Leveling up with Tomoko Fuse

partially completed dodecagon, rose pattern

Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan 

I am just coming to the end of 9 days of visiting with friends in Erbil. In preparation for this trip I decided to "level up" my unit origami skills by buying Tomoko Fuse's most recent book and spending some time to learn some new patterns, in particular the "rose units" and the "silver star units". (Rose units have a ratio of 1:2 and Silver star units have a ratio of 1:Sqrt2.) 

4-point football (silver star units)

I really enjoyed sharing some of my origami (both old and new) with friends. A great way to pass the time with folks who don't share much language in common with me...

90 pieces and all finished

Madaba, Jordan
Monday, September 16, 2013

I kept folding all weekend in odd moments--and putting it together with small dabs of glue. The "Buckminsterfullerene" (or truncated icosahedron) is finished!

A Buckminsterfullerene is born

Madaba, Jordan
Friday, September 13, 2013

Today, I started an origami Buckminsterfullerene--after being inspired by a chemistry colleague. Sixty-five more pieces to go...

PS: this also known as the "truncated icosahedron"--with 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons...

The Rhombicuboctahedron

Madaba, Jordan
Thursday, September 12, 2013

Our adventures in origami continue with A folding and me assembling. This time we made it up to the "48 piece-er" or the rhombicuboctahedron. They just get more fun and crazy...

Jet lag origami

Madaba, Jordan
Thursday, August 29, 2013

Home in Jordan, teaching, and wrestling with jet lag. A's solution? At all hours of the night and day, we've been doing origami together. And she's getting good, too.

Origami rings

Madaba, Jordan
Thursday, May 2, 2013

Earlier this week, a friend e-mailed me with pictures of origami rings she'd found on the internet. A challenge! I ended up making a bunch. A loves her new "jewelry"--complete with glitter glue jewels...

Team Origami

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

I took my 10th graders today to visit a local elementary school to teach origami. Some of my students love the experience, and I had to practically drag some of them back to the bus. Others couldn't get away fast enough. It's my favorite field trip of the year.

Team Origami

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Thursday, October 7, 2010

The omens for our origami field trip did not look very good this morning. UB's traffic was so bad this morning that more than 50% of our students had not arrived by the starting bell. I tried to keep up hope that our trip would not be cancelled due to the traffic nightmare that has lately ensnarled UB.

An hour later, things looked much better and off we went. My 10th graders did wonderfully with the younger children, and (I think!) a good time was had by all.

I love unit origami.

Global origami

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Friday, February 5, 2010

If you know me at all well, you probably know that I love unit origami. Tomoko Fuse is my hero, and her books are my origami bibles. Over the years, I have taught my high school students unit (or "modular") origami and taken field trips with my students to teach it to elementary students.

Yesterday I took my first origami field trip in Mongolia. Although only half of my students speak Mongolian, both the Mongolian speakers and the non-Mongolian speakers did an excellent job teaching the wonders of unit origami with their hands.

Good job, Grade 10!