Once you run out of toilet paper–and you will–make sure you keep the empty rolls so you can try making fantastic molecular models! Physicist and 3D software engineer Ricky Reusser flattened and linked the cardboard tubes into models of buckminsterfullerene and carbon nanotubes! He's even written a software simulator so you can keep making these even once you've used your toilet paper rolls in place of the toilet paper you can't get. From his guide, Toiletpaperfullerenes and Charmin Nanotubes:
Toilet paper tubes have the curious property that you can flatten them, cut out loops, and link the loops together without fasteners[...]
My brand is regular Trader Joe's toilet paper, though I have no reason to believe anything about the brand is particularly important, beyond consistency—with the exception of those cowards who make tube-free toilet paper rolls. Those won't work. I've considered side-stepping material collection and waiting to buy tag board when shelter-in-place eases, though to be honest, the recycled nature of the raw materials is no small part of what draws me to this project.
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Rocky Bergen says: "Construct the computer from your childhood or build an entire computer museum at home with these paper models, free to download and share. Print, Cut, Score, Fold and Glue." Read the rest
Check out this collection of 30 PDF templates for cut-and-fold paper mechanisms and 3D optical illusions. Some of these will be familiar to readers of pop-up books, but many look like new innovations.
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Although you won't find any official toys of "the Child" from Disney's The Mandalorian in stores yet, you can decorate your tree with this authorized papercraft version of Baby Yoda in his floating bassinet. All you need is scissors, glue, and a healthy amount of some patience to get all the fiddly bits stuck together. Read the rest
Rogan Brown creates intricate paper sculptures inspired by microorganisms:
When looking at, for example, microbes and trying to imagine the vast colony of bacteria that lives in and on our bodies the range of factual visual representation available is relatively limited so I have to use my imagination to scale everything up and create an “artist's representation” of what it might look like. Scientific accuracy is not the goal, artistic and poetic truth are.
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If you're in Amsterdam over the next few days why not drop by the Kunstrai Art Fair and check out my sculpture "ControlX2-17" (courtesy of #galerienummer40) #paperart #papersculpture #scienceart #kunstrai2017
A post shared by Rogan Brown (@rogan_brown_) on Jun 1, 2017 at 1:49am PDT
His sculptures are typically all white:
White maximizes light and shadow and evokes marble, dead coral and fossils. I think of my work as creating fossils, time fossils, imaginary fossils. I see myself as an archaeologist of the interface between nature and the imagination—nature IS imagination, according to William Blake. The fossil allusion also contains a warning about what we are in the process of doing to nature. In addition, white carries associations of purity and innocence, which is a counterpoint to the explicit sexuality. But above all, the calming effect of white allows me to be as frenetic and excessive as I like in terms of form without overwhelming the viewer. I have tried using color (or rather tonalities of the same color).
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“Cytokinesis Glial Variation” (hand and laser cut layered paper, 119x117cms/47x46”) This work depicts the mitosis of a glial cell.
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Robert J. Lang, an origami artist, shows how to fold a cicada 11 different ways, from easy to complex. The final one is basically sculpting the paper with many folds into something that looks very much like a real cicada. Read the rest
Greg Olijnyk works as a 2D graphic designer, but his hobby is creating unbelievably wonderful 3D science fictional cardboard sculptures that sport motors and lights that animate them (some use photovoltaic cells for power, too).
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“I like to design complex paper sculptures by combining mechanisms,” says Paul DeGraaf. Read the rest
Pro Idee's £369 Paper Bed is made of folds of rigid paper that collapse to a narrow sliver and then expand to 200cm length when needed; the materials are lightweight (total weight, 14.5k) and it can support up to 300kg, and the manufacturer claims it's comfortable, albeit with the addition of a foam pad. (via Yanko Design)
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All you need is love, love / Love and paper is all you need
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Rocky Bergen creates gorgeous, downloadable papercraft models of retro PCs, from the Commodore 64 to the Apple ][+ to the Amstrad, with different screens to print celebrating classic 8-bit games, and accessories like tiny floppies in tiny paper sleeves. As Waxy points out, these would make stunning Christmas ornaments.
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Fold N Fly is a visual database of paper airplane designs, sortable by aerodynamic properties (distance, airtime, etc), and difficulty of folding. Some pretty exotic designs, too! (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)
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Twitter user πend creates mesmerizing mechanisms called kaleidocycles, which twist and torque and spin in an endless loop. Some of them are quite imaginative: Read the rest
Shinrashinge created this fantastic one-shot animation entirely out of paper. Below is another classic. (via Waxy)
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Tiffanie Turner has mastered the art of the paper flower to the point that she can make enormous crepe-paper blooms that still somehow look real. Read the rest
UK-based artist Lisa Lloyd has been getting lots of well-deserved notice for her intricate papercraft animals, birds, food, and other earthly delights. Read the rest
