Papercrafts and other fun things
Monday, June 27, 2022
A STEM Project: Three Cube Sliceforms Imbedded with a Diamond, a Sphere, and a Sphere/Diamond Combo
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
A STEM Project: Making a Torus Sliceform
Saturday, June 4, 2022
A STEM Project: Coding Waclaw Szpakowski's Rhythmical Lines in TurtleStitch
Waclaw Szpakowski (1883-1973) was a Polish architect and engineer who designed abstract drawings with ink and grid paper. He began his drawings at the age of 17 and refined them over his lifetime. His ink drawings have very precise properties with straight lines drawn at right angles to one another which never intersect. Szpakowski created his drawings with lines that were 1mm thick and 4 mm apart. The ink drawings take on a rhythmical pattern starting on the left side of the page and ending on the right side. The movement of each design creates a maze of lines. The viewer of his drawings will ponder how the drawing was created by following the lines with their eyes to see where the line will take them. Where is the repeat in the pattern? Is the pattern flipped or was it repositioned? The patterns have a lot of movement in them and as a result, optical illusions of different patterns can be seen.
Waclaw Szpakowski published an album of sketches when he was 85 years old called "Rhythmical Lines"which displays the simplicity of the line and the geometric relationships between the lines. He described his works as "drawings of linear ideas" and by viewing his works, it shows the visual harmony of the "mathematical order of the universe" which includes symmetry and rhythmical balance.
I coded a few of Waclaw's Szpakowski's designs in TurtleStitch and decided that I could create a basic TurtleStitch template to code Szpakowski's drawings because I used the same commands repeatedly. Here is the template that I created. https://www.turtlestitch.org/run#cloud:Username=Elaine&ProjectName=Waclaw%20Szpakowski%20Basic%20Commands
The basic template that I created includes the following:
+ A size(scaling) factor and a width variable so that the design can be resized easily for embroidery with different hoop sizes.
+Variables with basic values. In my early attempts to code Waclaw's designs, I used mathematical equations to move the turtle. Subsequently, I determined that it is easier to have a set value for the turtle to move because of debugging. It is easier to see where the incorrect value is without having to do a computation.
+ Many of Waclaw's patterns are repeated from left to right across the design and a block command can be written for the code. By pointing the turtle in the upward position (point in direction 0), the block can then be repeated or flipped easily.
+ I created two simple turn and move blocks for the turtle, a "Turn Left 90 Degrees" block and a "Turn Right 90 Degrees" block. Both of these blocks turn and move the turtle in their corresponding direction and allow for resizing and flipping. I used a flip factor equation so that the design can be flipped and the TurtleStitch code can be reused by assigning a flip value.
Before I explain my flip factor equation, I will explain how an object is flipped over the y-axis.
Flipped Position
Using this code, I recreated seventy of Waclaw Szpakowski's works in TurtleStitch. https://www.turtlestitch.org/projects/g/search/waclaw%20szpakowski.
I did this by copying each of Waclaw's Szpakowski's designs and placing it in the Silhouette software. Whereby I was able to resize and overlay a series of blocks on top of each design. I was then able to determine the numbers of steps needed to complete each line by counting the blocks and coding it using the TurtleStitch software.
In the following photos, I exported the coded images as an SVG in TurtleStitch and copied it into the Silhouette Cameo software where I was able to print the designs using an ink pen and Foil Quill on 65 lb. cardstock.
Monday, May 30, 2022
A Rubber Band Pop-Up Sliceform Flower
Monday, May 2, 2022
A Sea Creature Pop-Up Snow Globe
This sea creature snow globe uses the rubber band pop-up mechanism that was created in my previous two blog postings. https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2022/04/a-stem-project-making-pop-up-base-for.html and https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2022/04/a-stem-project-resizing-slice-form.html
Sunday, April 24, 2022
A STEM Project: Resizing a Slice Form Sphere
After making the slice form sphere with a pop-up base. I tried to insert the pop-up into an A7 envelope. Much to my disappointment, it was too big by 1/4 inch. Typically, slice forms can not be resized because the slits in the paper need to accommodate the thickness of a piece of paper.
I looked at the original size of the slits of the slice form sphere and they were .02 inches wide. The slits in the slice form base were a little smaller at .17 inches wide. I know that the slits can be as tight as .15 inches wide (not optimal but it does work). Resizing the design would be easy with the Silhouette software, so there is no harm in trying this method before redoing the slice form models. To resize the 4 inch slice form sphere to a 3 3/4 inch sphere. I calculated that I needed a .9375 scaling factor.
3.75/4 = .9375 scaling factor
Saturday, April 23, 2022
A STEM Project: Making a Pop-Up Base For A Slice Form Sphere
In this blog posting, I will make a pop-up base for the slice form sphere that was created in a previous blog posting, https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2020/10/a-stem-project-how-to-make-slice-form.html#comment-form The entire design, slice form sphere, slice form base and pop-up base can lay flat as a two dimensional object and then it can be expanded into a three dimensional model with the help of a rubber band.