I wasn’t going to blog this idea, it being so manifestly impure and all, but it showed up on the BOS list and Jeff Rutzky has been having so much fun with it, I just had to write.
Some months back, I made a curved surface fold from the traditional cocaine paper and called it the pillow box.
Then, I started reading Geometric Folding Algorithms by Erik Demaine and Joseph O’Rourke — kind of a slow read for me. Although clear of prose and exquisite of illustration, it’s way above my understanding. Co-workers, observing me read it at lunch, report that they can see a small cumulus cloud above my head, with a dancing monochrome mouse in it and Turkey in the Straw played upon one string. The authors therein describe the teabag problem and I thought to myself, didn’t I fold that already?
That won’t stop me from folding it a million times more. A bit of research reveals that Andrew Kepert of Newcastle University probably folded it a few years ago, but can I find his website? No. If you can, let me know.
Anyway, here are some dreadfully impure crease patterns to play with, you know, if you don’t mind taking a shower afterwards.
The version pictured at the top crease pattern.
A version better adapted to cardstock crease pattern.
(You can make this one into a cube, you know.)
A tetrahedral version crease pattern. Looks like this:
(“Up the yin-yang” or more commonly, “up the wazoo,” is an American euphemism, meaning, “in excess.” Kind of a fossilized euphemism, since most of us can’t conjure what it is we’re not saying. Wazoo is probably a transliteration of the French oiseau, but who knows why?)
New and exciting, if you’re a purist:
Teabag Problem Box, Pure Version
