Make: Online: Paper Crafts Archives

Archive: Paper Crafts

August 28, 2009

Papercraft keyboard cat - to the beat!

Everybody give it up for Papercraft Keyboard Cat! Wooh-ooOOh!

Bonus awesome points to those who keep dancing throughout the assembly process. Grab the pattern over TubbyPaws blog. [via Kitsune Noir]

August 26, 2009

Robots don't know comics ...

Robots don't know zines ... Or do they? We're in the midst of celebrating robots this month, with our new issue of MAKE magazine featuring DIY drones, rovers, and bots of all kinds. So imagine our delight when we saw Doctor Popular's robot zine at last weekend's San Francisco Zine Fest.

The graphic zine is actually a 24-page comic book, with each page drawn by a different artist, all in 24 consecutive hours. Doc Pop was even nice enough to sign a copy and then gift it to the office. Thanks much, Doctor Popular!

In MAKE, Volume 19: Robots, Rovers, and Drones, learn how to make a model plane with an autopilot and a built-in robot brain. We'll also show you how to make a comfortable chair and footstool out of a single sheet of plywood, a bicyclist's vest that shows how fast you're going, and projects that introduce you to servomotors. All this, and plenty more, in MAKE, Volume 19! Subscribe to MAKE, or log in to check out the Digital Edition.

August 21, 2009

How-To: Make an origami X-wing

Michelle Osmond has posted a thorough step-by-step for this tiny paper Blue Leader by Alex Crosse.

August 20, 2009

Make a cardboard dragon

I love this elaborate cardboard dragon posted by Creativeman on Instructables. In fact, upon further inspection you'll see that he's got about 11 cardboard projects uploaded to the DIY site. Fun stuff!

Picnic pizza box

This pizza box is making a clear play at eco-design by calling itself the Green Box, but really, it's just more sensible and convenient than a normal pizza box. All it took was a few extra perforations.

How-To: Cardboard frisbee

Boring day at the office? Here's a cardboard frisbee to throw around.

August 10, 2009

Alex Queral's carved phone book art

Alex Queral does these wonderful heads, carved out of phone books (then painted with
acrylics). In his Artist's Statement, he says:

I carve the faces out of phone books because I like the three-dimensional quality that results and because of the unexpected results that occur working in this medium. The three-dimensional quality enhances the feeling of the pieces as an object as opposed to a picture.

In carving and painting a head from a phone directory, I'm celebrating the individual lost in the anonymous list of thousands of names that describe the size of the community. In addition, I like the idea of creating something that is normally discarded every year into an object of longevity.

Alex Queral

August 6, 2009

Broderbund's vintage papercraft software

I had a real retro-techno moment seeing this software box from 1986. I remember it well. It's Broderbund's The Toy Shop, a collection of papercraft models you could print out and cut n' fold to create everything from a catapult, to a carousel, to a steam engine (which used a balloon as its power source). Everything worked: cars rolled, catapults shot, zoetropes spun and flickered. Papercraft fanatics Mike and Lacey have put up all of the image files and build instructions for all of the models in the original Toy Shop collection. No C64 needed to access these awesome paper models.

The Toy Shop - 20 Marvelous Mechanical Models that Really Work!

Hiroshima - 64 years ago today

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Here's my photoset of Hiroshima and the Peace Park museum, today is the 64th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima... I've been there a few times, it's an amazing city, vibrant, modern - and a reminder that we are the only species that we know of that has developed the means to completely wipe itself out, it's a lot to think about.

The United States, in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada designed and built the first atomic bombs under what was called the Manhattan Project. The scientific research was directed by American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The nuclear weapon "Little Boy" was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945, followed on August 9 by the detonation of the "Fat Man" nuclear bomb over Nagasaki. These are to date the only attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare.

The paper birds above are for Sadako Sasaki...

Ten years after the bombing, a young Japanese girl called Sadako Sasaki died from leukemia caused by radiation from the blast. Before she died, however, Sadako folded almost a thousand origami paper cranes. Sadako began her project because of a legend that said anyone who folded a thousand paper cranes would be granted a wish. She wished to healthy again so that she could run and play like before, and she pursued her goal with such determination that, although she died of her disease, she succeeded in transforming the paper crane into a symbol of peace for children all over the world. After Sadako's death, children joined together to raise money for a peace park in Hiroshima, and a statue of Sadako holding a crane. Today there is also a small peace park with a statue of Sadako in Seattle, Washington, and children everywhere fold origami paper cranes in her memory and send them to Japan and Seattle threaded on long strings to be draped over the statue. Sadako's story is used to teach children about the consequences of war, and the power of individuals to bring about change.

Also, check out...
Boston.com's photoset.
A review of Dr. Atomic, a opera about building the first nuke.
Hiroshima: Memoir of a Bomb Maker ... "The Gadget"

July 30, 2009

Money to burn

Well, to laser-etch, anyway. Brooklyn tattoo artist Scott Campbell makes these laser-cut stacks of $1 bills. Recently shown at a gallery in Miami, the stacks are part of a collection called "Make it Rain." Thanks to Billy Baque for the heads-up.

July 29, 2009

Capillary action colors calendar in real time

Artist Oscar Diez created this amazing calendar, made of different types of paper and special inks, which is carefully designed to slowly color in the days of the month by capillary action, in real time, over the course of each month. Via Boing Boing.

July 23, 2009

Cool pop-up paper display

This video from the awesome British toy store Grand Illusions demonstrates a cool collapsing mechanism, which involves only paper and elastic bands, and allows a rigid display to be set up in about a second and easily folded away again for storage. The French company that makes these is called Marin's. (Beware, their site is flash-based.)

July 20, 2009

Incredible cardboard models

Instructables user piaferre shows us how to slice up a 3D model of an object an recreate it in cardboard and putty. It looks very labor-intensive, but what amazing results!

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

Super skull roundupalooza

Skulls! Who doesn't love 'em?

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.