maarten van Gelder had already come up with a set of origami gears:

Neat gears, but they only tell part of the story. Van Gelder's work is amazing, and his commitment to help explain it is fantastic.

Maarten van Gelder is a retired programmer, who has amazing skills in origami. His website details lots of his original designs.

On his site, he explains some of his history with folding paper:

At an age of about 8 years I got my first folding book. It was a Dutch translation of 'The art of Chinese paper folding for young and old' by Mrs. Maying Soong (1948). This book contains a series of models, but no explicit folding technique. So after that I didn't do real Origami, but just a little bit folding among a lot of other things.

But summer 1980 there was some information about Origami in the newspaper and I got wondering. Than at Xmas 1980 I received a book along with some real Origami paper. The next three months I did nothing but folding. I took some of the folded objects with me to my office.

Someday one of our University users came in, saw the Origami objects and told me about the Origami association. So I became a member and kept folding. Not as much as that first three months, but steady.

For several years I've been member of the editorial staff of the magazine 'Orison' of the OSN (Origami Sociëteit Nederland). And after that I've been member of the Model Commitee of the OSN for 10 years. In the meantime I've also done some work of the OSN web pages.

His site has loads of photos and links to numerous diagrams. This looks like a great place to start if you're just getting interested in origami, or if you already know it, but want to do more in fulfilling your paper-folding desires.

What do you like to fold? Have you seen stunning origami? Where do you find great resources and inspiration for learning more about origami? Tell us your thoughts in the comments, and contribute your photos and video to the MAKE Flickr pool.