MIURA FOLD WORKSHOP

At the Saturday April 12 workshop and book exchange Melissa Brown taught us the Miura Fold used by NASA for their solar displays. The fold enables an astronaut to open a small folded packet by holding the two opposite corners and simply pulling in opposite directions without having to unfold multiple times. It is also a handy way to fold a map because it refolds into its original shape easily.

Melissa supplied each of us with maps cut to 8 ½” x 11” to work with so that all of the folded paper looked the same. First we folded the page into an accordion fold with 5 panels. Using an odd number made things easier. After the first folds we had an accordion folded piece of paper that was 11” long and about 1 ¾” wide. Melissa used a huge piece of paper so that we could see what she was doing as she was walking around the room. Since we all used the same paper, there wasn't much variation to see.  

If you take the top left corner and the bottom right corner 
and pull them in opposite directions, the paper opens wide.

We progressed to fold the long accordion at not quite 90º degrees from the long side. The last step was to open the paper and refold yet again. There is no way to explain without lots of drawings and even more words. You can download a PDF file from the International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics at https://ijpam.eu/contents/2012-79-2/8/8.pdf. Not only do you get instructions, you also receive a bit of history.

We didn't discuss how to use these in books. If you have any ideas please let us know.

Melissa told us not to bring a ruler but then she told us to make a five panel fold without the ruler. She showed us a method of using an accordion folded piece of paper that results in equidistant folds that can be applied to your project to divide it into five sections. You can use the equidistant markings on a ruler without actually using math (for example, 8 ½” paper divided by 5 equals 1.7” per colum or 1 and 11.2/16ths). Again, words cannot fully explain the process. The NORBAG Compendium of Project Pages, Volume II, page 53 shows us how to do this. 

Remember the Piano Hinge Accordion Book March workshop? We didn’t finish many of our books and a few people brought them in for display this month. Here are the pictures.

There is an opening in the cover to continue the feel of this structure made with windows.

This is a paste paper technique on acetate.

Nature bits and pieces

Decorative threads