Mui-Ling Teh

Some of you may have come across this journal announcing a challenge in which we present the process behind our work. So I decided to present the process of how I did Born From the Cell.



The Secret is…






I cast myself a really big hand then place a piece of origami on it!



I’m kidding :P


Here are the instructions for the typical paper crane:



To do a small one I first need to cut a perfect tiny square. There may be occasions that the paper will not have a straght edge, so I apply a bit of math and creativity to get the right angles, proportion and size. Here I define the edges of the square through a series of folds.


I first create a straight edge by a single fold.


To get the perpendicular corner of a perfect square I make another fold by overlapping one side of the first fold with the other and making sure they line up.






Along one edge, I mark with a needle how far in parrallel with the other edge I want my next fold to be (in this case 3mm), and fold along the edge again.





Now I want to make sure those parrallel edges will also be 3mm like the first. I can use a ruler, but suppose none is available, and the first edge was done without measuring, here is a way to be precise:



I make a perfectly diagonal fold by overlapping folded edges on both sides. One end of the folded diagonal will go through the intersection of a pair of perpendicular folds while the other bisects the other fold to define the third corner of the square.



The diagonal fold is not only a measuring device, but a head start with the crane folding prior to cutting the paper. So essentially I’ve already done step one in the instructions above.

There are severals way I can proceed from here. I choose to make another diagonal going the other way by overlapping the folds; this time I have a third guide from the previously folded diagonal.





Using the two parralles lines bisected by the diagonal ones, I can fold the last edge



The parrellel lines should be perfectly overlapping themselves. Meanwhile the last fold should go through the intersection of the diagonal lines with the parrallel lines. This means everything was done precisely.



From here I can cut the square, but there is still more I can do to make the folding process easier.



I divide the 3×3mm square into four, which is easier to do now then when the paper is small. Now I cut the square





It is now time to proceed with folded the crane (following the instructions above): Step one, fold in half into a triagle



Step two, fold that triangle in half. This is more easily accomplished thanks to the second folded diagonal line prior to cutting.



Step three and four, open the triangle and press flat, and repeat on the other side. This is where the folds for creating the divided squares come in handy.



From here on things are trickier so I have to create a special set-up. Here a magnifying glass holds down a piece of tape from which I will proceed with the rest of the folding while looking through the glass. If the tape is too sticky that can ruin the paper, so earlier on I stuck it to my pants a few times to collect some lint and not be as adhesive.



Now I’m taking pictures through the magnifying glass…



Step five and six, fold edges to the centre and unfold.









These folds just act as a guide for the next step. I omitted folding the top corner; it doesn’t do much here.

Step 7, open an press flat.





Repeat on the other side.



Finally I fold the head and the tail.





After I finish folding the crane, I position it on my hand and shoot it through a magnifying glass. Since this is so close that my hand will take up the background, it didn’t matter to me how messy my workspace is :P