Hi! I've been interested in paper craft from the sidelines for some time now, (in particular modular!) and I was wondering if you had any info on a good jumping off point.
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:DDDD
You have waded into my elaborate trap!
Nah, honestly the easiest modular origami is Heinz Strobl's Snapology; not only are the modules incredibly easy to fold and assemble, but you can also make pretty much any convex solid you want (and some concave ones if you're Dave Honda (Instagram) or Przemek (Instagram)). Precision folding isn't strictly necessary, but does help.
I am 90% sure I first learned from this tutorial, but there are plenty of them out there. A few suggest using ribbon, which limits the amount of cutting you have to do and gives you a pretty wide range of colours. By far the easiest model to start with is an icosahedron, with 20 face modules and 30 edge modules. This tutorial, in addition to the previous link, explains the concept really well.
Other fun units are the Sonobe Unit and the Bascetta Unit, both of which fold nicely into their own icosahedrons, and only need a total of 30 units. The Sonobe Unit is particularly forgiving and can easily be folded out of Post-It notes, though it may get a bit thick. The Bascetta Unit is a really beautiful design, though it requires a little bit more care when folding. It has a longer, pointier cousin, the Kusudama Unit, which I haven't worked with much on account of the number of folds that I can never quite get to go into the corners.
If you want to juuuuust dip your toes into modular origami in time for the holidays, here's a pretty simple 6 unit snowflake on YouTube.
Tutorials, advice, and other artists under the cut!
When getting ideas on what polyhedra I want to make, I typically poke around on Wikipedia to get an idea of 3d structures I like, and figure out how many, and the dimensions of, edges and faces the shape has. This site also has a bunch, as well as invaluable (if the polyhedron is irregular) edge and angle measurements.
I typically make my models with an edge length of 2cm; long enough to fit a finger, tweezer, or pen into if I need to poke or grab an annoying flap, but small enough that the entire model doesn't become unwieldy, paper hungry, or collapse.
I use of mix of standard 8.5" x 11" printer paper and 24 lb./89 Gsm coloured paper (Astrobrights) because printer paper is cheap, and heavier paper is stiffer and therefore stronger.
I cut everything on a fancy Dahle 550 Professional Rolling Trimmer (oh god it wasn't that expensive when I bought it) because the guillotine ones are prone to sheering multiple layers of paper, and I'm too lazy for a scissor.
Uhhhh, what else? Oh! I typically cut the paper to length, mark and fold each piece, and then cut each piece into modules of the correct width. Folding goes a lot faster that way (for example, cut a 8.5 x 11 into three 7cm x 11in pieces, fold the strip along the 7cm edge, and then cut into 1.5cm wide strips. Tada! You just folded 18 modules at once). I only prefold the edges in half, not in fourths, because I find it easier to lock in the face pieces if I fold the edge around them.
You don't neeeed glue, but a glue stick and a toothpick to apply it can lend stiffness and help if flaps start sticking up, particularly on models with longer faces.
One final thing, you can totally fold an icosahedron from just two or three sheets of paper and absolutely nothing else:
1. Fold down the top two corners on a sheet of printer paper to mark out the corners of a square.
2. Fold that square into an 8x8 grid and continue the grid onto the bottom rectangle (there'll be a thin extra bit).
3. Repeat steps one and two on two more sheets of paper.
4. Rip out 20 1x6 strips of paper for the triangular faces, and rip out another 30 1x4 strips for the edges. (Folding back a forth a few times first helps. You may be able to get away with 1x4 or 1x5 strips for the triangles)
5. Now you have all the strips you need (and some extra) to follow one of the tutorials above!
The edges of the paper will be a bit fuzzy, which helps the model stick together really well, and you don't need a ruler or scissors, so you can make this just about anywhere you have time and paper.
Onto other stuff!
The Sonobe Unit doesn't need to form pyramids; check out You Seungmin on Instagram, who does some really cool stuff with it. Also check out petite_lisblanc and Bascetta-Sterne, who both make some stunning smaller models.
池内 仁史, st.mgtn, Khin Hooi, Harina, Moacir Matsusaki, 小田智子, and Chikakoall focus on a wider range of modules.
Tan Lay Yee has the most jaw dropping GORGEOUS tessellations you'll ever see (I absolutely need to fold more and highly recommend you check out Hydrangea Tessellations)
plmlntln has some really, really cool swirl balls (I don't know how he does it; they're really, really finicky)
and Paper Galaxy and Khin Hooi both fold and link tutorials!
Another particularly beautiful model I have to recommend is this snowflake. It's not modular, but it's absolutely BEAUTIFUL when made out of a semi-transparent paper and placed in a window or in front of a light. I'm not sure where I got these instructions from, but they've been hidden in my phone for too long not to share. (I also found some more snowflake designs)
Oh! You can also cut and fold pop cans into Snapology polyhedra if you want to scare and amaze people! They're sharp ( :
Aww screw it, I'm linking more people from Instagram. They're all amazing. I haven't been active over there in a few years, so I'm not sure who's all over there and active anymore.
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Snapology, Heinz Strobl || Instructions
Dodecahedron: 12 yellow units (1.59 x 21.59) + 30 blue/purple units (6.35 x 2.16)
Icosahedron: 20 blue units (1.59 x 12.95) + 30 yellow units (6.35 x 2.16)
rectangles cut from leftovers from cutting squares from 8.5" x 11", that is, from 2.5" x 8.5" rectangles, or in centimeters, 6.35 x 21.59
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