Rebecca Gieseking

Interview in The Fold

I was recently interviewed by Ilan Garibi, and my interview was just published in The Fold:

Origami Designer’s Secrets: Rebecca Lynn Gieseking

Ilan has been writing this series for several years, and it’s an honor to be included alongside so many other great designers. Among other things, I talk about my design and folding process and my sources of inspiration, especially the interplay between art and science in my work. Also included is a crease pattern for my 2012 ornament:

Ornament
Ornament

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New Work: Offset Bowl

Offset Bowl
Offset Bowl

Inspired by my diagonal shift pieces, this model is a test piece incorporating several diagonal planes. The base, central plane, and top edge are all defined by sine waves. Unlike my previous models, these sine waves create three planes parallel to the table but tilt the central axis of the bowl. This is fairly straightforward to do with all straight folds, and I’m exploring whether this concept can be used with curved folds in my more complex diagonal shift designs.

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Crease pattern: Bend variation

Crease pattern: Bend variation
Crease pattern: Bend variation

I designed a variation to my crimp-bends last spring, and here is the crease pattern. The concept is similar, but instead of being based on two sine waves, this version is based on one sine wave and one straight horizontal line. In this variation, part of the flat plane joining the top and bottom tubes is exposed. So far I haven’t figured out a mathematically correct way to place the central line such that the joining plane folds flat, but it comes close enough to work in practice.

Bend variation
Bend variation

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Crease pattern: Downhill diagonal shift

Crease pattern: Downhill diagonal shift
Crease pattern: Downhill diagonal shift

I posted a photo of a test model of the downhill diagonal shift earlier this year. Here is the crease pattern for that model. The central part of the crease pattern is exactly the same as the standard uphill diagonal shift I’ve posted crease patterns of before. The top and bottom sections are the crimp-bends I recently posted and build on the sine waves used in the central diagonal shift. Since each portion of the crease pattern is a distortion of a tube, it’s fairly straightforward to stack these in all sorts of interesting combinations.

Downhill diagonal shift
Downhill diagonal shift

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Crease patterns: Crimp-bends

Wide and narrow crimp bends
Wide and narrow crimp bends

I previously posted images of these crimp-bent tubes that I designed earlier this year, and here are the crease patterns. The top and bottom edge of each bend are based on sine waves. The angles of the internal crimps on each vertical gore use the same math as the diagonal shifts, where each diagonal fold is angled toward one convergence point.

Crease pattern: Crimp bend
Crease pattern: Narrow Crimp bend
Crease pattern: Narrow crimp bend
Crease pattern: Narrow crimp bend

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New work: Square/circle twist vase

Square/circle twist vase
Square/circle twist vase

This vase builds on my recent exploration of twists in non-cylindrical tubes. The central twist in this model is a 16-sided twist in a square tube. Like in my previous test fold, the twist naturally creates segments of parabolas on each face of the square tube. I repeated the parabolic shape several times to create the wavy painted pattern with a color gradient.

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Test fold: Square/circle twist

Square/circle twist
Square/circle twist

Somewhat inspired by some of Robert Lang’s recent work, this model has a twist that transitions from a 16-sided ‘circle’ to a square. Interestingly, the bottom edges of the square tube are approximately parabolic segments. The center doesn’t quite collapse cleanly, but it’s close enough for practical purposes. This twist is a bit more challenging to fold than the ones I’m used to. I might try incorporating some multi-shape twists like these into some of my more complex models.

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